How Can Fall Meal Planning Bring Peace to My Dinner Table?

Fall is here, and the chaos of back-to-school routines is upon us! If you’re feeling like you’re racing against the clock and your wallet is getting lighter with all those takeout dinners, I've got some solid tips for you. We're diving into the magic of fall meal planning, and let me tell you, it can save you both time and cash while bringing a little peace to your dinner table. I’m talking about ditching the last-minute grocery runs and the dreaded “What’s for dinner?” scramble. So, grab a cup of coffee, kick back, and let’s chat about how to whip up some delicious and budget-friendly meals that’ll keep your family happy and your wallet intact. You might be surprised just how much calm and clarity you can create by asking one simple question: How can fall meal planning bring peace to my dinner table?

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Fall is kicking off and, boy, does it get chaotic! Our calendars suddenly seem to have a life of their own, right? We dive into the whirlwind of back-to-school activities and wonder how we’ll juggle it all without losing our minds (or our wallets). But what if I told you that with a bit of planning, we can totally save ourselves from the dinner-time scramble? Yeah, that's what we’re talking about today! We're getting into the nitty-gritty of fall meal planning – the secret sauce to keeping your sanity and your budget intact as the new season rolls in.

Picture this: it’s a busy weeknight, the kids are bouncing off the walls, and you open the fridge only to be met with... nothing. I mean, it's like a black hole in there! What happens next? You end up ordering takeout or running to the store, spending way more than intended. It’s a total budget buster! But fear not, because today we’re breaking down how to craft a solid meal plan that’ll not only help you dodge those impulse takeout orders but also keep everyone happy around the dinner table. We’ll talk about three key principles that can transform your chaotic nights into peaceful family dinners.

First up, we talk about the importance of diligent planning. Proverbs 21:5 tells us that the plans of the diligent lead to profit, and boy, is that true when it comes to meal planning! Next, we’ll dive into the idea of avoiding waste. Spoiler alert: wasting food means wasting money, and nobody wants to throw cash down the drain. Lastly, we’ll touch on the biblical concept of providing for your household – meal planning is an easy win for ensuring your family is well-fed (and happy!). So, buckle up as we explore practical tips and strategies to make your fall meal prep a breeze, because trust me, you got this!

Takeaways:

• School's back and your schedule is packed, making meal planning a total lifesaver.
• Feeling the hustle of fall routines? Let’s plan meals to save time and cash.
• Meal planning helps avoid last-minute takeout, keeping your budget and sanity intact.
• Diligent meal planning can turn chaotic dinner times into peaceful family moments.
• Planning meals in advance is key to avoiding food waste and maximizing your budget.
• To kick off meal planning, choose a planning day and make a grocery list with your meals.

Links referenced in this episode:

• financiallyconfidentchristian.com

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
School's back activities arestarting and your calendar is suddenly
bursting. Does the chaos offall routines leave you feeling rushed?
Maybe it leaves you feelingstressed. And hey, if you're like
most of us, leaves you feelinglike you're spending more than you
planned. But what if a littleintentional planning now could save
you time and money as the newseason unfolds? Well, stick with

(00:21):
me today because I'm sharingexactly how to make that happen.
And I'm doing that on today'sshow. This is Financially Confident
Christian, your daily dose ofgospel, grounded insight, insight
and faith driven tips to helpyou break the cycle of financial
shame with confidence. Heythere and welcome back to your Financially
Confident Christian. I'm Ralphand this is the show that helps you

(00:43):
answer that big question, howcan I become a financially confident
Christian? And we are wellwithin this series of smart money
for back to school and beyond.And if you missed yesterday's show,
we talked about setting upsmart fall routines to save you both
time and more importantly,save you some money. Now today we're
going to build on that,bringing intentionality and we're
going to take it right intothe kitchen. We're going to talk

(01:04):
about how to master fall mealplanning for delicious, healthy and
here's the best part, budgetfriendly dinners. So today's show,
I'm going to answer thisquestion. How can fall meal planning
bring peace to my dinnertable? And hey, like me, we could
all use some peace around thedinner table. Hey, it's a busy weeknight,
the kids are home, everybodyis tired, and guess what? There's

(01:27):
no dinner plans. So you openthat refrigerator door, you. You
stare blankly into the abyss.There's no ingredients for a substantial
meal. Well, I don't know aboutyou, but like most people, it leads
to expensive solutions, maybetakeout or maybe a quick frantic
grocery run. And listen, Iremember when my kids were growing

(01:48):
up, constantly had this dailychaos of hey, what's for dinner?
The problem is when you don'tplan that, what you end up with is
budget blowouts on food. Youwaste groceries, you get stress,
and there's a lot of familytension. And if you think about it,
the burden here is a lack ofclear dinner planning. And what does
it do? It drains your budget,it drains your time, and hey, if

(02:11):
you're not careful, it drainsyour energy. But here's the thing
I want to tell you abouttoday. Meal planning is a powerful
tool for consistency in healthand, and in budget control. And hey,
as a Christian, we need to actdiligently. And this is diligent
stewardship of your time,diligent stewardship of your money.

