Anyone meal plan?

One of my big New Years Resolutions is to start meal planning. Half the time it's 4:30 pm and I'm trying to figure out what to cook with limited ingredients. Or, I just don't feel like anything that is on hand. We are p!ssing money away at the grocery store. I really think planning ahead, buying what's on sale, is going to be key to helping us in this department.

I just don't know where to start. I procrastinate. It's going to be the death of me, I swear.

I think dh and I should sit down on Sundays and meal plan. Go through fliers, etc and see what's on sale and make a list of what we need, and recipes to match. It just overwhelms me-all that work!

So-anyone want to offer some insight?!?!

 

I do. I do it opposite, though, of what you seem to be thinking.

I have a list of 35 meals organized into 7 day weeks. I copied each of the recipes, put them into page protectors, and put them all into a 3 ring binder. I tried to balance the week's meals so they didn't all contain the same meat, and put things that used the same ingredients (like celery) together. Then I went through the sets of 7 meals and made a master shopping list of everything needed to prepare the whole set of meals for that week. I made multiple copies and put those in the binder too. Now when I need to shop I pull out the list and cross out what I already have, then I shop for whatever's left. I also know what's coming up on the menu and can get what's on sale now for next week.

This has been my salvation since I went back to teaching in the fall. I make a list for the week on our whiteboard. Sometimes a week of meals will stretch 9-10 days depending on our schedule. I do the prep at night and DH will put dinner in the oven the next day.

If this makes no sense, I can email you the file I used so you can see what I did.

 

I meal plan and only go to the grocery once every two weeks. I have an arsenal of recipes that I manage in an app called Paprika. Every two weeks, I sit down and plan out all meals, including nights for takeout and leftovers. I front load meals with fresh meat and veggies and backload stuff for which the meat can be frozen and I can use frozen veggies. I wouldn't freeze a good steak, but chicken breasts are fine to freeze and use week two--or buy frozen. Then I hit Whole Foods and Kroger, post the meal list on the fridge and make sure DH has recipes for when he's cooking and off we go.

As you get more accustomed, you can plan out to cook more of something one night to use the next. Like make a whole chicken and use leftover chicken the next night to make a stir fry or something. So it's not just straight leftovers.

 

What a great idea! I tried finding enough meals for 2 months but kinda failed! I think I could come up with a month worths at least. Would you mind sending the file to me? I am curious how this all works out! I love the idea of having set meals and set lists just cross off what you have. Brilliant! I could spend less time on meal planning.

 

Sure, Lynn. PM me your email address and I'll get it to you.

 

I meal plan, but I'm not the cook at our house, our nanny/housekeeper cooks the main meal of the day. We have a list of things she knows how to make, and I have several large cookbooks which she picks out one new thing to make each week. We plan the week. Now that G and B are 7 they choose one main dish a week, we have a couple of staples that we each most weeks, and the new thing. We try to work around what's in season, but really, there are only a few things here that go out of season. But things do get cheaper or more expensive based on when the main harvest of that thing is. Then I build my shopping list from the week's menu and do the shopping Saturday morning. If the week's new dish turned out good we add it to the list of meals that we choose from when planing the menu. We also have a small magnetic white board on our fridge where the weeks menu is written, the list of meals is just on paper stuck to the side of the fridge with a magnet out of reach of grimmy little hands.

 

We don't have really good sales or coupons around here. There's only 1 chain of groceries and then WalMart or Super Target for your choices. So, really great sales and competition is lacking. I shop at WalMart and make 1 trip per week for everything. I get dairy and some meat at a local fast food chain that raises their own cows for dairy and meat. They have a fast food restaurant side of the store and a small market side of the store and are an anti-biotic free, hormone free producer that's semi-local.

I'm a "need to write it out on paper" kind of person. So, down one side of a sheet of paper, I list out meals. Then on the other side, I make the grocery list divided into sections of the store. I do my meal planning at my desk in the kitchen. I can easily check ingredients and supplies. I also have easy access to my calendar with activities on it. I try to match the meal to the available cooking time. We also love smoking meats and grilling, so I also have the forecast up on the computer while I'm making the list.

I try to have my list made 24 hours ahead of time. Then it sits out on my desk where as I run across those annoying little things that I find out I'm running low on, I just add it to the list. Even the kids know that if it doesn't make mom's list, it isn't getting taken care of.

In the summer we have a farmer's market. I just show up to it and see what's there that week. Since I can't plan that, I don't try. I get what I can and then go home and plan the rest of the food. Sometimes we have just veggies there. Sometimes we have the organic, grain fed beef for sale there. You never quite know what's going to show up.

Marissa

 

I have a very simple system.

I make a 2 week menu. We are allowed 1 day a week to eat out. That's going to be swim lesson night. So those nights are easy to fill in.

The rest of the days, i fill in what I would like to eat and then make out a list of things I don't already have in the freeze/fridge/pantry along with generic staples. When I make my list, I make it in order of store layout so I can mentally go through the store and write down anything extra I think I might like.

