Meal Planning and Grocery Budget Fun

After several requests to share some of my meal planning and grocery shopping tips, I decided to write up another blog post since my "system" has changed since my last post a few years and I no longer coupon.

A few important things to help yourself:

1) Prepare a document on your computer that lists all the meals your family eats.  It helps to divide them into columns.  The ones I use are: chicken, beef, pork, other, pasta, meatless, eggs.  When you are stuck in a rut as you plan the week's meals, this document helps refresh your memory.

2) Familiarize yourself with good sale prices.  If you buy a lot of chicken, know what a great price is on breasts, thighs, organic, roasters, etc.  Same thing for produce and other items.  If you see a great deal on something you use a lot, stock up.  For instance, Meijer has their salad dressings 10 for $10 this week.  In general, I like to make our dressings from scratch.  However, I do bring a lot of meals to others and often have a salad.  I keep bottles of dressing on sale to bring with my meal, so I buy about 5 or 6 when they go on sale.  If you have a freezer, you can buy meat in bulk when there is a great price.  Meijer bought too much organic chicken thighs once and I was able to buy several packages for about $1.79/lb (GREAT for organic boneless, skinless thighs).

3) Set aside about 20-30 minutes to plan for your meals.  I actually timed myself tonight and it was about 20 minutes, including taking these pictures.

4) If you like, having a big chalkboard or erase board in the kitchen with our meals is an easy way to stay in track and within your budget.  I generally write down the week's meals and take a photo.  It helps to glance at the photo while shopping to remind myself of the menu and stay on task.

That said, here is a quick breakdown of what works for me:

Get the sales papers for the week and grab about 2 or 3 from stores with which you are familiar.  This week I am looking through: Meijer, Fresh Thyme and Shop & Save.

Go through the papers, circling items that are on sale and also noting ones that have really great prices (and that you use often) that you can add to your pantry. 

You can see here that I marked up the 10 for $10 at Meijer this week.  I love when they have this sale because they have fresh items and also pantry items (like the dressing I mentioned above).  That is a good buy on organic mushrooms so I know right away that I will make something like stroganoff this week. 

A half sheet of paper is perfect for writing down the sales for the week.  This is usually how I decide where I will shop as I generally only go to 2 stores.

Use that list to make a quick sheet for:
-Meal
-What you have (fresh and pantry)
-What you need (fresh and pantry)

This is where it all comes together and you can pull out your document of meal ideas (see #1 above) if you are in a rut. If there is a great sale on chicken, add it to your meal plan twice.  Cook double the amount and you can schedule in a leftovers day if you know you will be busy.

Make sure you add any item from that need list to your grocery list for the week.

Finally, head to the store and stay on task.  Know what seasonal produce is on sale and buy in bulk.  Make your family eat what you have chosen to serve.  Complaints get the complainer booted from the dinner table. 

Keep in mind that stores like ALDI, Costco and Trader Joe's are excellent for regular staples, too.  I make a trip every 2 weeks to the Caputos in Carol Stream for produce, dried apricots ($1.99/lb!!), roasted almonds ($3.99/lb), house Ricotta, beef tenderloin and their house canned tomatoes.

The first few months may be hard, but I firmly believe that anything can become a habit if done regularly.