(02:31):
And hey, diligent stewardshipof your family's well being. And
let's jump right into the wordof God and talk about this. And I
really have three principlestoday. Principle one is diligent
plans bring profit. And I'veused this scripture on the show probably
a hundred times. But, but it'sso applicable from today's situation.
And that is Proverbs 21:5. Itsays this. The plans of the diligent

(02:54):
lead to profit as surely ashaste leads to poverty. Well, if
you think about that, what amI talking about here? Meal planning.
Proactively being ahead of thegame, planning those things out.
It leads to financial profitthrough savings. You're not ordering
out, you're not getting thosetakeouts, you're not making those
quick grocery runs. And hey,you, you're not wasting ingredients,

(03:15):
you're not wasting money atthe grocery store. And I don't know
about you, but if you've beento the grocery store lately, the
prices are through the roof.So that's the first biblical principle.
Diligent plans bring profit.Let's look at the second one, and
that's avoiding waste. I kindof alluded to that. And this is from
the Book of John, chapter 6,verse 12. It says this. Gather the
pieces that are left over. Letnothing be wasted. Now this was all

(03:38):
talking about the weddingfeast, but if you think about that
from what the perspective whatwe're talking about today, it tells
you that meal planning helpsyou avoid food waste. And listen,
if you're paying for the foodand you're wasting it, well, what
are you doing? You're wastingmoney. So if we plan our meals accordingly,
we can avoid food waste. Andfinally, the third biblical principle,

(03:59):
and that is providing for yourhousehold. And I don't ever think
I've used this one on theshow, but this is one from Proverbs,
chapter 31, verse, verse 15.And says this, she provides food
for her household. Listen, youcan't get more direct than that.
So what am I saying? I'msaying that fall meal planning, of
course there's meal planningall year long. But as school's ramping

(04:20):
back up, as we're starting toget busy, hey, the kids are getting
shuffled from here, there andeverywhere. Everybody's tensions
are afraid, everybody's tiredat the end of the day. The truth
is, fall meal planning is whystewardship? Because here's what
it does. It brings order tothose chaotic evenings. I don't know
about You. But I remember mykids are grown and past that staging.
But I remember sometimes theevenings were chaotic. I just couldn't

(04:42):
wait for the kids to go tobed. I could just take a breather.
But this is going to save youmoney. It's going to reduce waste.
And hey, it might free up sometime as well. And hey, it aligns
your food choices with apurposeful, peaceful household. So
you may be saying, Ralph,that's great, but how can we do this?
How do we transform thatchaotic fall dinner time into peaceful,

(05:03):
budget friendly meals? Well,guess what? As you expected, I've
got a solution. And that is tointentionally create a weekly fall
meal plan. And this is a greattime to balance healthy eating with
budget friendly ingredients.So I'm going to ask you to do one
thing today, and that's committo one dedicated meal prep session
to set yourself up forsuccess. Because hey, listen to this.

(05:25):
This proactive culinarycreativity can be a huge amount of
peace of mind. So here's yourone action step for today with the
goal of starting to meal planfor the fall. Step number one is
to choose your planning day. Iwant you to just pick a time and
a day that's going to work foryou and set aside maybe 20 or 30
minutes this week. Hey, maybefor you it's a Sunday afternoon,

(05:47):
maybe it's a Saturday morning.I honestly think it's probably a
good time to do this at yourgrocery planning at the same time.
But I'm going to encourage youto pick something consistent and
hey, put it on the calendar.As I always say, what gets measured
gets done. So put it on thecalendar. So that's the first step.
Choose your planning day andtime. Second thing I'm going to encourage
you to do is pick five simplebudget friendly fall dinners. Now,

(06:09):
you don't need to be a supergourmet at this. It doesn't need
to be that complicated. Butjust brainstorm five easy, healthy,
budget friendly dinner ideasfor the upcoming week. These are
things like soups or stews orcasseroles, maybe some sheet pan
meals or some slow cookermeals. As I mentioned last week,
my wife is great at this. Andin fact, when I was planning for

