We all do it. We indulge in the cycle of eating out time after time for a multitude of reasons; We either find ourselves burnt out on the same ol’ meals, are entirely spent from a long day, or have absolutely no idea what to cook.

My husband and I both come from families who live busy lives which leads them to eat out more than they eat home. (No shade family, we love you!) However, we wanted to break this cycle and we have created a simple way to do so.

The first thing you will need is a magnetic dry-erase calendar board. I bought mine in college and it serves great purpose. The reason I specify that it be magnetic is you adhere it straight to your refrigerator, somewhere that you can’t overlook it.

{If you want to be super creative, you could buy dry-erase markers to color coordinate your monthly schedule!}

When I go grocery shopping, I buy a plethora of staple items that we love to eat {I can make a post about my staple grocery shopping items} and when I get home I make a list of all the different combinations of ingredients that make up a good meal. Then, I list them on the bottom of our calendar board like so ->

The fact that the board is dry-erase makes it SO EASY for us to erase as we complete a meal or add meals as we think of them.

Either way, having all of your ideas in one place takes the guess work out of planning last-minute meals. For me, I tend to become so overwhelmed with studying, cleaning, and spending quality time with my husband that by the time dinner rolls around I. Am. Exhausted. Knowing what to expect for our meal times takes a load off of my plate, for sure.

I HATE being the one to choose our meals all of the time. Mine and my husband’s eating preferences can be vastly different. By employing this method, he is able to see our options for the week, make a decision, and leave the preparation up to me.

Now, this goes without saying but we are still “typical” and get craving for things other than what is on our board. If that is the case, we load up and head out to our favorite spots in town. Overall, we aim to eliminate reverting to eating out because “we just don’t know what to cook”.

I hope this helps!

With love, Elizabeth.