By Laura Hauk
Executive Assistant, RJF Team
Who likes to go to the grocery store, pack lunches, figure out meal plans and make grocery lists? Not many of my friends to, I mean when you think about it going to the grocery store in and of itself is a chore! You go and put stuff in your basket, then take it out to check out, then put it back in to take to your car, then unload it into your car then carry it in the house and put everything away. And well if you have kids, there’s usually a little (or a lot) of asking “Can I have that. . . PLEASE????” Whew! Well, as a single mom with a very busy schedule I’ve found a few things that will make life a little easier.
Most of us have a smart phone or tablet of some sort. There’s an app called “Any List” that I use for all my shopping lists. This is a great app because you can add your groceries to that list and it will categorize your groceries that you need to get on the list in sections of the store. It will help you get in and out of the grocery store a little faster. If it doesn’t categorize the item correctly you can edit it and it will save that for future lists. If you have someone else in the family that needs to contribute to the list, like a spouse, you can share the list with them and they can add things to the list as well. This is great when one spouse is going to the store and the other adds things to the list. You can also have multiple lists such as an errands list, grocery list, etc. You can also use the voice control function on your smart device to add items to the list.
Now that you have your super awesome list, one thing that our family has started to do a little pre-week planning. We take gallon bags, 1 for each day of the week. We fill it up with a juice box, water and the non-refrigerated items that go into each lunch box. That way at night I can tell my daughter to go grab the Monday bag and add the few things from the fridge that need to go in there to make her lunch. That way it helps me to make sure I don’t forget anything in her lunchbox, but it also helps me know what I need to get for her lunchbox before I go shopping and it gets her involved in packing her lunch.
Lastly there are lots of resources on Pinterest on freezer meals. Freezer meals can be a fun way to get your kids involved in cooking dinner and most of them get cooked in the crockpot so dinner is ready when you get home from work. Most of these choices are going to be healthier than eating out, more budget friendly and if you get your kids to help you put the meal in the crockpot it gives them a sense of accomplishment in cooking dinner for the family.
