I thought I might share with you how I do my menu planning. I'm no expert, but just in case someone needed help getting started I decided to share my system. I go grocery shopping twice a month, therefore I need to have two weeks worth of meals planned before going to the store. Here's what the planning process looks like for me:
1. Gather supplies - Blank paper and pen for grocery list, family recipes, and monthly menu plan sheet.
4. Look through pantry - When my meal plan is complete I go through my pantry to see what staples, snacks, breakfast items, cleanings supplies, etc I need to add to my list. It's also useful to keep a blank pad in the kitchen so you can add supplies as you run out of them throughout the weeks.
5. Go shopping! At this point your menu plan and grocery list should be complete so it's time to start shopping! We budget $130 for two weeks worth of groceries and toiletries. Also I always use cash because it's easier for me to stay on budget that way.
This is the system that I've found to work best for me right now. I hope you can find what works best for you and your family! Happy menu planning!
Do you find it easy to stay with in your budget? We have a similar budget also for 2 weeks and I struggle. I also have 2 children though, so maybe that's why. I recently started couponing to help us out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! I am getting ready to make a menu plan for the second half of July - for once my new husband and I will be home from our honeymoon. And it's very reassuring to me that our budget is VERY similar to yours - it's hard to know if it's realistic! :) I'm sure it will take some practice to get things figured out, but I'm really excited.
ReplyDeleteHerein - I'm sure having two little ones would make it much more challenging, but for the most part I stay pretty comfortably within our budget. I find that when I shop at Aldi instead of Wal-mart I save anywhere from $40-$80 per trip. If you have one in your area it's worth checking out! Also I don't buy that much meat which saves a lot.
ReplyDeleteOlivia - How exciting! I think we started out at $150 per two weeks, but it was just too much. I had excess every time. I still have excess but not every trip. As long as you plan your meals and skip a lot of the extra stuff you should be fine.
I would say, too, that a good tip is to use your grocery list paper and pen as you're shopping to keep a running tally of how much your cart currently costs. As I've learned over the years, cash is great, but knowing, to the half dollar at least, what I've got in my cart really helps me strategize on what I can splurge on and what I absolutely have to make work.
ReplyDeleteGreat tip! I usually try to keep up with the tally in my head which is much more challenging when my husband comes along and chatters the whole time! ha I usually know the ball park of where I'm at that way though.
ReplyDeleteOh how I wish I could set a budget like this! We live on an island in the north-west corner of Scotland and our grocery is so expensive. $130 is around £80, and for the life of me, I cannot buy ONE week's shop for that. I feed seven most nights (6 of ourselves, and my brother in law most days). Growing our own veg has been our biggest money saver by far. At this time of year, we have all the work. We pray that in the Autumn (Fall!) we'll be savouring the 'fruit of our labours!)
ReplyDeleteLoving your site :)
Hi... stopping here from Courtney's blog... and if you allow me to put my two cents in - menu planning is the big money saver. You work around things you have and you don't buy food that you will never use. Good post. I'll look around a bit more today ;)
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