Menu Board

One of the first things I pinned was a menu board.  I loved the idea of a menu board to organize our grocery list and meal planning.  One of my New Year's Resolutions was to pay closer attention to our grocery budget and spend less money on groceries.  A great way to accomplish that is to have an organizational system in place to plan meals and write grocery lists.  

Inspiration for menu board

I really wanted a menu board that had room for 2 weeks of menus, so that I could see what we are eating the current week, but also plan for the following week and have a grocery list that coincides.  I also wanted an all inclusive menu board, with room for a grocery list as well as a place to store grocery receipts to help with the budgeting.  So this is what I came up with.

Here's my materials list.  I bought the cork board, clothes pins, stickers, index cards, note pad and push pins at Walmart for approximately $12.  The rest I already had laying around:

• 14" x 14" cork board
• small clothes pins
• letter stickers
• index cards
• note pad
• push pins
• elmer's glue
• fabric glue
• white ribbon
• an old piece of cardboard
• a few pieces of colored paper
• a sharpie pen

I had push pins at home, but I splurged and bought the pack of fancy ones that matched the clothes pins.  I liked the wooden look to them and figured I could use them to post random stuff on the cork board if I ever felt the desire.  Once I had everything in front of me, I got to work.

Step 1: Cut out 14 small hearts from an old piece of cardboard.  I used an old beer case (no joke).  I did this free hand and they turned out fine, although it was somewhat tedious.  Then place the appropriate letters on the hearts to indicate the days of the week.

Step 2: Use Elmer's glue to attach 7 clothes pins to each side of the cork board.  I didn't bother to measure, as it seemed like more effort than it was worth.  But I put a clothes pin 2 inches from the top, and then one every 1.25" down, approximately.  This left enough space for the envelopes at the bottom and enough room for the menu cards to be attached to the clothes pins.

Step 3: Use Elmer's glue to attach the hearts with the appropriate day of the week onto each clothes pin.  Then use Elmer's glue to attach the notepad in the center of the cork board.  I did measure the center of the cork board to place the note pad to make sure it looked right.  I put it slightly higher than the exact center because of the size of the note pad I bought. Leave the board alone for 10-15 minutes to give the glue a chance to set.

Step 4: Use fabric glue to put two small pieces of fabric around the top of the cork board to make it look fancy.  Then use more stickers to label "This week", "Next week" and "Shopping" (or whatever words you like) on the top of the board.

I really have no idea why there were bananas in my living room while I was doing this project.  I blame my 15 month old.

Step 5: Cut the index cards into small strips and label each with a different meal.  Use one sheet of paper to make a heading such as "What's for dinner?" and place it at the top of the board.  Use two other sheets of paper to make small envelopes at the bottom of the board and label "Meals" (to store your meal strips) and "Receipts" (to store your grocery receipts).

And, viola, you have an all inclusive menu planning station!

Unfortunately, my final picture is missing an "e" because I need to buy another pack of stickers for that one e.  I also think I want to redo the envelopes on the bottom and make them into simple boxes.  I just used the push pins to attach the top banner, because I wasn't overly impressed with my quick "What's for Dinner" sign and will probably make a new one.  I may revisit this project, but for now I love how it turned out!


Total time: ~1.5 hours (it took me a little over 2 hours, but that's because my 15 month old was "helping" me)
Total cost: ~$12