Organized or total chaos??

My question is are you an organized neat freak, someone in total chaos, or somewhere in between?  My husband fusses when I call him a neat freak because he thinks it's a totally negative label.  I, on the other hand, mean it as a compliment, because I'm usually in a state of total chaos.  Amazing how we usually most desire what we are not.

Because the last couple of weeks have been crazy -- I've felt the need for some control.  Now physically I haven't been able to control my house and my housekeeper has been busy with other jobs, so I'm living in a disaster and my brain needs something that's orderly.  I also quit my job in June, so all of that led to trying to make a menu/meal plan.  Something that is easy to manage, but yet will let me be much more efficient in the time and money I spend on food.  We've been eating out, nothing fancy (which is worse for our health, considering it's fast food) way too much lately, and I need to get a handle on cooking.

I have several times in the past made a meal list, bought groceries for those meals and then we've just eaten from the list.  It's not set in stone, which is nice, if we're not feeling in the mood for a particular meal, then I can just switch it up, knowing I have all the needed ingredients.

This time I decided to take it a step further.  I, with the girls help, wrote down all the meals we Hannah likes will eat and divided them into categories.  I then typed them into the computer, using a Word table.  That's as far as I've gotten!!  But here's the plan....

I'm going to print out each of the foods in the categories on a separate color of paper -- cut them out, using the Word grid and then using packing tape or adhesive magnet sheets, put them on a magnet.  I will then tape off a grid on the side of my frig and when I make the meal plan for the week (including breakfast, but probably not lunch) I can just stick the magnets on the frig in the appropriate column. 

I know there are probably a lot fancier ways to do this, but remember the whole point is to save a little extra money -- so I think this way will work.  Having them color coded will also enable me to quickly make sure that we don't end up eating pasta or beans three meals in a row :-)

The magnet idea will also let me move them around is I need to.  Say the girls have pizza at school and I have lasagna planned, I can move the lasagna to another day.  I'm also going to keep in mind what days are crazy days and try to have an easy or crockpot meal for that day.

Wish me luck -- hoping to get it all together this week and start fresh next Sunday -- will also be trying to use the sales fliers a little more to plan the weeks menu, again trying to save a little $$.

What are the ways you save money on groceries or plan your food for the week??