Saving $$ on Groceries: Meal Planning

Meal planning is my obsession right now.  We have a love-hate relationship, meal planning and I.  I love to eat, but never want whatever I have around to fix for supper.

For example, I always have spaghetti, but never want it; that is, until we have no pasta sauce on the shelf.  (Just as an example, because my husband might tell you that I dream of anything in pasta sauce :) So I am learning to be a good little soldier and fix whatever is on the menu whether I'm feeling it or not.

I spoke in my recent posts of trying to cut costs in our groceries line item of the budget.

Really, previously, we didn't budget for groceries.  I just bought what I thought we needed, and then we budgeted around that.  We always ended up spending way too much on food because we weren't paying attention.  Now that we are paying attention, I cut our weekly shopping trip in half.

Just by making a plan, sticking to it, and not buying things that I can make at home (poptarts, granola bars, waffles), I cut it in HALF.  (admittedly, this weekend our snackies for the Super Bowl threw us off a bit, but all in all, we still saved money)  Our shopping list can be viewed here.

So my recent grocery shopping trip included a meal plan.  I am not planning meals for specific days because our days can change at the drop of a hat. But at least I know I have meals that I can make.

Like Thursday, when we were going to have spaghetti, but I failed to plan ahead and see that the sauce would take an hour to make (probably should make that ahead of time!) and started dinner at 6 pm.

Yeah, we had frozen pizza that night.

And then Saturday, when were yet again going to have spaghetti, but some friends called and we ended up getting pizza and playing games all evening.

It was a great pizza and friend filled weekend. 

And I'm okay with that, because I know that we will eat healthier this week, and I still have spaghetti to make (guess what's for supper?!).

And I love our friends.

OR, like Friday, when I had no clue what I was going to cook, and then realized at noon that I had committed to take dinner to a family with a new baby (when I finally checked my calendar :);  I hadn't planned for that because I am just getting started with this planning process again, but PRAISE GOD, I had a meal planned that would have been 5 meals for us and I was able to split it up and bless another family.

So lesson for the week?  

Meal planning....

1. SAVES $$
2. Blesses your family and others
3. Ensures you will have something to feed your family
4. Helps one be flexible (but not too flexible!)

Next up:  Recipes!