Menu Planning: Saving Money, Time
(After reading this article on soaring grocery prices, I’m happy to present the following guest post by Robin. As a mom, I know how difficult it can be to balance the budget and keep a good menu going for your family. Here are some ideas to help. ~Maria)
Planning Your Menu Will Save You Money 
When I was first married I had no idea how to cook anything, much less how to plan a menu. We ended up eating out frequently and soon realized we didn’t have the money to continue an unplanned life. That’s when I learned to cook.
Along with my new cooking skill came the need to plan out a menu so I’d be able to get all of the ingredients in one shopping trip. It wasn’t for several more years that I discovered planning for two weeks at a time was even more convenient and economical.
When I plan my menus in advance, I’m less likely to make impulse buys. Also, only going to the store a few times a month meant I could plan to go instead of having to go when I was tired or hungry or both. I always buy more when I go to the store hungry or tired. In addition to being mindful of how I’m feeling when I shop I’ve also picked up a few other tricks.
These are some of my favorite tips to help save money by planning your menu:
• Plan for leftovers – it’s the buy-one-get-one-free of food preparation.
• Always have ingredients ready for a quickie meal in case you don’t have time to cook what you’ve planned.
• Have frozen leftovers for emergency meals – my favorite is lasagna because you can cut it into single servings and it freezes very well.
• Take recipe or index cards and write out a full dinner on one side and the ingredients needed on the other side.
• Plan your menu around the sales for that week
• Use coupons, but only on products you need. I keep an envelope of coupons next to my menu planning station and after I’ve planned it out I go through my coupons for extra savings.
Do you plan out your menu? What tips and tricks have you picked up that help you save money on your grocery bill? I’m always eager to save more money and look forward to hearing from you!
Guest post submitted by Robin.
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I plan well around holiday meals since I know we’ll have extra produce and leftovers. I’ll make sure I have some backup menus that way in the few days following the holiday I can plan meals so food won’t go to waste.
Thanks for this lovely tip and it is really nice to hear that we can save lot of money by planning our menu.
I never thought about planning for two weeks. That seems like a daunting task right now. But I’m sure once you get in the swing of doing just that, it’s much easier.
I never plan daily meals, I have loads of different things which are not too pricey and can be easily stored - cereals (rice, oat-flakes, buckwheat, nuts), spaghetti, vermicelli, potatoes. What I need to buy daily is either fresh vegetables or some meat to have delicious dinner cooked:)