It seems like every new year since we were married, I have planned and promised and made lists and goals, all trying to be a more effective housewife, wife, mother, etc. No system has stuck yet. Every year I find myself with a new challenge, either a new baby, or a child growing into a new stage, with new requirements.

Therefore, this page has no “tried and true” advice to offer, except what I learn from other’s more experienced, but once again, it’s just a place to try to collect my notes and links, get my thoughts together, and hopefully, inspire a plan.

I’ve mentioned being inspired by Leila, who seems to be a truly inspiring older woman teaching us younger women. She’s published several worksheets, and I am sort of using them as a manual these days, to simply get going on the basic duties which I face, as a housewife.

So, the two basic duties which I plan to focus on here, are feeding and clothing my family…. hopefully the rest, the extras, will begin to fall into place as I go.

1. Make dinner, every day.

This is something which I’ve been doing a little better at, lately. It’s been pretty much my main goal, even before laundry. I try to plan a day or two (or a week) ahead, while attempting to be flexible enough to roll with the punches.

I used Leila’s Worksheet 1, to come up with my own Master Menu.

2. Then, (using Worksheet 2) I attempted to sort my master menu by cost. This caused me to realize that I didn’t have a real great grasp on what the general cost for each meal would work out do be. So, I just did the best I could, and decided to pay attention the next several times I shopped.

3. I printed my Master Menu, and placed it in my housekeeping notebook.

Then I decided to collect up the myriad of printed recipes and sort through for the “tried and true” recipes, and installed those in my notebook, too.

I also included some of my favorite cooking magazines (the ones which included recipes which were on my Master Menu, mostly). Then I added some blank notebook pages, and have begun tucking my coupon clippings down into the pockets of the notebook as well. Now I feel more prepared to tackle the menu/shopping list making,when the time comes.

4. Last week, after I made my menu and shopped, I saved my receipt and tried to calculate the total costs for several meals. I was out of a lot of the basic staples, so the costs reflected should have been pretty accurate.

I learned several things. One was that Aldis is probably still cheaper for me, even with the drive to get there. Another was that (unless I’m missing something) it just costs more to eat healthily. And a third was that it would benefit me to keep a little shoppers notebook in which I keep track of some of those basics, so that I know where I need to shop, depending on what I actually need, that week.

5. Which, interestingly enough, led me to Leila’s post on frugal grocery shopping. It also gave me a headache to think of how much science there actually is in this little duty which I used to think was so simple. I found her Worksheet 4 (I know, I skipped 3), to be very useful in considering all of this.

I’ll keep you posted on how I do with next weeks shopping. I’m sure the excitement is killing you!