Stephanie Sears, also known as the Brunette Foodie, is a 20-something wife and mother who proves sometimes the best side hustles evolve from real-life experience and natural ability.

A recent Roswell transplant, Stephanie left a lucrative career in Commercial Real Estate to become a full-time SAHM in 2010. It was natural for Stephanie, who has a MBA in finance, to put her financial background to use making sure her family made the best use of their money. 

One of her money stretching tools was meal planning:

“I've actually been writing menu plans for myself for years.  When I worked in corporate America I had long hours and a stressful job, menu planning helped reduce the stress of deciding what to eat everyday.  As the years have progressed I've figured out how to perfect my menu planning system and it has evolved into a once-a-month easy task.”

“I started my blog, the Brunette Foodie, right before I found out I was pregnant. I had done some writing previously, but I wanted to share recipes and tips with friends and families so they could enjoy mealtime together.  My blog offers recipes and my family's menus to the public.  I post every menu there as well as almost all of the recipes I've tried.  For each recipe, my husband and I grade it and then we add a few comments to help the reader understand what we thought.”

Friends who read the blog were really interested in Stephanie’s meal planning system, so she helped a few of them create their own meal plans. 

Before she knew it, her side hustle was launched!

“I absolutely love helping families sit down to dinner together. Eating meals as a family is one of the most important things we can all do. Getting e-mails from clients telling me how different dinnertime was after implementing a meal plan makes me so happy.”

Although the Brunette Foodie’s popular meal planning service has the definite potential to evolve into a full-time business, Stephanie is happy to keep it very part-time for the time being.

“I make sure work does not interfere with motherhood. My typical day starts at 5:00 AM when I get up, make coffee, eat breakfast and write. Nathan and Samuel usually wake up around 7:30 AM and at that time I put my laptop and papers away to focus on my family. I answer emails throughout the day thanks to my iPhone.  Sometimes I get back on my computer during one of Samuel's naps or after dinner, but not often. When my family is around I try to focus on them only.”

So what pointers does the Brunette Foodie have to share about meal planning with the Roswell Patch community?

• Start small.  On my blog I have an entire section dedicated to meal planning including tips to get started. I practice monthly menu planning for myself, but most of my clients prefer to plan for a week at a time. 
  
  
• Use everything you buy.  I cannot stress this enough. Don't buy a head of lettuce to use as a garnish on hamburgers and let 90% of it rot in the refrigerator. Schedule hamburgers for one day and chef salad for later in the week. Meal planning is two - fold: reduce time spent staring at kitchen closets thinking what to make and to reduce grocery waste and cost.