Reddit reviews Knock Knock What to Eat Pad Meal Planning Pad, 6 x 9-inches (Yellow)

For meal planning, I've got Knock Knock's EAT pad, and it makes my life way easier when I actually use it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1601061536/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502483254&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=eat+knock+knock&dpPl=1&dpID=41-z02dnMLL&ref=plSrch

So I'd get this, show it to your mother, and suggest you guys just try it for a week. Since I try to use it regularly, I use the previous week to make a grocery list while I fill out the rest of it. In this case, I'd grin and bear fish sticks if that gets written in as the plan (get the planning down first, then work on improving the planned meals).

So I am in a similar place. I am overweight and come from an obese family. I have lost the weight a few times but it came back because I never really addressed my relationship with food. After getting pregnant and gaining a bunch of weight I really started to think about and have been slowly getting better about it. Some books that really helped me change my way of thinking were:
The Power of Habit
French Kids Eat Everything
An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler

The French kids eat everything book was mostly anecdotal but the overarching idea that I got out of it was that in the US (and Canada it seems) food is used as a reward for children and that builds bad habits. When I was growing up my family was pretty poor so it was cheaper I think to get a reward that was food (vs a toy) cause I needed to eat anyway, and that has definitely carried over into my adult life. It's a struggle every time I feel down to remind myself that no, a cookie isn't going to fix my problems.

For cooking I would highly recommend an everlasting meal. The author has some recipes in the book but mostly, her whole idea is that good, healthy cooking doesn't need to be complicated. Very often in today's world you'll see magazines with super complicated recipes and a laundry list of ingredients that you have no idea where to even buy and that discourages so many people from cooking because it looks hard.

My baby is all about being independent so I usually don't have trouble whipping up dinner now. When I go back to work next month though, I plan to ease into it by preparing a bunch of freezer meals and stockpiling our chest freezer. For everyday cooking I really like the blog budgetbytes and to help with meal planning I use this what to eat notepad to organize our family meals. I still have a bit of a problem with portion control though so I use my fitness pal to make sure I don't go over calories when I eat.

yeah I probably should write on the line, I like the look of it off the line, and I knew someone who could do that and it would look like she was writing on a nice straight line a little above the actual line. it was beautiful and meant that the descenders from her letters didn't interfere with the ascenders on the next line.

As for my meal planning notepad :) It's the Knock Knock What to Eat notepad, it's got a magnet on the back so you can mount it to the fridge, I also have their All out of one on my fridge so I can quickly mark things off when I run out of them and use that when creating my grocery list the next week

I am a SAHP and I am terrible at budgeting. I've been trying to be better but it's just so damn hard! So here's what I've been doing:

All the grocery stores I frequent usually have an app for coupons and savings. I use whatever is on sale and try to incorporate that into my meal planning.
I use this meal planning pad mostly because it's cute but now it's out of habit.
We don't eat out as much anymore because not only is it expensive but my second child is A PAIN IN THE ASS to go out with cause she can't sit still. We've learned to make our favorite dishes at home.

When I first started to stay home we were really on a tight budget so all of my kid's activities were free classes at the library or play groups. Check your local Macaroni Kid calendar if you're in the US!

We also did a lot of hand me downs for clothes and toys because guess what! Baby don't care if they get new clothes or not, and they mess it up anyways.

ps Per my husband, out of housework/childcare, we need to focus on things that have a time limit. So hanging out and enriching the kid is a priority over getting the laundry done everyday. Because laundry is never going to end but baby is only going to learn how to roll over once in a lifetime! It's what I tell myself when the house is in shambles... like today... sob

I NID DIS because when I don't plan my meals and I end up eating out much more than I want to and spending a ton of money buying lunch.

Meal planning is so awesome! Good luck maintaining it - we use this to keep track of ours. I like to write things down and when last weeks is done, I use the back to write this weeks grocery list to take with me to the store.