Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Menu Planning


Menu Planning is a HUGE way to save money AND time.  Sure those trips for convenience/fast food may seem inexpensive at the time, but it really adds up.  So does running to the grocery store every time you discover you are missing an ingredient.  Think of all the time you could save if you didn't have to run to the grocery store 3x a week!

By planning your meals in advance you save money three ways: (1) by the ability to make meals mostly out of sale items, (2) using ingredients you have (such as breadcrumbs and basil), and (3) being prepared with dinner so you aren't buying fast/convenience food.

Meals can be planned by the month or week and with much detail or little.  Some families might just plan dinner and assume they will just eat what they have in the house for breakfast and lunch.  Other families may prefer to plan breakfast and lunch very specifically.

Above is an example of a detailed blank menu plan. Many times I just plan out dinner and we just eat cereal and fruit for breakfast, and leftovers for lunch.  For a free printable whole month calendar I use http://www.printablecalendar.ca/.  When I want to save paper Google has a great free calendar app at calendar.google.com.

Even if you are skeptical, try it out for one week and see the time and money savings add up!

2 comments:

  1. We plan our meals a week at a time. I have each kid pick a day of the week and a meal. I use a weekly dry erase board mounted on the fridge so that everyone who wants to know what is for dinner only has to look. I also have color markers for each kid so they know which day is theirs.

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  2. Wow Glad, that's so creative! What a great idea!

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