Menu Planning
One way to save big on your grocery bill is to plan your meals. You know those annoying sales papers you get in the mail every week? Those are actually useful for more than burning them in your fireplace! I usually get my grocery ads on Wednesdays. So here’s my step by step process to meal planning.
1. 1. An hour well-spent!
Make sure you set aside about an hour for meal planning. “An hour!?! I can’t afford an hour!” You can’t afford not to give an hour towards planning. Meal planning saves you time at the grocery store because you know exactly what you are shopping for. It also saves you time every evening because you aren’t staring into the abyss of your refrigerator wondering what in the world you are going to make for dinner. In addition to saving time, planning your meals also saves you money. You are less tempted to buy things you don’t need because those items aren’t part of your “plan” and you won’t be going through the drive-thru or ordering a pizza because you have no idea what to make for dinner!
2. 2. Sit down with a 2-subject notebook, pen, calculator, sales ads and favorite cookbooks. (If you are also using coupons, bring your coupon binder as well.)
3. 3. Look in your freezer.
See what kind of meat you have already.
4. 4. Look for the meat on sale in your sales ads.
Since in America it’s all about meat, this is where I start. If you’ll notice, there is usually a theme to the meat sales. For instance one week most of the sales might be beef; another, pork. If you don’t have a variety of meat in the freezer, this might mean that your family will be eating a lot of different kinds of pork in one week. Pork chops on Monday, sausage on Tuesday, Bacon for breakfast on Wednesday, Pork loin for dinner…etc. Once you stock up, you’ll eventually resolve this issue.
5. 5. Think about what you have on your schedule for the week.
For instance, on grocery day you may want to plan a crock pot meal or frozen pizzas. By planning ahead, you’ll once again get rid of the temptation to go through the drive-thru. This is really important because I spend about $20 per person per week on groceries and personal care items. One trip through the drive-thru and I could have bought everything a person needs for an entire week! If you have a party to go to that week, you may not have a meal to make that day, but you may be bringing an item. This way, on the day of the party you won’t be running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and end up buying some overpriced cake shaped like a lamb, when nobody wants to eat Little Bo Peep anyway.
6. 6. Think about which day(s) you may be able to have a more formal sit-down meal.
I don’t know about you, but as my children get older, they have their own agendas. The meals we sit down and share together are few and far between. I do think the family meal is very important though, so I try to have a least one meal a week where we are all together. If this was a pork week at the grocery store, it might be the day we have a pork loin dinner, or a ham. Mondays work well for our family because we have church on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Fridays the children usually have their own plans. Mondays are the only day that we have to really sit down and take our time together. I start with planning the larger meals because they take more time to plan.
7. 7. Look in your cookbooks to find recipes for either the meats in your freezer or the meat on sale.
8. 8. Start a chart in the first section of your notebook.
I usually leave several lines between each day so that I can fill in side dishes, etc. At this point my chart would look something like this: Monday – ham, Tuesday – party (bring cake), Wednesday – frozen pizzas before church, Thursday – Tomato soup and grilled cheese (kids bring chips to youth group), Friday – Pork chop casserole in crock pot, Saturday – (kids go to Portillo’s with church friends) Fish and brown rice for Steve and I, Sunday – Roast, carrots and potatoes in crock pot.
9. 9. Start a grocery list in the second section of your notebook.
As the cobwebs begin to clear, and your schedule begins to direct your meal planning, begin writing down ingredients you will need from the store in order to make these main dishes.
1 10. Look at the produce on sale for the week.
Now I will look at what produce I can use for sides for the main dishes I have planned during the week. For instance, if asparagus is on sale, I’d probably add that to Monday’s meal. I also try to buy at least one produce item for snacks, ie. apples or clementines. Add to grocery list.
11 11. Look for staples in the sales ad.
This is when I’d look for rice, pasta, flour, sugar, bread and cereal and add them to my grocery list. Even if I don’t need the item, if it’s on sale and I have 2 or less of those items I will purchase them (especially if I have a coupon J)
12. Think about lunches and breakfasts.
Breakfast may have been taken care of in #11. The meal I hate planning for the most is lunch. The question I most hate to hear is, “What’s for lunch?” I usually reply, “I don’t know, find something.” Tuesdays we’ll usually have leftovers for lunch. I hate buying lunch meat because it’s so expensive. Sometimes I’ll buy hot dogs, or lettuce for a salad.
13. Buy one package extra of everything on sale.
This is entirely dependent on your budget. If you can only afford to buy one extra package of meat then pick the cheapest one for the week. For example, let’s continue with our pork week. Unless there is a buy one get one free sale on pork loin or ham it would probably be cheaper to buy an extra package of pork chops. As you do this, you will begin to have a nice stockpile so that you don’t have to eat only pork all week. The same also holds true with your staples. Try to buy at least one extra when the item goes on sale. This way you have extra in your pantry and you don’t have to buy it at full price. Add these items to your grocery list.
1 14. Be smart with every scrap of leftovers.
Using the pork example, if I purchased a ham, I would purchase one with a bone. Then after serving the ham on Monday, I would remove all the extras for lunch on Tuesday, and freeze the bone for ham soup another week. Another thing I do, (I know this is controversial) is that I give my dog any food leftover on everyone’s plate. Of course, if we have candied sweet potatoes I don’t give him those, but anything that doesn’t have sugar, I do. I still buy dog food, and serve it to him once a day so that he is sure to get the nutrition he needs. At the end of the meal I just scrape the food from the plates into his bowl. This keeps the cost of dog food down.
1 15. Think about household items you may need.
Before I piled up extras, I had a rule. If anyone needed something it was their responsibility to let me know before I went grocery shopping. Otherwise, it would have to wait until next week. J Add these items to your grocery list.
16. Bring the list with you to the grocery store.
How many times have we all done this! I am so committed to my list, that if I forget it, I go back home and get it. (I have also called my daughter and had her read it or text it to me!)
17. Stick to the list!!
Unless there is some huge unadvertised sale, I buy exactly what is on my list. Because of this, and lots of practice, I can usually tell you within $5 what my grocery bill will be before I leave the house. I make it a game with myself to keep my bill as close to that $5 margin of error as possible!
18. Before going through the line, check your list to make sure you have everything.
19. Go to stores like Aldi or Sav-A-Lot for milk, eggs, cream, and butter.
20. Be grateful! Have fun! You have much more than most people on this planet!
There have been times I have had to do these steps, and times I have chosen to do these steps. Sometimes self-pity will rise up and I’ll watch someone fill their cart to the brim, and I’ll envy them. To be honest though, I don’t think I could do it- even if I was a millionaire. It’s not only about the money I save each week, it’s about the time and the organization it brings to my family. Honestly, I’ve had friends who spend hundreds of dollars a week on groceries and when they get home they have no idea what to make! So smile, you are a virtuous woman! You plan for the future!
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