(06:31):
today's show, I said, hey,remember when the kids were younger?
Remember how we used to havethis scurry at dinner time? And I
said, what are some ideas thatyou came up with? She said, Ralph,
how about simple pasta withsauce or maybe a pot roast? You can
put that right in the slowcooker. Maybe some vegetable beef
soup or maybe a Shepherd'spie. And she said, hey, one of my
go to's was always a thing ofchili. That was easy. You can make

(06:53):
leftovers with it. She alsomentioned chicken and rice casserole
and an old staple of myItalian heritage, some baked ziti.
Honestly, I'm sitting hererecording this right now. It's kind
of making me hungry. Not toofar away from lunch. I'm getting
hungry right now, but that'smy second step. You just write those
things down. Now, once youwrite those things down, the third
step is to build your grocerylist from your plan. So grab that

(07:15):
grocery list, look at yourchosen meals. Now, the first thing
I encourage you to do soundslike I'm giving you a lot of stuff,
but check your pantry and takeyour fridge because maybe you've
already got the stuff to do.It doesn't make any sense to buy
or let it waste and, and thencreate a precise grocery list. I
want you to stay focused andprevent those impulse buys. So look
at your meal plan and hey,this is what we're going to buy at

(07:36):
the grocery store. Now here'sa little pro tip, something my wife
mentioned as well. It might bea good idea to also schedule some
quick prep. One of the thingsmy wife mentioned to me, she says,
rob, a lot of times when thekids were in school, she would prepare
meals sort of on a Sunday andkind of prep the things, put them
in the refrigerator maybe 15or 30 minutes, you know, chopping
up some vegetables, browningsome ground beef or, or making a

(07:59):
batch of rice or canyon orsomething like that. Because she
said, Ralph, that would saveme time during those busy weeknights
because I could go right intothe fridge, pull out that tray that
I already created, and hey, itwas already ready to go. So that
was a great idea from my wife,a great time saver. They might be
saying, Ralph. Okay, I get it,but how does this help? Well, like
I said at the beginning, itfights that struggle of that dinner

(08:20):
time chaos and, and that easyway to blow out your budget. I know
so many people that I workwith, they say to me, hey, we really
are trying. But it seems likewhen, when, when time gets hectic
and things are, we're busy,everybody's got something to do.
It really makes it easy toblow out that budget. And this will
really transform those franticmoments in the evenings because you've

(08:41):
got this prepare. Everybodycan look at the calendar and say,
hey, this is what we're doingfor dinner. No more hey, what's for
dinner tonight? It's going tosave you money on takeout and and
if you do it right, it's goingto keep you from wasting groceries
and bring peace and order tothose busy evenings, allowing enjoyment
of family meals. How about wepray together now? Father God, we

(09:02):
just thank you for thenourishment you provide and for the
gift of family meals. Itreally is a gift, Lord. And we confess
that our busy fall schedulesoften lead to chaos, Lord, and overspending
at dinner time because wedon't have that plan. So we ask that
you would grant us wisdom inour meal planning and diligence in
our preparation. Lord. Help usto be intentional in choosing healthy

(09:23):
and budget friendly meals.Guide us to bring peace and order
to our dinner tables and blessour efforts to feed our families
well both physically andspiritually. And we ask this in confidence.
In Jesus name. Amen. Listen.Fall meal planning is a powerful
way to save money. It's apowerful way to save time and it's

(09:44):
a powerful way to listen to meon this one to save your sanity.
So take that step today andcreate your weekly meal plan and
set yourself up for successand for peaceful dinners all fall
long. You are moving towardstrue freedom. And now I'm going to
ask you if this episode hasresonated with you. I want to ask
you to consider sharing itwith someone else who might need
to hear it. You can findresources and connect with the show

(10:06):
at our website. That'sfinanciallyconfidentchristian.com and
hey, why not send them a textor an email and say hey, I. I listened
to the show. Ralph was talkingabout fall meal planning. Hey, we
can all benefit from this. Nowtomorrow we're going to talk about
another budget buster. We'regoing to be talking about another
way to optimize your budget asfall routine set in. Listen for this
one. How to reevaluate yoursubscriptions and your memberships

(10:30):
to ensure they're stillserving you and not silently draining
your wallet. I've seen thatway too many times where those constant
subscriptions, you don't evenrealize they're there, but they're
draining your wealth. So don'tmiss that. Join me on tomorrow's
show. Now let's all go outthere today and be those financially
confident Christians that westrive to be. You can do this. I
truly have confidence in you.Have confidence in yourself. Stay

(10:53):
financially savvy. God blessyou and you have a great day today.