How to manage family scheduling, meal prep, etc

My wife went from working very part time to very full time not too long ago. I am still working very full time, with a good bit of business travel sprinkled into the mix.

Ever since the change, we've been struggling to find a new rhythm. Historically she handled all the grocery shopping and meal preparation. Now, that has become a struggle. We've also had several instances of "what do you mean you're not here then?" bite us.

So I'm trying to come up with a shared web-based solution. Something that will allow us to maintain a shared calendar, grocery list, to-do's, meal schedule, associated recipes, etc.

I imagine the struggles we're having are nothing new for couples that have both been working full time for years but this is new territory for us and it hasn't gone terribly well so far. I'm anxious to improve things! Advice welcomed!

Definitely not easy, and we've had a pretty soft go of it so far, with kids being young and travel being light. 
 

We have a whiteboard on our dining room wall. One day over the weekend (Friday?) we meal plan and do a Kroger pickup order for the next week. Usually 2-3 meals, that will provide leftovers. Kroger pickup is free over a certain grocery amount and fairly convenient, so that helps us some. If planning meals sucks, we might trade weeks on who does it. 
 

Our white board does have room for "to-do"s but we don't assign ourselves to them usually. 

We use the paprika3 app for meal planning and it has been great. You can download recipes and add them to the weekly calendar, build a grocery list from the recipes on the menu etc.

My wife does the planning and shopping so she adds the meals for each day. I do the cooking so I just have to pull up it app and it displays the recipe without any of the ads and fluff from online sources. 

It definitely works for us and is much better then our previous system which was a shared note on our phones.

Cozi family organizer app.  Used it for years.

We've tried a few different apps, Alexa, and settled on a white boads calendar with space for writing down items we need from the store.  It also helps being able to see what's coming up on the calendar for the month. The calendar is redundant since we use the Apple ecosystem and have a shared family calendar for us and the kids.

I do the grocery shopping and most of the cooking. I typically shop on the weekend, so we'll have fish on Monday, chicken Tuesday (usually cook split breast 4 pack), beef Wednesday (steak tip, steak, or pot roast in the slow cooker), Thursday will be leftovers using the chicken (jambalaya, chicken pot pie), and Friday might be pasta (lasagna this week). Weekends are tough because of hockey, so those vary, but this weekend lasagna will provide some leftovers.

I always keep ground beef in the freezer in 1.25 lb packages. That can be used for pasta, tacos, dirty rice, or something else. We also keep a couple jars of pasta sauce and boxes of pasta in the cabinet for quick meals.

The biggest challenge is having a 15yo that eats a meal when he gets home from school, eats dinner with the family, and then another meal after hockey practice.

We have the Skylight calendar that I mounted to the side of the refrigerator.  Kids can upload their schedules, input chores, meals, appointments, birthdays, etc.  Even has a photo slideshow screensaver that you can email photos to.  Its been a game changer for us, everyone can see it on their phone through the app

In reply to OLDYLR :

We have one and we like it a lot. But mostly it comes down to how you use it. 

We use Trello for grocery lists and such. It also has a good calendar. 

My wife still maintains a dry-erase calendar on the fridge for most other things. 

Curbside pickup

Extra freezer

Vacuum sealer

These are my three biggest time/hassle savers when it comes to food prep. Buy in bulk when stuff is on sale, freeze it, do your meal prep out of the grocery store in your own refrigerator. I find if I'm going to the grocery store because I need something *now* I've made a huge mistake.

I had a very long history of roommates up until this year and while not a significant other situation, having up to 4 roommates who all work (sometimes multiple jobs) and attend school at different times has helped me learn alot about keeping the peace and organizing a home.

The biggest way we organized, separated tasks and figured out who was free was with a shared calander app (I recommend FamilyWall, you can plan meals, make lists, events and so much more). A chalk board in the hallway was also a big one cause it let us just see the month at a glance and if we wanted details we had the app. No matter what, holding each other and yourself accountable, in a kind and understanding way, is a big thing.

