Football and Frugality

What does football season have to do with a blog about being frugal? Well in my life, everything. My boys started football about two weeks ago, and the practice times have really thrown off my menu planning. And, as I have learned menu planning is one of the keys for me to being prepared. Being prepared limits the number of times I go out to dinner, because I "don't know what to cook". And that helps me stick to my budget.

Here's the dilema: Football practice is typically from 6:00-8:00pm. Dh doesn't get home until 5:30-5:45 most nights, and then we rush to the football field. I don't want to feed the boys a big meal before they practice as it's hot out and football is a tough contact sport. It's not like baseball where I can pack sandwiches and bring them to the field, they need to digest. Practice usually ends around 8-8:15pm and we get home around 8:30pm. See my dilema? We could sit down as a family and eat at that time, but it's really late!

I wanted to utilize my crockpot more for football season, but even that seems difficult because when would we eat? I also thought about making the mid-day meal our big meal and having sandwiches an hour or so before practice. But dh isn't home with us during the day. So, what would he do for dinner... I know he wouldn't be thrilled with sandwiches 4 days a week. Oh yes, did I forget toi mention the kids have practice 4 days a week. That's a lot of practice and it really hampers our famlily time around the dinner table! If I am not careful to carve out some family time..... we end up having too much running and not enough connecting.

So, anyone have any advise for how to work around football season? Maybe I could do a couple days of eating late, and a couple days of big meals at mid-day? I DO know whatever I decide I will be menu planning. That is for sure! Two weeks without a menu have pretty much killed me.

So please post a comment and tell me how you might handle dinner time if you were in our situation. I welcome any suggestions.... :-)