Day 11: Personal Family Cookbook

From our Favorite Family Recipes(see day 5), I created a Personal Family Cookbook, in a three ring binder with tabs of different sections.

My Personal Family Cookbook contains:
List of meals
Recipes
Grocery list
Price book

The List of Meals is what I use to create a menu plan for the week (or two weeks depending on how often I am planning on going to the grocery store).   It includes breakfasts, school lunches, suppers, deserts, and snacks. 

Once I have my menu I flip to the Recipes to make sure I put everything on my grocery list.

The Grocery List is interesting.  It is the reverse of what people usually do.  Instead of making a grocery list every time I go grocery shopping, I have a complete list of the items I use, and when I am ready to make a grocery list, all I do is cross off items we do not need.  I keep a lot of copies in my Personal Family Cookbook.  That saves time, and helps keep me from forgetting to put something on my list.

The Price Book is made from the grocery receipts. I have the food items listed on the left column, and then the different stores I shop at are at the top of the columns. Then I am able to see what items cost at different stores.
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I did my major grocery run. I love Super King Market! It is a chain here in Southern California. Today they had tons of things reduced, and I walked through the store and formed my menu plan from what was on sale.   That is a great benefit of having a Personal Family Cookbook with me, I can take a quick peek at the other ingredients in a recipe and make a grocery list in the store.  It made for a really cheap checkout.

Super King Market (food that will last us two weeks)
$209

I did great going to Super King Market, but then I forgot I needed stuff for a picnic at school, so made a run to Ralphs at 5:00pm, and then needed nice stuff for breakfast for a guest, and so made another run to Ralphs at 10:00pm. ARRGG. Saving is all in the planning.

#@$%&*! Ralphs (quick food, for a supper, and a breakfast, and a little bit extra)
$137

Other expenditures:
Baby/House/kid stuff: $77
Miscellaneous (house) $10
Husband got coffee: $2
McDonalds: $23
Park entrance fee: $9
Blockbuster movie: $5
Total $ 430