Meal Planning

Last week was my November meal planning week, so I figured what a good topic to be the next blog. Meals are our biggest challenges during our busy seasons.  To make the meals work on our strict budget (we spend less than $520 a month) with our schedules can be extremely challenging.  I plan our meals in 4 week increments.  We have meal planning down to a science.  We spend less than a combined total of 3 hours a month planning for our month (not including shopping time, with shopping time it is around 8 hours a month).  We shop twice a month, and the budget is $260 for each trip.  The first shopping trip is the big trip.  This is where we will buy the bulk of the stuff we need for the month.  We try to keep this trip as strictly food items for the menu we plan out.  The 2^nd shopping trip of the month is for any remaining items we may need or run out of.

Keep in mind that our monthly budget includes, our lunches (we don’t eat out hardly at all), the kid’s lunches, food for the animals, cat litter, toiletries and household items (trash bags, paper goods, laundry detergent, etc.). 

Here is how the time is allotted:

Monday/Tuesday: 15 minutes-Print off the monthly menu and write in the days that encompass the 4 weeks, and include any nights that have events going on. I will put the plan out on the table so the rest of the Clan can add their requests in for any meals they would like.  We include the kids so that way we can ensure they will also eat the majority of the meals and make them feel involved and also to teach them how to do this when they move out. 

Wednesday-Fill in the rest of the plan: 15 minutes (going through cookbooks for different ideas so meals are not repeated throughout the month).  We come up with a different meal every day, meaning the only meals that repeat are the fish meals, but we may do something different with the fish.  We will only eat red meat one to two times a week (we generally try to limit to one time a week).  We eat fish one time a week.  The rest of the week is a chicken dish.  WHY do we do this?  Red meat is NOT good for Jason (or the rest of us) and what we are trying to accomplish with keeping him heart healthy for as long as possible without meds.  So we try to limit red meat intake.  We also limit the amount of carbs we eat weekly.  We will only try to add carbs in no more than twice a week.  Sounds difficult with the restrictions that we have set, right?  Not really, our family has so many meals that they enjoy eating that we can typically get by not repeating meals for at least 2 months! 

Thursday/Friday: Shopping Plan: 1-1.5 hours: By this time the plan should be made and we should have the weekly mailers (you know, the ones with the ads for the stores).  We will inventory the food in the house.  I will go through the menu and mark which meals we have food for (this helps cycle through the food so nothing spoils or expires).  I will then make my shopping lists based on what we need, and who has what for sale.  Sometimes I will comb through coupons online to see if they have anything that is in the meal plan or needed.  But I don’t have the patience for extreme couponing, it stresses me out too bad, so I have stuck the method I have developed for the last 2 years and it works quite well.  

Shopping Time-2 hours (not included in meal planning time)

We have it down to such a science that it literally takes us less than 2 hours to shop every 2 weeks, including drive time. We typically start at Target, where typically I spend $60 bucks or less (with the Red Card and Target Cartwheel deals).  We then hit Costco.  Costco is where the bulk of our food and toiletries come from, and we average anywhere from $100-$140. Next we move to Sprouts, where we buy our veggies (not all veggies can be frozen), and fruit.  Sometimes we will hit Sprouts on Wednesdays for double ad Wednesday’s if the deals are worth it.  And finally we will head to King Soopers or Safeway, depending on the ads or the needs of the list.  

What is our secret to making it work?  We changed two things that help us stay on budget.  We shop only from the list. And to help us stay on track with the list and not add “extra” things is (aside from the Red Card at Target) we pay cash for our groceries. Changing this a few years ago has helped us not overspend at the stores immensely!  We actually switched mostly to an all cash method on most everything, but that is a blog for another time.  Other than that, that is it.  As I mentioned before, how we do it at all……..We have to be very organized and this is one of the pieces to keeping us organized.