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

School's back activities are starting and your calendar is suddenly bursting. Does the chaos of fall routines leave you feeling rushed? Maybe it leaves you feeling stressed.And hey, if you're like most of us, leaves you feeling like you're spending more than you planned. But what if a little intentional planning now could save you time and money as the new season unfolds?Well, stick with me today because I'm sharing exactly how to make that happen. And I'm doing that on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight, insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hey there and welcome back to your Financially Confident Christian.I'm Ralph and this is the show that helps you answer that big question, how can I become a financially confident Christian? And we are well within this series of smart money for back to school and beyond.And if you missed yesterday's show, we talked about setting up smart 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 into the kitchen.We're going to talk about how to master fall meal planning for delicious, healthy and here's the best part, budget friendly dinners. So today's show, I'm going to answer this question. How can fall meal planning bring peace to my dinner table?And hey, like me, we could all use some peace around the dinner table. Hey, it's a busy weeknight, the kids are home, everybody is tired, and guess what? There's no dinner plans. So you open that refrigerator door, you.You stare blankly into the abyss. There's no ingredients for a substantial meal.Well, I don't know about you, but like most people, it leads to expensive solutions, maybe takeout or maybe a quick frantic grocery run. And listen, I remember when my kids were growing up, constantly had this daily chaos of hey, what's for dinner?The problem is when you don't plan that, what you end up with is budget blowouts on food. You waste groceries, you get stress, and there's a lot of family tension.And if you think about it, the burden here is a lack of clear dinner planning. And what does it do? It drains your budget, it drains your time, and hey, if you're not careful, it drains your energy.But here's the thing I want to tell you about today. Meal planning is a powerful tool for consistency in health and, and in budget control. And hey, as a Christian, we need to act diligently.And this is diligent stewardship of your time, diligent stewardship of your money. And hey, diligent stewardship of your family's well being. And let's jump right into the word of God and talk about this.And I really have three principles today. Principle one is diligent plans bring profit. And I've used this scripture on the show probably a hundred times.But, but it's so applicable from today's situation. And that is Proverbs 21:5. It says this. The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.Well, if you think about that, what am I talking about here? Meal planning. Proactively being ahead of the game, planning those things out. It leads to financial profit through savings.You're not ordering out, you're not getting those takeouts, you're not making those quick grocery runs. And hey, you, you're not wasting ingredients, you're not wasting money at the grocery store.And I don't know about you, but if you've been to 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 kind of 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. Let nothing be wasted.Now this was all talking about the wedding feast, but if you think about that from what the perspective what we're talking about today, it tells you that meal planning helps you avoid food waste. And listen, if you're paying for the food and you're wasting it, well, what are you doing? You're wasting money.So if we plan our meals accordingly, we can avoid food waste. And finally, the third biblical principle, and that is providing for your household.And I don't ever think I've used this one on the show, but this is one from Proverbs, chapter 31, verse, verse 15. And says this, she provides food for her household. Listen, you can't get more direct than that. So what am I saying?I'm saying that fall meal planning, of course there's meal planning all year long. But as school's ramping back up, as we're starting to get busy, hey, the kids are getting shuffled from here, there and everywhere.Everybody's tensions are afraid, everybody's tired at the end of the day. The truth is, fall meal planning is why stewardship? Because here's what it does. It brings order to those chaotic evenings. I don't know about You.But I remember my kids are grown and past that staging. But I remember sometimes the evenings were chaotic. I just couldn't wait for the kids to go to bed. I could just take a breather.But this is going to save you money. It's going to reduce waste. And hey, it might free up some time as well. And hey, it aligns your food choices with a purposeful, peaceful household.So you may be saying, Ralph, that's great, but how can we do this? How do we transform that chaotic fall dinner time into peaceful, budget friendly meals? Well, guess what? As you expected, I've got a solution.And that is to intentionally create a weekly fall meal plan. And this is a great time to balance healthy eating with budget friendly ingredients.So I'm going to ask you to do one thing today, and that's commit to one dedicated meal prep session to set yourself up for success. Because hey, listen to this. This proactive culinary creativity can be a huge amount of peace of mind.So here's your one action step for today with the goal of starting to meal plan for the fall. Step number one is to choose your planning day.I want you to just pick a time and a day that's going to work for you and set aside maybe 20 or 30 minutes