I saved at least $200 this month by improving my meal planning. It’s true, maybe even more! And it didn’t take a lot of extra effort. I was simply more organized in planning our meals, shopped on the right days, reviewed the food I still had at the end of the week before buying more, and shopped only once a week.
Planning healthy meals has never been my issue, and we eat really well, but I’m trying to get better at the time and money part. I’m trying to simply shop less, buy less, waste less. It’s like the minimalist movement for the kitchen 🙂
Despite the fact that I eat a lot of leftovers, I was still wasting a lot of food. Because I have such a passion for food and trying new recipes, I have been making multiple trips to the store each week and buying way too much (hence wasting way too much.) But I am trying to be a more efficient and cost-effective shopper, so I’ll share with you what I’m learning, because I drastically reduced my food bill this month and am feeling much more organized! Enter the much more organized and disciplined meal plan!
Meal planning is intimidating to a lot of people and it takes time. There’s no getting around it. But your health (and budget!) is worth sitting down for a ½ hour each week to plan out some healthy meals and you’ll save yourself a huge amount of stress, time and money by not winging it every week. I know this from plenty of experience. (I’ve been cooking A LONG time…) Once you get more into meal planning, you may even find you enjoy the process! Even if you don’t love to cook, I know you love to eat! So feast your eyes, whether it’s on Pinterest or browsing through cookbooks or magazines and just start to jot down some ideas.
Here are the steps I use to meal plan. Many of them I have used for years, others (like planning around sales and actually using what I already have in the fridge/freezer) I have just recently implemented in a more intentional way. One thing I have always known is that meal planning is essential to eating healthy at home. I am coming to find this is true for saving big money as well. Bonus! You will come up with your own system that works for you, but here are some things to think about.
The absolute first thing you should do to improve your meal planning and save your sanity is:
CREATE A MASTER LIST OF FAVORITE MEALS
No more wracking your brain every time it’s time to make dinner or plan a trip to the grocery, if you have this list! This is a go to list of meals that you and your family love. Start with a list of meals you currently make. As you begin meal planning, you’ll inevitably try new things. Every time you make a meal that you enjoy that you would realistically make again, add it to the list and make note of where the recipe is (online, cookbook, magazine, etc.) This is your go-to list when you don’t feel like poring over books or websites for recipe ideas and will save you endless amounts of time down the road. My list is just on my iPad notes, but you can write it down, or whatever works for you.
RESEARCH RECIPES AND BOOKMARK ONES THAT INTEREST YOU
You’ll need to spend some time looking for recipes you and your family will enjoy. As your master list grows, you’ll spend less time on this step. Use books, magazines, Pinterest, whatever. I do a lot of research online so I use Evernote (a web clipping app) to save recipes, but create whatever system works best for you. I have several recipe folders in Evernote and whenever I find a recipe on a food blog that I want to make I just save it to one of the folders. You may prefer Pinterest boards, or good old fashioned notebooks, but make sure you have some place to save your ideas. Remember to delete any recipes you make and don’t love from these files so you keep your list manageable and don’t repeat a recipe you don’t love. Recipes from cookbooks and magazines take a lot more work to organize, but you can keep some kind of a notebook if you’re organized. I also use sites like allrecipes.com, create an account and save favorites, even if they’re just ideas.
REVIEW YOUR WEEKLY CALENDAR
It sounds obvious, but don’t plan 7 “sit down” dinners, if you’re only “sitting down” for 4. When making a meal plan for the week, make sure you have the family calendar on hand. We have ours on Google, which makes it easy for me to see what everyone’s up to. I write out the days of the week first and what is going on that night, so I know what kind of meal to make. If we’re not sitting down to a meal together I keep it very simple, like quesadillas or something that can be made individually when they will be eaten. I prep all the ingredients and they can be made as needed. If we’re sitting down for dinner, but still have commitments, I also keep it simple, but will usually just make an easy “go to” meal. On nights that we don’t have obligations and I have plenty of time I will usually try a new recipe or two and make a really nice meal. I usually plan out 4-5 meals and leave 2 nights open for leftovers, a “no-brainer” meal (see below) or a night out.
NO BRAINER MEALS
Include a couple of “no-brainer” meals on your meal plan, if needed. These are meals you know how to make, without a recipe, with minimal effort. Make these meals when you get stuck or on nights when you need something quick and easy. Some of my no-brainer meals are quesadillas, tacos, grilled chicken salad, burrito bowls, stir fry, veggie omelets, spaghetti and homemade pizza. I almost always keep what I need on hand for at least a couple of these meals for nights when I need them.
SLOW COOKER MEALS
Include a slow cooker meal (or 2) for busy evenings. Slow cooker meals are simply the best. However, the worst is forgetting to make the slow cooker meal earlier in the day!! I happen to do this all the time, which leads me to make a no-brainer meal instead. (Another reason to always have stuff for no-brainer meals on hand!)
MAKE YOUR GROCERY LIST
After you’ve got the menu for the week set, make a grocery list of all ingredients needed and how much is needed of each. Check your fridge and pantry to see what you’ve already got. Add other items you need like breakfast foods (smoothie ingredients, eggs, oats, etc) and lunch staples (plan lunches out too, or try doing leftovers for lunches) and get shopping. Hopefully you only have to make one run to the store this week!
SAVE YOUR MEAL PLAN
Save the plan and re-use it in a few weeks. There is no need to recreate new meal plans each week. Rotate them around every few weeks until you’re motivated to create new ones. You can also create several weekly meal plans per season and just rotate throughout the season and create new ones when the arrival of a new season.
*Don’t forget! As you cook through your plan, add favorite recipes to your master list!
Now on to how I saved so much money this month (at least $200!)
PLAN ACCORDING TO SALES
Make notes of what’s on sale at your favorite stores that week and choose recipes using those ingredients. Stock up! If organic chicken or grass fed beef is on sale, you know I’m stocking up and freezing! Here in Indy we have this great store called Fresh Thyme with double sales on Thursdays. I ONLY shopped on Thursdays this month and it made a HUGE difference!
MAKE A COSTCO RUN ONCE A MONTH
I buy a lot of ingredients like quinoa, chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax, raw honey, coconut oil, etc, that I can buy in bulk. Costco has these foods at a fraction of the grocery store cost and they are usually organic too.
BUY FROM BULK BINS
Nuts/Seeds/ Grains/Dried Fruit are all available in bulk in most stores. You can buy exactly what you need so you won’t waste it.
PLAN AROUND FOOD YOU ALREADY HAVE ON HAND
I’ve been much better about checking my fridge and freezer for anything I didn’t use during the week and planning a meal around what’s already there instead of letting it go bad under a new load of fresh food. For example, if I have a lot of extra random veggies, I will plan to have a stir fry or something the next night to use them up rather than letting them rot in the fridge. (One meal planned already!)
OVERLAP INGREDIENTS
Choose recipes that use some of the same ingredients to minimize waste and keep shopping to a minimum. This drastically slashed my ingredient list and saved a lot of money.
MAKE DOUBLE RECIPES
Make twice what you need and use it for another meal that week, either using it for lunches, another dinner or to freeze for later! This is a great way to save money by using up ingredients that you’ve purchased that week, plus, cook once, eat 2-3 times, is my mantra and this is the best way to do it!
I hope this is helpful! Do you have any meal planning tips I missed? I would love to hear them! Leave me a comment below!
XO,
Heather
