Meal Planning

I saw this wonderful post on meal planning and decided to take a stab at it. As the cost of living keeps increasing, our family has been trying to find ways to save money. Meal planning helps you save money by keeping you from buying things YOU DON'T NEED throughout the month. When you plan your meals ahead of time you are less likely to make an extra trip to the grocery store and pick up those three of four "extra" items. This month, I've prepared the following menu and we spent $550.00 for this month's groceries (we might spend a little more - another $20 or so for Thanksgiving). Now, I do need to let you know (if you just had a heart attack) that we buy in bulk so we tend to spend more in one month but we've calculated that we are only shopping every 6 weeks so it's averaging out to be around $370/month for a family of three. Now, I will admit that there's not a wide variety of side dishes in this particular plan (my husband barely eats veggies so I have to push the ones he will eat). For your plan, just add your favorite sides and make necessary adjustments to meet your budget.



Here's the meal plan for this month and, on a side note, I print two of these - one that is kept in my binder with all the recipes for the month in sequence and one to post on the fridge. You'll notice that I have a "Defrost" memo on each day to let me know what to pull out for the next night (some things, like roasts & whole chickens need more time to defrost so you'll see they are pulled out days ahead of time).

Monthly Calendar

I use the "Weekly Meal Plan" to have a handy overview of the upcoming week. I keep it in my binder behind the monthly calendar. I just rotate the weeks out as they come up so I have easy access to notes about how I want to prepare some of the recipes.



Weekly Menu Planner

Oh, and here's the cover for my binder - if you want one with your name on it and/or in a specific color - just leave me a comment with your last name, email address and color choice and I'll send you one - ready to print.


Menu Planner Cover