5 Steps to Easy Meal Planning

    Meal planning is a great way to save some money, feed the family, and stay organized in the house. I have worked hard on mastering this skill and overtime I have gotten a lot better at it. It doesn't have to be as complicated as I make it. It can honestly be as simple as writing down ideas for food. Or writing out 6 meals and going to get them from the store. 

    The way I meal plan has cut my grocery spending tremendously. I have gone from spending about $150 per grocery trip (2 weeks) to spending between $60-90. This includes a ton of fresh produce and fresh cuts of meat. I don't buy a lot of frozen/canned fruits and vegetables and I hardly every buy frozen meat (except chicken nuggets, which will always be my fav!)

     I have done a couple posts about this already but I wanted to let everyone know how I actually do it in 5 super easy steps. It takes a little printing for me, but you could easily do everything from your computer screen as well.

I personally have a notebook dedicated to meal planning. I make the meal plans in it. I keep lists of meals that I want to try. This also helps me look back and see the meals that we had last week and the meals that I have groceries for in the house.

1. Figure out how many days you are cooking for. 

    If you know you are going to be out of town or going out with friends. You don't need food for those days.  Normally I write down the day of the week on notebook paper. Then fill in the calendar with things that are going on that week. I always write in two leftover nights and a night out to begin with.

2. Have your list of meals and meals to try

 I really mean have a list of every single meal that you have made, or make more than once. This list should be extremely detailed. While this does take some time, you only have to do this step once. My Meal Ideas list is what I sit down with to figure out convenience meals and favorites. 

I also keep a list in my notebook of meals that I want to try. I sit down with these two lists.

3. PriceMatcherz

   I personally LOVE these people and the work that they do. This website makes me SO happy! They do all the work of pricematching and couponing for you (if you live in one of the states that they do)

    There are many other sites like this that may include more areas, but this is the one that I use. I check out the Omaha sales and print it off so I have yet another list in front of me. I sit down with a highlighter and the PriceMatcherz and highlight the best deals in there. Things that I could make meals out of. 

4. Putting Meals Together

   With the Meal Ideas List, the List of Meals I want to try, and the PriceMatcherz list all in front of me, I look at the highlighted items on the list and put together meals from my first two lists with the sales. as I figure out a meal I write it down on the next day of my original list available. 

   I write out the meal by a date with a side. I don't spend too much time actually looking at what is going on that day unless we aren't going to be home to eat. Typically I just make a list of meals, then plan what I am actually making the night before. I don't fret about what night is perfect to have what meal, mostly because life happens.
     If I plan for chicken breasts or burgers, the next night I usually try to use the leftover chicken or burger in pasta or something. I do this a lot with taco meat into a hamburger helper.
  I only plan for suppers in our house because we normally have leftovers or sandwiches for lunch. The boyfriend isn't too excited about eating breakfast so he usually grabs a poptart out of the pantry on the way to work. I usually make myself eggs or eat poptarts as well. 

5. Grocery List
  After I have all of the meals planned out, I write a VERY detailed list of EVERYTHING that these recipes call for. Down to the spices.
  After I have the list, I do a walk through of my pantry and do a check in the fridge and freezer. I cross off any items from the list that I already have. This eliminates thinking you had something and realizing that you used it a few weeks ago.
   All of this is done. You have the list of all the things you need from the store as well as the sales for the week in front of you. For simplicity, I put it into an excel sheet. I list all of the items that I am buying in one column, the sales price, store, and sizes of sale in the others. This way I can see what I have pricematches for. Then it is time to go to the store!

To keep everything organized at the store, I bring a highlighter with me and highlight the things that I am actually pricematching after I get them. Sometimes Wal-mart really does have lower prices. I have found that this helps tremendously.

Meal planning has actually become fun for me because I really like to see how low I can get our grocery bill for two weeks. (almost a competition with myself!) I hope this helped you out or inspired you to start planning out meals.

Like I said, meal planning doesn't have to be this complicated either. You can cut out the entire pricematching step if you don't have time for that. Planning out everything for even a week is going to save you time and money in the long run. Good Luck!

Wanna read the benefits to meal planning? Check this out!

How do you meal plan? What works for you?

Thanks for another great Money Saving Monday!