We really don't like eating fast food, and we try to make our own meals. Usually our 18 year son cooks for us. But it really becomes a burden when one person always has the responsibility for cooking. It is also commonly a problem deciding on what meal to make and what we need to buy from the store. We stock up a lot, so for the most part we can make just about anything you'd want to have since we keep a lot of ingredients on hand.

We do experience food going bad, which is always frustrating. Luckily we have chickens, which will eat food in varying degrees of decomposition while acting like they have been served the finest food ever. But it is still a waste of money, not to mention the time wasted of the person who shopped.

I've been thinking about trying this meal planning service that I've known about for some time; it's called Saving Dinner. I finally decided to sign up and try it out. The day I joined they were having a sale and it only cost me $6.95 for three months. Normally it is $9.95 for three months. It is cheaper to sign up for the entire year for $29.95.

Now part of me cries out that this isn't very frugal. Surely I could figure this out on my own. But there is the other part of me that rationalizes the cost is only $3.33 per month, that is only one thin dime a day. Someone has already done the work, now I can reap the benefits.

I also thought to myself maybe we can just use the same three months over and over again. We seem to eat the same dozen or so meals, so wow, this is 90 dinners to choose from.

You can access several different kinds of menus, from “regular” menu to the “body clutter” menu, vegetarian and a couple others. I thought we'd try the Body Clutter menu to start out with. My youngest son and I are trying to eat better, and get more exercise, hoping to have more energy. Of course one of the desired side effects is always weight loss, but I have to make sure that is not at the core of my goal because it always backfires on me.

I started working out with our Total Gym in January, and I was very pleased with the results. I felt much more flexible, and had a lot more strength. I could have been imagining it, but I am pretty sure I felt less tired and worn out than I normally do. However, I managed to get caught up in “diet head” and before I knew it I was stressed out, and felt like there was “NOTHING TO EAT” and well, it all backfired. I had to stop working out altogether for a while, to get my head back on straight about it. Now I've just started working out again, because I am beginning to notice my lack of strength again, the back aching from lying in bed sleeping, aches and pains which I know are from my sedentary lifestyle.

I will let you know how this goes for us. I will get my first menu mailer Tuesday; in the interim I've got the temporary starter menus to work with.

What we are hoping to accomplish is to remove some of the frustration and anxiety from daily meal planning. I am hoping if we have a menu in place, then we can rely on the meal for the day, plan for it the previous evening by taking the meat out to thaw. I am hoping we can save some money on food going to waste. With the prices of food today, it is a very bad idea to not be attentive to the food we have on hand.

Here is the first meal we tried – baked lemon chicken breasts sprinkled with feta and zucchini slices. This meal was a hit, and we will definitely have it again in the future.

The meals look very delicious so far. Wednesday's suggested meal is Cajun Pork Roast with Faux-Tay-Toes and steamed broccoli. It just so happens that we have all those ingredients on hand. Pork Roast was on sale last week for $1.99/# and we did stock up.

You can try a free menu mailer and see how you like it, without joining, by clicking here: Saving Dinner – Free Menu Mailer – The chicken lemon breasts meal is one of the free menu mailer recipes so you can try it out for free!

This post was included in the 153rd Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by Money and Values on May 18, 2008.