It’s time to start planning meals. Oh, we’ve been buying groceries that will cover a variety of meals during the week, and we use most of them. But it’s pretty haphazard. Both my husband and I like to have choices – we don’t like an inflexible menu.
So each time I mentioned menu planning, my husband resisted. Why would I want to do that? To save money on our grocery bill. To have ingredients on hand to make healthy meals. And to give us more reason to stay home and eat.
But he didn’t want to be tied down to eating “this” on Monday and “that” on Tuesday. What if “that” just didn’t sound appetizing on Tuesday?
We’re trying something a little different. We’ll make a list of meals that we think will work in the next week. Just keep it flexible, but try some meals that play off of each other. Meals that include the same main ingredient so we can buy the correct quantity – but not so much that we’re having chicken five nights a week.
It’s going to be a work in progress. But we know we need to stop running to the store every 3 or 4 days unless it’s well-planned and within our grocery budget.
Did you start saving more money when you plan your menus? Or have you been thinking about it but don’t know where to begin?
image: morgueFile
Tags: budget, meal planning, menus, shopping
November 17th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Hi. I found you through BlogHer. I just recently decided to start being better at menu planning because I want to save money and be a little more organized (i.e. less of a stress-case in the kitchen each night). I’m actually doing something fairly similar you you: Over the weekend, I plan 7 nights worth of dinners (well, 6, technically, since one is scheduled to be “leftover night”), and keep which night they’re prepared pretty flexible. When I plan meals, I try to include a variety: a soup meal, meals with chicken, beef, pasta, veggies, etc. I also, to save my sanity, plan for at least one meal that I consider “easy” (i.e. frozen food, canned soup/sandwiches, etc). After I plan my meals, I sit down with the grocery ads and write up my shopping list, including all items required for the meals, as well as items needed to re-stock my pantry if they’re on sale. If I can, I try to plan my meals around what’s on sale that week, but this doesn’t always happen. I’ve really only been at it for a couple of weeks, but so far so good. Hope your menu planning goes well!
November 17th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Hi Lindsay, thanks for stopping by!
I’m going to try to incorporate a crock pot meal and maybe one via pressure cooker. I love my pressure cooker – I’ll have to write a post about using it to save time!
November 20th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Well I live alone. I do think it is great for both saving money and eating healthier. When you leave it to the last minute, you tend to buy junk just to fill your stomach! Better to plan ahead for both convenience as well has maintaining a healthy diet!
November 20th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Yes, it definitely helps to know what you’re going to eat. I’ve noticed we eat much healthier that way.