Thursday, March 8, 2012

Working Mom Frugality



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A few months ago I went back to work part-time. I'd always been a stay-at-home, homeschool mom so it was quite a switch to get back into the workforce. But the time was right, I LOVE the type of work I'm doing, and all the details lined up to make a perfect fit. In traditional Gayle style I jumped in with both feet oblivious to the fact that I had just made life a whole lot more complicated. It's been several months now and I've finally worked out the kinks in scheduling, feeding my family, and homeschool. And I've learned a few things that are essential to making it all work.

  1. Meal planning is not an optional task. My weekends are full of planning. I correct and plan the kids school work and the articles I have due for different writing jobs. I coordinate schedules with my husband so we know the kids are getting to sports practices, and of course I plan meals. When I get home each evening from work, if I don't have a meal planned and ready to go then we are all in trouble. The temptation to spend unnecessary money on fast food is much stronger when my tired brain can't come up with something for us to eat. So a meal plan removes all the energy it takes to creatively come up with dinner and saves us time and money.
  2. Advanced Meal Prep is necessary. I never cook dinner at night. That sounds weird right? But let me explain. In the morning, while the kids are getting up and ready for the day, I'm making breakfast AND dinner. While I'm flipping flapjacks I am also putting together a casserole, mixing up meatloaf or filling the crockpot. I do all dinner prep in the mornings so that when I walk in the door at night I have very minimal work to do.
  3. Delegate! We arrange it so that either one of my teens or my husband is home every afternoon with the younger kids while I'm gone at work. (One of the benefits of homeschool and owning your own business.) So everyone has a job to help get dinner on the table. The younger two kids make sure the dinner table is set and ready to go. One of the older people does final dinner prep like putting the casserole in the oven or making side dishes. And I? Well, after 17 years of cooking three meals a day....I get to walk in the door and sit down at the table to a hot meal that's ready to eat. Why didn't I think of this sooner?
  4. It's O.K. to Shop on the Weekend. I had always avoided grocery shopping on the weekend because it is so crowded. Everyone shops on the weekend! But I've figured out that the stores are peaceful and the shelves are fullest early in the mornings or late at night. So late Sunday nights have become my shopping time. Unfortunately I've learned that my weekdays are so crammed full that if I don't get the shopping done on the weekend then we don't get groceries that week which completely screws up my meal plan. Then it becomes a vicious cycle of strange meals and exhaustion as I scramble at night to put together something from nothing.

So working moms, it can be done. It just takes a little trial and error, a lot of planning and a team effort to make sure that healthy and frugal meals are still showing up on your plate.

9 comments:

Annikke said...

I work outside the home too and so my grocery shopping is done on the weekends. For me it is usually early Saturday morning but last week Saturday was packed so I got up early Sunday morning... bad idea. Won't do that again. The hadn't stocked shelves yet so I ended up having to leave without getting everything on the list. So I learned a lesson there - wait until Sunday night if I can't go Saturday!

Heather said...

This is me totally! Love the tips! I too work part time (with smaller children at home) and baked/cooked all day yesterday on my day off to prep for the rest of the week.

Rachel said...

Wow what a schedule! You homeschool too with a part-time job? That's incredible. Sometimes I pre-cook in the morning and it definitely makes dinner hour so much easier!

kbeeps said...

I totally agree with everything you've written here! I went from working part time to full time in January, and I have learned many of the same lessons you have. Except I don't make dinner in the mornings anymore (I used to, when I only worked in the afternoons). Now my meal plan consists of quick-fix, healthy meals that I can put together in 45 minutes or less. I also know that, by the end of the week, I'm going to be completely exhausted, so that's when I plan the super quick meals!

Anonymous said...

Gayle it sure is a juggling act! I am a single mom with three kids and in the past year have started working outside the house part time, and inside the house part time and two completely different jobs [I'm a lawyer and a travel agent - it's a roller coaster most days!].

Chaos LOL.

But with meal planning and not trying to be supermom we're all managing. I used to try and do everything myself, now that it's not possible miraculously we've all survived ;)

Annie said...

I'm finding that this is true, also. I just started a very part-time job in the last 2 weeks. And, while not tons of hours, it's just enough hours that it throws my usual routine out the window. Keep the faith, and good luck as you continue!

Roxie700 said...

I do a lot of those things too. But I find the most helpful thing for me to do is to pre cook some of the grocery items I buy before I put them away. Like ground beef. If there is a sale I will buy 10-12 pounds of it. Make a few patties. Freeze. (uncooked) Brown some with salt, pepper,garlic powder, and onion. Divide into 3/4pound packages and freeze. (makes a quick skillet meal or add to casserole) make 2 meat loafs. Freeze in foil pans. And last but not least make up a few pounds of meat balls. (same mixture of meat loaf, but use cookie scoup and make meat balls. Bake in oven till almost done..freeze in bags of 16.(we are a family of 4) These make great meals for spaghatti, meatball subsandwiches, or just plain meatballs and mushroom gravy.
I have been know to prep chicken too. Usually buy in large quanties and break into small meal size bags to freeze. I like to make a marinade for the chicken in the plastic bag and freeze it. Then when I want to cook it I can pull it out of the freezer the night before (one of the last things I do when I close the kitchen at night is remove the next night's meat (or main coarse) from the freezer.

The Running Mom said...

I once woke up at 3:30 one morning and couldn't go back to sleep. So instead of staying the the bed, I took my grocery list and went shopping at the 24 hour grocery store while hubby and the little one's were sound asleep. It was very quiet and calming. hahaha - never thought I'd say that about grocery shopping. I should do that more often.

Busana Muslim said...

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