Meal Planning for a year?!

We have been pretty successful so far in getting dinner on the table even with our busy fall school and activity schedule.  Planning helps a lot, so I was intrigued by this video about how a Texas mother plans a whole years menu all at once.  My planning method is similar in that I have made a list of meat dishes, sides and veggies and then I pick and choose for about a week at a time, I could maybe go as far as a month, but I really wonder if I could stick to a year long plan.

As mentioned before, most days I have to start dinner early in the day because we have activities going until about 5 pm.  I want to come home to a meal that can be on the table in under 20 minutes, whether it is in the slow cooker or a quick saute.  I defrost meat, prep veggies, etc.  I have also created a home salad bar — I chop up several days worth of vegetables and put them in tupperware, wash all the lettuce and store everything in the fridge. I also keep a cruet of homemade dressing. One child can throw together a salad by picking a handful from each container, dressing and tossing it.  They seem to eat more when they are making it, and they are eager to help because who ever makes the salad can choose to leave out raisins or add carrots to suit their preferences.

I do order my meat from a wholesaler who comes twice a year and fills my garage freezer, so my meals are kind of planned in that I have so many chicken breasts, pork chops, etc.  If I use a really good cut of meat for entertaining, it will mean another night of ground beef for the family, so this also keeps our budget steady.

I am trying an experiment with online grocery shopping, I am using the running total at the checkout to try to keep my spending on a target.  If I stock up on something on sale, other things will have to come out of my cart for that week.  I have been much more careful about checking whether we already have something before I order it because I am ordering from my kitchen, not trying to remember the contents of my pantry while standing in the grocery aisle with a crying baby.  By shopping online I have also completely eliminated impulse purchases like magazines and kid survival tactics like gum and small toys.  So far, my average spending is about $50 a week less than it was before I started shopping online.