I want you to imagine a parent who just got home from work. They’re already tired and then they realize it’s dinnertime. As a mess of kids runs by, the weary parent asks, “What do you guys want for dinner?”

The kids just shrug their shoulders and run off. “You’re SO not helping!” the parent replies in frustration. Is that you? Ha ha, because that parent used to be me!

One place I see a lot of people dump their income is the grocery store. Especially if you have kids and a job, it can be difficult to juggle homemaking as well. You have to worry about what little Sally will or won’t eat and your spouse is a picky eater, you’re on a diet… so you end racing to the store for last-minute meals or even take-out.

At the time, you probably had the intention to eat all of those meals, but eventually a large portion of your portion goes bad, gets spoiled or just plain stale.

A few weeks ago, I had the great honor to interview some wonderfully amazing moms who struggled with that very same problem. Jane Delaney and Jenny Cochron are two sisters and also moms, Jenny with 3 kids and Jane with 4 kids.

They also used to be broke wives of pastors, who lived under very tight budgets for several decades. Because they had to make very little money stretch over a full household, these two sisters came up with a system to make it work.

Jane went back to work and she used to fear dinnertime because she now had much greater time constraints. “The best tool I had in my grocery saving arsenal was not really my file cabinet of coupons or a cupboard full of bargains, but rather consistent, realistic, dinner planning.”

These two women took this basic concept of meal planning and creating detailed grocery lists and made a business out of it! Jane described her thought that if she was having these time-crunch and budget issues, thousands of others must be as well. And it is so true.

In my own life, about a decade ago I started sitting down with my recipe book, paper and the calendar. I continue that today! I’ll write out what meals I am going to make what night and make my grocery list right from there. That extra time I spend creating a plan saves extra trips to the grocery store, money, forgetting or letting old food go bad, plus all that stress!

If you want to develop a real plan for your money, start with your food budget! And not just the grocery store, but take-out, fast food, Starbucks runs and gas station snack time. All those little trips you make during the week, because you didn’t plan ahead, can really start to add up.

Are you ready to start keeping your hard-earned money instead of giving it to other people?? Let me know your new plan to save in the comments and be sure to share today’s message with your friend’s and family by hitting Like and Share.

Let’s start your week strong. Join us and come chat on The Dani Johnson Show today at 12 pm ET/11 am CT. You can tune into the show on either your TV or radio and please remember you can always stream today’s show right on our website.

In great faith,

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