Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten a few comments on my meal plan posts. These comments ranged from this is a great idea, your meal plan looks great ~ and ~ I have no idea how to get started!
Gotcha.
It can be a little intimidating if you’ve never done meal planning before. I’ve always kind of planned out meals so I would know what to shop for ~ however, I haven’t always tried to save money with this endeavor.
6 Steps to Get Started Meal Planning and Saving Money on Your Groceries
1. Look at your store circular. I get mine online since we live so far out of town… but it’s the same.
2. Find meat that’s on sale that week. Build your plan around the sale.
3. Check for sides and veggies and other things you need to be on sale.
4. Create your menu. I write our meal plan on the right hand side of a piece of notebook paper.
5. Write out your shopping list. I write our shopping list on the left hand side of the same paper. That way if I feel like I’m forgetting something I can look at the meals and see what I might have forgotten or what an ingredients corresponds to.
6. Write down meals your family loves, so you can easily remember them when creating your future meal plans. I have a “month of meals” worksheet I use. (Click the link to grab it for yourself) That way I have 30 of our family’s favorite meals right in front of me to choose from when I’m creating the plan. I do add a couple new meals/food each week to keep the variety.
Some other meal planning tips:
1. Choose a specific day you’re going to do the shopping. It is easier if you know what day you have to do this and get it done.
2. Leave the kids (and husband) at home if you can. Consider it your “break” and you’ll leave the store with a lot less food ~ if you’re family is anything like mine. 🙂
3. Create a map of your store ~ know what things are in what aisles. Go ahead and make your list according to aisle. You won’t find yourself running back and forth across the store when you are in the bread aisle and realize you forgot something in the produce. It might seem like a bit of a pain, but you will be astounded how much easier shopping is. 🙂
If this whole idea completely freaks you out, but you’d like to try meal planning ~ let someone else do it for you. There are a few services that will do everything for you, from plan the meals to create the shopping list. Here’s a couple:
The Fresh 20 (menu based around 20 “real” foods)
I hope that helps…
Here’s MY weekly meal plan for this week.
Monday (July 4th)
Picnic and fireworks at the park
Tuesday
Skillet Chicken and BroccoliÂ
with rice
Wed:
Spaghetti
Salad and bread
Thursday:
Grilled Chicken
corn on the cob and green beans
Friday:
Crockpot Pork Roast
Noodle side dish
mixed veggies
Saturday:
Grilled pork chops
mashed potatoes
green beans
There you have it. If you need help gathering some more recipes to fill in  your meal plan we’re linked up at OrgJunkie.com with hundreds of other meal planning moms. 🙂
