Family Table Menu

I guess we are a visual family because when I plan my menu, my family goes nuts over this system! I have been planning my menu this way for years; but about a year ago I had a light bulb click on and realized this would be a fun way to get the family involved in our menu plan. I created a magnetic menu board complete with pictured magnets of all our favorite meals. I've actually separated my recipes into cost categories (high, medium, and low) and each family member gets to choose one high cost meal each month. The rest are filled in with medium and low cost meals. On months where we have extra expenses (like next month when all of our vehicles are due for registration...) we plan mostly low cost meals. It makes it a lot easier for me to budget this way. I still save all of my menus to reference for ideas later on by taking pictures and I have several blank magnets that I can fill in as I discover new recipes. I update my magnets once every few months to add these in with pictures. 

To keep things organized I keep my extra magnets on magnetic sheets that I hole punched and put into my recipe binder. When we put together each month's menu, I pull the recipes that I need to the front of the binder and jot down a shopping list. And instead of saying no to any of their choices I use a bit of loving logic and remove any of the magnets that I'm not willing to cook that month (like corned beef cabbage in July...). I also have a rule that they can choose the meals, but I get to choose the days that I cook them. This allows me to plan easy meals for busy days and save the more elaborate meals for the weekends and days off from school. 

My girls love to choose the meals and the pictures really help them put a name to the food they like. I've also noticed that they are a lot less picky since we have been using this system. Who knows, maybe they're just growing up! But I like to think that my brilliant idea helped a little...My husband checks the menu board every morning before he goes to work and the best part is that if I need to make some changes as the month progresses, it's super easy to swap magnets without anybody noticing; with the exception of their favorites of course!