Simple Meal Planning on a Budget

If there’s one thing that has taken a little stress out of my life, it’s meal planning.  Plain and simple meal planning take the age old question of “What’s for dinner” and it lays it to rest…so to speak.  Our lives are so busy and many families have been asking that same question, over and over, for years!  I used to get so sick of the kids asking me that and sometimes not having an answer for them.  Usually, when I didn’t have the answer, that meant I had NO idea and we went out for fast food.  Then the guilt would set in.  I shouldn’t have spent the money, let alone fed the kids greasy hamburger or chicken nuggets.  Of course they loved it!

Why Meal Plan?

As I got a little older and much smarter, I figured out that I could save a ton of money, eat much healthier, stop wasting so much food and de-stress my week significantly, if I would just take the time to figure out what my up coming week was going to look like and make a plan for it.

So, now I don’t have quite as many mouths to feed, but I’m just as busy as I was years earlier and meal planning has become even more of a necessity in our house.  It’s a task that I’ve gotten use to doing and I actually enjoy it.  It’s so nice not to have to worry about what we’re having for dinner at 4:00 in the afternoon.

Meal planning also allows you to make healthier choices.  Think about how ravenous you are when you get home from work or school and you don’t have anything planned out.  You start reaching for literally anything that you can find!  Potato chips, candy, cookies, fast food…you name it!  Hello, unnecessary calories…goodbye, waistline and money!

I’m going to share the steps that I take for meal planning and hopefully show you how to take the stress of “what’s for dinner” away, save you some money and help you eat healthier, too!

Assess Your Situation

The first step in meal planning is to always check your calendar for the upcoming week(s).  Think ahead and look at how many meals you’re going to need to make.  If you’re not going to be home one night, you obviously won’t have any time to spend in the kitchen, that night.  That may be a crockpot meal, that night.  You always need to keep in mind what you’ll have time for.

Here’s my 10 Cheap and Easy Slow Cooker Meals post to help you some ideas!

Another thing that I try to keep in mind is the weather.  If you are planning on grilling outside, you want to make sure that a torrential downpour isn’t imminent.

Most importantly, assess your budget.  Set your grocery amount and plan accordingly.

Ask Family for ideas

You may or may not need to do this one.  I always ask, but I usually get the “I don’t know” response.  I only ask when I feel like I’ve run out of ideas, but very seldom do they give me any new suggestions.  Luckily, they’re not too picky.  However, if you do have picky eaters, it is definitely a good idea to get some input.

One thing that I’ve done to help with this task is to write down 20-30 of your favorite meal ideas.  It’s like making a master list, so you have plenty to choose from. As you try new recipes, be sure to add them to the list as well.  Once you get to 30, you have a month’s worth of meals that you can rotate from week to week.  This makes meal planning a breeze!

Take Inventory

This one little step will save you a ton of money.  Take inventory of your pantry, refrigerator and freezer.  There’s nothing I hate worse than going to the grocery store, spending a ton of money only to get home and find that I bought duplicates.  Stockpiling is good, but when you have a tight budget, sometimes it can be just wasteful.

See what meat you have in your freezer and plan your meals around that, first.  Then, check the fridge for veggies, etc.  By doing this, you may find that you have enough ingredients on hand for either a complete meal or almost a complete one.

Check Out the Sales

The sales ad starts on Wednesday, for our local grocery store.  As soon as I get it, I go through it and look at what’s on sale and circle what I intend to buy.  If they’re having a really good sale on ground chuck, I stock up, etc.  Then, I can plan accordingly.

Certain fruits and vegetables are seasonal.  Think about what’s on sale during certain times a year and plan around that.  For example, apples are more reasonable in the Fall as are pumpkins.  Watermelons are abundant and reasonably priced in the Summer.  Corn usually goes on sale in the Summer, as well, sometimes 6 ears for $1.00.  You can shuck it and freeze it!  You get the idea, here.

Plan the Meals

My husband gets paid every other week, so I try to plan my menu for two weeks.  I write down each meal and include my sides and veggies.  Try to account for leftovers.  Once I have finished menu planning,  I start my grocery list off of the menu plan…meaning, decide what you want or need to go with each meal.  Plan for the full meal, including sides and anything ingredients you need to make the meal.

This is a good time to go through your cookbooks or get on Pinterest and do some recipe searches.  I look for simple meals, with not too many ingredients.  Usually, the more ingredients, the more expensive.  I also “try” to find the healthiest meals and combine the two.

