To Market, To Market.... Meal Planning

As I am feeling much better, I think it's high time that my project get underway!


Today is March 10, 1940. It's day 192 in World War II. In the news, Finnish negotiators will meet with Moscow leaders to revise a peace treaty, but the Soviets will not "change a single comma". Mussolini is informed of Hitler's plan to invade France and promises a swift victory. The German's want Italy to join forces with them in the war, but Mussolini decides to sit on the sidelines and wait to see what happens. The US Undersecretary of State met with the British Prime Minister to discuss a peace proposal. 


But today, in my 1940's world, I'm learning how to plan meal time! In my 2011 world, meal time usually means stress time. I have occasionally, but not usually, plan out our meals. Grocery shopping trips usually consist of grabbing a cart, roaming the aisles, grabbing the "usuals", rejoicing if something is on sale, checking out, then head home to put it all away, forgetting about it until I hear that dreadful squeal of one of the kids saying "I'm hungrrrryyyyy". At that time I usually scour the cabinets to see "what there is to eat". This method is no doubt stressful, and inconvenient (as I usually forget something along the way and have to ask dear hubby to stop at the store on his way home to pick up whatever I (opps!) forgot!


America's Cook Book (    ) in an introduction spoke about war time housekeeping, "Every homemaker has been drafted and the kitchen apron is her uniform! American women are standing up to daily battles as monumental as the fronts as they battle the supply and demand, food values against food shortages..." "... their smallest decisions hang tremendous results".... "health and moral depend on it!".... "women can hasten or retard our final Victory!" Wow, talk about a pep talk! It's time to take charge of the family's food intake!


America's Housekeeping Book states this about menu planning:

 "If menu's are planned and written down several days ahead, marketing will be easier and less costly. You will find it possible to take advantage of "week-end specials," to plan for leftovers, and to provide more variety in the meals you serve your family. Cooking ability is a big help in cutting food costs, because inexpensive foods, skillfully prepared, often top higher-priced foods in flavor, health value and "appetite appeal".

In today's modern world, grocery circulars usually have week long sales, HOWEVER... there are occasional 3-day sales at my grocery store, and also days where the meat and dairy department reduce the price of items that are nearing the sale date. If your stores have similar type sales, it would be wise to check with the manager of the store and see if they reduce items on a certain day of the week.

There are a few things to consider when planning meals:

• Nutrition. Making sure your family gets all the needed vitamins and minerals for daily intake!
• Taste. They have to enjoy eating it (saves stress of you having to try to force it down the family's throat!)
• Budget. Stretching the family dollar is very important in any economical times, but especially important when times are tough!
• Time Constraints. Depending upon what you have going on, you don't want to find yourself making a 2-hour meal when you have to serve rushing family members who are leaving for practice in 30 minutes!

In the 1940's there were 7 food groups... and our government promoted good eating habits with posters such as this:

School Posters reminded little one's of what they should be eating:

These posters remind me of what our current First Lady, Michelle Obama is trying to do with encouraging good eating habits in our schools. I wonder if people in the 1940's were against such posters being in schools and workplaces encouraging American's to eat right in order to stay strong, fight fatigue, protect yourself from illness, and build strong teeth and bones? I may not agree with many of our current President's standings, but I think Mrs. Obama is on the right track with encouraging our children to eat healthy, nutritious meals. 

Here is a chart from America's Cook Book (1943) that shows how much food a family should consume per week:

Browsing through a couple of my 1940's women's magazines, I came across a homemaker that shared her tips on meal planning. According to her, she takes a large sheet of paper and rules into squares "breakfast", "lunch" and "dinner" everyday for two weeks. Then she consults her recipe book, keeping in mind the seasonal foods available at the market. She says the better a work plan the more leisure time a housewife has. 

That sounds very doable to me, my only concern is budgeting food for two weeks. Fresh vegetables, even in today's refrigerator tend to wilt easily and well, let's face it... I have four children and if they see that much food in the house, a two week supply can quickly become a one week supply unless it's under lock and key!

As far as food costs, America's Housekeeping Book has a detailed plan for you to follow as well to keep track of your monthly spending. Here's the plan:

• Keep a detailed food record for a month
• Separate food costs into these categories:
• Cereal foods (Bread, whole grains, flours)
• Fruits & Vegetables
• Meat, Fish & Eggs
• Milk & Cheese (and other dairy)
• Fats/Sugar & Miscellaneous

"A modest income in order to have a balanced diet, not far from 1/5 of the food money should go to these five groups. A simple check for a family with children is to spend as much for milk as for fruits and vegetables; and to spend as much for milk as for meats. There is also the fundamental milk rule to use a quart a day for children and a pint a day for adults." 

Remember those little milk containers we used to drink at school? Those are 1/2 pints, so a child would need to drink 4 of those a day to equal a quart of milk a day. There are 4 quarts in one gallon, so according to the "fundamental milk rule", my family (kid's only!) should go through a gallon of milk a day! At $2.69 gal x 7= that's $18.83 a week in milk alone! In relation, milk in 1940 cost 34 cents, or in today's price of $4.14 a gallon. So while 34 cents a gallon sounds nice, it's really not. Believe it or not, food prices have actually declined over the years! That's puts our milk family's milk consumption into prospective!

The manual also says, "Another useful food check is one's total food cost, which will vary from about 25 cents per person per day to 50 cents per person per day. To do this, find the monthly food bill and divide it by 30 or 31 for the daily food cost and this again by the number of person's in the family. If in a family with children the daily food cost per person is 25 cents than you can't do much better than that as a minimal cost; 40 cents per person per day should represent a modest cost for food, and 50 cents per person would be a liberal cost."

So, again using the inflation calculator, here's today's values...

One's total food cost will vary from about $3.05 per person per day to $6.11 per person per day.

In my family's case, then a monthly grocery bill would range from $549 - $1099.80. Currently we average anywhere from $600-$800 on groceries, so I'd like to try to see how close I can budget with meal planning to the $549 figure. We also don't use many coupons now, so I can see how that would help reduce meal costs.

The Woman's Home Companion Book (1948) says that your food budget should equal 33% of your net (after tax) income. 

So, with this newfound information at hand, I'll grab my large piece of paper, block it off for the week, and begin to schedule my meals for the upcoming week... Friday is market day!