this week. Hey, maybe for you it's a Sunday afternoon, maybe it's a Saturday morning.I honestly think it's probably a good time to do this at your grocery planning at the same time. But I'm going to encourage you to pick something consistent and hey, put it on the calendar. As I always say, what gets measured gets done.So put it on the calendar. So that's the first step. Choose your planning day and time.Second thing I'm going to encourage you to do is pick five simple budget friendly fall dinners. Now, you don't need to be a super gourmet at this. It doesn't need to be that complicated.But just brainstorm five easy, healthy, budget friendly dinner ideas for the upcoming week. These are things like soups or stews or casseroles, maybe some sheet pan meals or some slow cooker meals.As I mentioned last week, my wife is great at this. And in fact, when I was planning for today's show, I said, hey, remember when the kids were younger?Remember how we used to have this scurry at dinner time? And I said, what are some ideas that you came up with? She said, Ralph, how about simple pasta with sauce or maybe a pot roast?You can put that right in the slow cooker. Maybe some vegetable beef soup or maybe a Shepherd's pie. And she said, hey, one of my go to's was always a thing of chili. That was easy.You can make leftovers with it. She also mentioned chicken and rice casserole and an old staple of my Italian heritage, some baked ziti.Honestly, I'm sitting here recording this right now. It's kind of making me hungry. Not too far away from lunch. I'm getting hungry right now, but that's my second step. You just write those things down.Now, once you write those things down, the third step is to build your grocery list from your plan. So grab that grocery list, look at your chosen meals.Now, the first thing I encourage you to do sounds like I'm giving you a lot of stuff, but check your pantry and take your 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 then create a precise grocery list.I want you to stay focused and prevent those impulse buys. So look at your meal plan and hey, this is what we're going to buy at the grocery store.Now here's a little pro tip, something my wife mentioned as well. It might be a good idea to also schedule some quick prep.One of the things my wife mentioned to me, she says, rob, a lot of times when the kids were in school, she would prepare meals sort of on a Sunday and kind of prep the things, put them in the refrigerator maybe 15 or 30 minutes, you know, chopping up some vegetables, browning some ground beef or, or making a batch of rice or canyon or something like that.Because she said, Ralph, that would save me time during those busy weeknights because I could go right into the fridge, pull out that tray that I already created, and hey, it was 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, it fights that struggle of that dinner time chaos and, and that easy way to blow out your budget. I know so many people that I work with, they say to me, hey, we really are trying.But it seems like when, when, when time gets hectic and things are, we're busy, everybody's got something to do. It really makes it easy to blow out that budget. And this will really transform those frantic moments in the evenings because you've got this prepare.Everybody can look at the calendar and say, hey, this is what we're doing for dinner. No more hey, what's for dinner tonight?It's going to save you money on takeout and and if you do it right, it's going to keep you from wasting groceries and bring peace and order to those busy evenings, allowing enjoyment of family meals. How about we pray together now? Father God, we just thank you for the nourishment you provide and for the gift of family meals.It really is a gift, Lord. And we confess that our busy fall schedules often lead to chaos, Lord, and overspending at dinner time because we don't have that plan.So we ask that you would grant us wisdom in our meal planning and diligence in our preparation. Lord. Help us to be intentional in choosing healthy and budget friendly meals.Guide us to bring peace and order to our dinner tables and bless our efforts to feed our families well both physically and spiritually. And we ask this in confidence. In Jesus name. Amen. Listen. Fall meal planning is a powerful way to save money.It's a powerful way to save time and it's a powerful way to listen to me on this one to save your sanity. So take that step today and create your weekly meal plan and set yourself up for success and for peaceful dinners all fall long.You are moving towards true freedom. And now I'm going to ask you if this episode has resonated with you.I want to ask you to consider sharing it with someone else who might need to hear it. You can find resources and connect with the show at our website.That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com and hey, why not send them a text or an email and say hey, I. I listened to the show. Ralph was talking about fall meal planning. Hey, we can all benefit from this. Now tomorrow we're going to talk about another budget buster.We're going to be talking about another way to optimize your budget as fall routine set in. Listen for this one.How to reevaluate your subscriptions and your memberships to ensure they're still serving you and not silently draining your wallet. I've seen that way too many times where those constant subscriptions, you don't even realize they're there, but they're draining your wealth.So don't miss that. Join me on tomorrow's show. Now let's all go out there today and be those financially confident Christians that we strive to be. You can do this.I truly have confidence in you. Have confidence in yourself. Stay financially savvy. God bless you and you have a great day today.