As for recipes, I have them all in cookbooks in the kitchen or in my head so a lot of the time, I am just making things from memory. Also, we have wi-fi so I look up recipes right before I cook and often make that. I will write down things like "Chicken enchiladas" so I know to buy tortillas and sauce for those.

I also don't shop sales because I don't have time to go to more than 1 grocery store. I find that not buying things that would sit in our pantry has cut down our bill, a lot. I also do smart source and go direct to the manufacturer for coupons.

 

DH and I do our big grocery shopping every two weeks. We go through the pantry and fridge to see what we need and then go through the grocery circulars to see which one has the best meat sale (DH is a meat guy and he's not going to change from that) and that's where we go. We plan out meals for two weeks and fill up on side dishes and veggies. We try to get enough meat that each cut is enough for two meals, so we are not cooking every day. If we are making a time consuming meal (i.e. DH is making his homemade spaghetti sauce) then we will make it over the weekend when there is more time and freeze it.
I'm a big list person for groceries and I do my best to stick to my list and use as many coupons as I can. We do have to get bread, milk, fresh fruits and veggies weekly but other things we get every two weeks.

 

I menu plan and do it based on sales. I have a list of meal options that I know my family likes and mostly use those (we are picky eaters), but will occasionally try something new. My list of options is divided up into chicken, beef, pork, international, breakfast (we like breakfast for dinner), and other. This way, I won't have a bunch of chicken meals in a row or somethings.

I look at Kroger's sales online once a week. I see what sale items we could use for our options and then plan the menu based on that and what I already have on hand. I also stock up on sale items so that I will have them on hand later. So, some meals will be made completely from what we have on hand.

I have a separate menu calendar on my gmail calendar where I plan our meals for the week. This way, I can also see what I have planned on my phone when I'm not at home. This also lets me see what we had last week and the week before so we don't have things too often.

I use the grocerysmart.net app for my grocery list. I like that I can enter things on my phone or online (which is easier for me). I have a master grocery list that I go through that uncheck (they should all be checked off from my last grocery trip) things that we need. Then, I use my phone when I'm at the store.

Something I am going to try to do this year is make a price book. Basically a list of the items we regularly buy, their regular price at Kroger, Walmart, and Aldi (the stores I go to most often), and their sale prices. Then, I can easily see where the best place to buy them is and what price I am willing to pay. Unfortunately, I just don't have time for super couponing. I use some, but don't have time to use a ton and group them with sales. I've tried, but between housework, teaching my kids in school, and work, there just isn't enough time for the planning it takes.

 

Thank you for asking this Meg. I've been doing this in my head and really need to get better organized. We have a small farm and have all of our meat, most fruits and some veggies, yet we are spending a horrendous amount at the grocery store each week!

Jen, would you mind emailing me your system? [email protected]

 

I just sent it. Enjoy!

 

I was a member of Emealz for awhile but alot of their recipes did not appeal to me so I have stopped that. I need to get back in the swing of meal planning though.

 

Jen, thanks so much, I truly love your system!

 

Jen, would you mind emailing me your system? [email protected].

I really need to start mealing planning this year, it would make things much simplier instead of comming home from work and trying to decide what's for dinner that night.

 

Jen I would take it too [email protected]

 

Can I get a copy of it too? [email protected]

 

This sounds great! I wish I could do it. I do meal plan, but my schedule varies so much that I can't plan more than one or two weeks ahead. DH is in retail, so he could open, he could close, or he could do a mid-shift. And, I work part-time some evenings, but not always the same nights every week. Just another way our crazy schedule makes things hard to plan! :laughing:

 

This is pretty much exactly how we are. DH is a retail manager, and the only day of the week that we know never changes is Monday. He always works noon-close (usually 9:30p or so). Every other day of the week is up in the air from week to week and his days off change every week as well. It makes it so hard to meal plan! I also work "part-time" (lately my hours are much more and I hate it!) and can get off as late as 6:30p. It does make meal planning so hard for us. We had a great system while I wasn't working, but now it's just gone to pot.

I hate the last minute scramble that I feel sometimes!

We both use Google on our phones a lot, so I might try using the Google calendar too. That might really help us out.

Jen, I'd love to see the file you've made. Sounds really interesting. My email is [email protected].

Thanks for all the tips. I'm glad this thread was started!

 

I do meal plan, still. I just have to do it week by week instead of planning any further out. When I work, I work from 3:00-11:30, so I'm not home to cook or eat. So, I have to plan a crockpot meal or something DH can just stick in the oven. We rarely eat dinner as a family.

 

I sent the file to all those who left their email address. You'll see 2 emails from me, one with the attachment and one without. I do that more than I care to admit!

If you have any questions, let me know!

 

Thanks Jen! I often forget attachments too! LOL

 

Can you email me as well? [email protected]