Menu Planning and Budgeting

Posted by admin

April 19, 2008 |

Planning out a monthly menu is the very first step to saving lots of $$ every month! Without this step, coupons are useless. You will not save big $$ until you learn to make up a monthly (or weekly) shopping list! Think of all the times you walk into your pantry, looking for something to make for dinner. How many nights a week do you want to make something, but don’t have enough ingredients? How many times do you run to the grocery for only one or two things? And how often do you actually succeed in coming out of the grocery with only those items? The stores count on that! Its a huge hit to our budgets–the constant running to the store. Even worse, how often do you just get tired and give up, instead grabbing fast food? Oh, and one side benefit to a monthly menu–most people lose a pound or two since they eat at home more and tend to eat healthier!

So how do you do it? Its very simple!

Step 1: Sit down and write a list of every single meal you know how to make. Break it down into breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Step 2: Now go back and highlight the family favorites.

Step 3: Pick 5-7 breakfast and lunch items to regularly stock up on. Write down the ingredients for these on a separate shopping list.

Step 4: Now, take a blank month calendar and write in the dinners your family loves. Break them up. Think about days of the week that are always hectic, and a night a week when you’d like some time off from cooking. For example, around the KnowitAll household, Saturdays are Pizza nights. We have take and bake pizzas in the freezer. Sunday nights are COYF–Clean Out Your Fridge night. Meaning–Mommy isn’t cooking. Get some leftovers! I know that Wednesdays are church group, and we have little time for dinner. So its something quick and filling, but won’t give us heartburn if we eat and run. Mondays are family time–so we have a larger dinner. I mix each week so that we have some pasta, some beef, some chicken, some fish. There’s a good sampling each week.

Step 5: Now add in one or two dinners you’ve always wanted to learn how to make! Then, fill in the blank days with other meals that are cheap and easy, but aren’t necessarily family favorites. Don’t forget to add in the Chef’s favorites too!

Step 6: Now, sit at your computer, and begin a Word or Excel document. Make a shopping list of all the ingredients of these meals, including the breakfasts and lunches.

Step 7: Add in a list of the basic items you buy each month–toilet paper, shampoo, dog food, cat food, etc.

Now, before you shop, survey your pantry. Check off the items you need, print, and go shopping! You’ve got a ready-made shopping list, and you know you won’t forget the bread crumbs or cream of mushroom soup! Every night, instead of coming home, opening the fridge and standing there staring at it blankly, wondering what the heck you’re going to have for dinner, you can look at your menu, and pull out all the ingredients! Dinner is at hand!

Comments

4 Comments so far

Commander Mommy on April 20, 2008 9:43 pm
It really is amazing how much time, heartache, and money this saves me when I make the effort to do it. In our home, Fridays are nacho nights (except the first Friday of the month, which is pizza/movie night). Tuesdays are “Mommy gets to experiment night” which the kids and husband have learned to tolerate, though not get excited over. I like the idea of one night that is a definite big family meal though. I’ll try it in May.
Mama Givens on October 1, 2008 12:19 pm
I saw you on the news (CH5) and have wanted to find out more about this incredable savings that you have mastered. Your blogs and quotes are very helpful and I wanted to thank you for that! In these hard times it is becoming harder and harder to live comfortably. Thank you for all the research you do and the time you take to help us. I heard that you have a class that we can take although I can’t seem to find any information on it. If you wouldn’t mind I would love some information on this class. Thank you!!!
Leah on October 20, 2008 11:34 am
This is something my parents did when I was growing up. The menu was a half folded piece of paper, that hung on the fridge. Inside the menu was the list of ingredients for each meal, and the shopping list. Before my siblings and I made a snack or used anything we checked the ingredients to be sure it wasn’t being used in a meal. My parents also broke down the shopping list to match the store’s layout which also matched the order of the coupon box. This saved not only time but money also, because they didn’t have to search for items and get distracted by things we didn’t need.

I have started my menu’s, shopping lists, adn coupons in the same way. With a newborn I can’t get to the store as easily as before. This method helps make shopping quicker and easier for my husband, when he goes after work.
Jen4life on November 2, 2008 12:58 pm
Meal planning has TOTALLY saved my sanity (as well as my budget) while I have gone back to work. Now I am working from home, and I will continue to work this way.

I plan on one BULK COOKING meal a week: something that I can double or triple to toss in the freezer. I label it up, and then have a rotation of homemade meals to add on busy nights, or to take to a friend if they need a meal. In the Fall / Winter I plan on one HOMEMADE SOUP recipe a week (again doubling up to freeze for later), which I serve with corn bread or sandwiches. We love homemade soups … and I keep a “garbage bag” in my kitchen freezer that my son loves. I have a ZIP LOC freezer bag with the word “GARBAGE SOUP” on it. We toss in leftover meats (I separate chicken from beef in separate baggies), leftover veggies, etc, in the Garbage Bag and we make GARBAGE SOUP once a month. He just won a creative writing contest in 2nd Grade for his story about Garbage Soup! What a hoot!!!

I keep my monthly calendar taped to the inside of one of my kitchen cabinets. I refer to it daily, and I leave one night a week for Leftovers.