Meal planning is an important part of saving money on groceries. It also saves time and frustration when all ingredients needed for a meal are on hand.
Menu planning can be done efficiently when following the basic guidelines below.
Menu Plan around what is already on Hand
Before starting to meal plan, take a look at what’s in the freezer and pantry already, particularly items that need to be used up sooner rather than later. For instance, if hamburger or chicken has been in the freezer for a couple of months, make a point of incorporating those items into the menu plan for the week.
Pay special attention to perishable items such as fresh fruit and vegetables and dairy products when considering what food need to be used up in the coming week.
Meal Plan around What’s on Sale
Take a look at the grocery store sales paper to see what food items are currently on sale and incorporate those items into the menu plan to save money on groceries.
Some find it helpful to shop the sales at more than one store in order to get the largest variety of grocery sale items in any given week. Though time consuming, this works. However, a better plan is to shop at one store regularly, stocking up on sale items and then use current sale items of the week at the grocery store of choice to finish out the menu plan for the week.
Menu Plan Using Cookbooks and Online Recipe Sites
Once the pantry and freezer has been eyeballed and a list of possible ingredients for the week has been compiled, the next step in menu planning is determining what can be prepared with those items.
All Recipes is a great site for menu planning. The advantage of online menu planning is that recipe searches may be done according to the various ingredients on hand. For example, when typing in “chicken, sour cream, tortillas” in the ingredients section of All Recipes, and inputting “casseroles” in the keyword section, 19 casserole recipes made with those three ingredients come up. By simply substituting noodles for tortillas, recipes for totally different types of meals, mostly cheesy chicken and noodle casserole recipes, come up. The first option that includes tortillas is the better bet if food with a Mexican flavor is desired, and the second search option using noodles is best if comfort food is the order of the day.
Meal Plan around Themes
One menu planning option is to plan certain types of food certain nights of the week. For instance, prepare soup, salad and bread on Monday nights, Mexican food on Tuesday nights, “fun food” such as pizza or burgers on Friday nights and so on. This helps reduce the number of decisions that need to be made because much variety is built in to this simple type of menu planning.
Once the menu planning is done for the week, create a grocery shopping list and purchase everything needed for the week’s menu. Remember to add items for breakfasts and lunches and basics such as milk, bread, fruit, eggs and so on to the grocery shopping list.
Related Article:
- Benefits of Menu Planning is a great article for those wondering if it's worth the time and trouble to meal plan.
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