I survive on Costco chicken nuggets. No plan required. 

We don't have a smart home and our kids (7/10) don't have their own connected devices, so we do it old-school... And we cheat.

We have a physical calendar on the wall in the kitchen with ALL scheduling on it. Whoever schedules something is responsible for writing it on the calendar and informing others of the addition. It has to be both. Writing it down without telling them, and telling them without writing it down, are both recipes for disaster. Any calendar, physical or virtual, is only as good as you are at using and communicating it.

We have a magnetic paper note pad on the fridge. Everybody is responsible for putting their own items on the list. Kids will learn really quickly that if they eat the last of something and don't put it on the list, they're not getting it. Whoever does the shopping is responsible for grabbing the list.

Meal planning is where we cheat a bit. There is a company near us that offers home-made type recipes and ingredients in pre-prepped frozen meal kits. This cuts out the recipe finding, grocery shopping, washing, cutting/chopping, and measuring. Just need to order and pick up once a month. We generally thaw 1-2 at a time and try to spread them out to no more than 2 or so a week. Basically it's just cooking by adding the bags to the pan in the order and timing instructed. Saves head space. It is more expensive than making from scratch, so definitely not an every night kind of thing, but also cheaper than eating out. We also keep a stock of both pasta and foods that can be cooked (heated) directly from frozen, for the nights where we don't have time to cook but also don't want to eat out. The rest of our meal planning and scheduling is admittedly a bit haphazard, and definitely still has room for improvement. Basically, my wife calls me whenever she's leaving work and I start making whatever sounds best to her. The kids don't get much say since inevitably any option we have will be reviled by at least one of them, in which case they can get themselves an approved alternative after trying a reasonable amount.

dyintorace said:

 Historically she handled all the grocery shopping and meal preparation. Now, that has become a struggle.

If you were single you'd be doing it all.  Don't get frustrated, kids are more perceptive than dogs.  Take all of the advice above plus buy a crock pot.

914Driver said:

If you were single you'd be doing it all.  Don't get frustrated, kids are more perceptive than dogs.  Take all of the advice above plus buy an Instant Pot.

FTFY... And air fryer toaster oven. Actually, air fryer toaster oven before Instant Pot IMO.

Organization is being addressed here, my comment is to keep the meal prep simple.
 

We eat a lot of one pot meals, and try to prepare large amounts so that we can eat the meal for more than one day, or freeze some for later. 

If you're in a situation where "leftovers" aren't acceptable, that's managing expectations, not time management. 
 

Im also very good at making a whole new meal from the leftovers. 

Thanks for the suggestions thus far! To add some clarity, we're empty nesters (for the most part - our 2nd child attends UF here in town so we see him regularly and my 86 year old dad lives in our ADU) so the struggle has just been with my wife and me. What I want to find is a rhythm where things are easy. Having a plan and doing meal prep are key missing components. That's what I am intent on fixing!

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

 

Im also very good at making a whole new meal from the leftovers. 

In our house, we call that 'ghetto gourmet' night, haha.  Usually involves a tortilla (burritos), Eggs (omelettes), or sometimes even both (breakfast burritos)!

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

Organization is being addressed here, my comment is to keep the meal prep simple.

We eat a lot of one pot meals, and try to prepare large amounts so that we can eat the meal for more than one day, or freeze some for later. 

If you're in a situation where "leftovers" aren't acceptable, that's managing expectations, not time management. 

Im also very good at making a whole new meal from the leftovers. 

Meant to add...we love leftovers!

golfduke said:

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

 

Im also very good at making a whole new meal from the leftovers. 

In our house, we call that 'ghetto gourmet' night, haha.  Usually involves a tortilla (burritos), Eggs (omelettes), or sometimes even both (breakfast burritos)!

We always call that Grab it and Growl. 

My brother and sister-in-law would pre-prep meals on the weekend and freeze them. They ate lots of casseroles. Then dinner consisted of pulling the appropriate container out of the freezer and popping it in the oven. Clean up was loading the plates in the dish washer and cleaning a casserole dish.