My rule of thumb, when meal planning, is a meat (protein), 1-2 veggies and sometimes a starch.  When it’s just hubby and I, we try to forego the starch.  This basic formula should be the foundation for your dinnertime meals.

For breakfast and lunches, we tend to keep it very simple.  I usually do cereal and my husband does cereal/oatmeal, yogurt and sometimes fruit…ie. banana.  Lunch may be leftovers or a sandwich.  I keep it basic and use most of my meal planning skills for the evening meal.

Write Your Meals Down and Make Your Grocery List

Once I decide on what we’re having, then it’s time to decide when we’re having it.  I make a tentative list on a piece of paper or on my magnetic wipe off board, with each day listed and the meal.  This helps me to get my week organized and helps me to make my grocery list.

Depending on what your pay period is, you’ll need to decide your frequency for grocery shopping.  We get paid every two weeks.  I do my budget, my meals and my shopping accordingly.  Occasionally, I’ll run out of something and have to make a non scheduled trip, but I take only enough cash in with me to cover what I need.  The key is to stay out of the store as much as possible.

Go Shopping

Once you’ve made your list, pick your shopping day and head out with your detailed list.  I use a store app for my list making and I stick to it like glue.  What’s great about the app is that it puts the items on the list in order by aisle.  This saves me so much time!  But if you prefer to use the pen and paper method, that’s great too!  Just try to stick to your list, if possible, if you want to save yourself some money.

*Update*

Since I first published this post, we have started doing grocery pick at our local grocery store.  This has made life so much more simple.  I prefer this method because I can see how much I am spending as I’m adding items to the cart.  It works great for keeping you within your grocery budget and the grocery shoppers have done an excellent job, up to this point, with filling my grocery orders.

Walmart is doing grocery pick up, as well and if you’d like to get $10 off your first pick up order, you can use my referral code, here!

Food Prep

Once you get home with your groceries, this is the time to set your meats, vegetable and fruits aside, to divide up.  If you’ve bought the family pack of pork chops or hamburger/chuck, get your gallon freezer bags out and divide the meat up into portions suitable for each meal.

For example, a family pack of pork chops may come with 8 to 10 pork chops.  I don’t need to cook that many for me and my husband.  Not even for leftovers.  I will split the package in half.  That still gives me 4-5 pork chops for a meal and since there’s only two of us, that’s enough for leftovers, as well.

I bought 8 ears of corn the other day because they had them on sale for 4/$1.00.  I shucked 4 and put them in a freezer bag and froze them for later.

BONUS TIP:  If you buy the family pack of hamburger meat, divide it up into the freezer bags and flatten each one out.  Freeze them laying flat in the freezer and then you’ll be able to either stand them up (like books) or keep them laying flat.  They take up a lot less room, this way and it makes for faster thawing.

Make a Meal Journal

A meal journal is a list of 20-30 of your favorite meals.  Many of us are creatures of habit.  We tend to eat the same things over and over.  Sometimes, it’s because we lack imagination.  Sometimes, it’s mainly out of convenience.  What ever the reason, if you start making a list of different meals, as you try new ones or  you rotate  tried and true ones, it will help you to widen your choices and make meal planning easier.

If you can’t think of 20 – 30 right off the bat, that’s ok.  Just write down each time you try something that you wouldn’t mind having again.  20 – 30 will give you almost a months worth of choices.  That way, you won’t have the same meal week after week.

The Results of Meal Planning

What meal planning does is it takes away stress of trying to figure out what’s for dinner every night.  It saves a ton of money and mostly saves me a lot of time.  It usually takes me about an hour, once every two weeks, planning the meals, making my list and going through any coupons that I may have.  I don’t spend a lot of time with paper coupons, anymore as I mostly use the in store coupons or digital coupons that are available with the store app.  I find that easier than clipping coupons and carrying a bunch with me to the store.

Another tip I have is to keep a magnetic writing pad on my refrigerator for when I run out of anything.  I write it down immediately.  Otherwise, I’ll most probably forget.  If you can train your family to do this too, it will save you (and them) a lot of grief when you go shopping.  There’s nothing more frustrating than going to the grocery store, then getting home and realizing that you forgot something.

Peace of mind

Finally, I’ll post the meal plan on the fridge and will just pick a meal off of it for the next day.  That’s it!! Peace of mind!  Meal planning is like anything else.  The more you do it, the better you will get at it.

If you need help with recipe ideas, be sure and check out some of my favorite recipes, like 10 Cheap and Easy Slow Cooker Meals or Easy Orange Chicken.

Do you meal plan?  What have you done to make life a little easier in that department?  I’d love to hear from you?

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