Whether you’re watching your weight or your budget – or BOTH! – menu planning is a great way to help reign in the spending. Menu planning is also helpful if you have dietary restrictions in your family because then you can see exactly what you’re eating and make sure that nothing ‘forbidden’ sneaks its way onto your menu.
I love menu planning because it virtually eliminates the “duh, what do I want to eat?” dork-dance that I tend to do in front of the fridge around 4:00PM when I’ve totally forgotten to eat. (Honestly, I never forgot to eat until I became a stay at home mom. How’s that work?!)
When I first began to menu plan, I had absolutely no idea where to start. Should I plan for a week? A month? How much should I spend? Eventually, I got the hang of it. Everyone plans their menu differently but I found that these four simple rules have worked wonders for creating our menu plans.
CHOOSE A SCHEDULE – Every family budgets their money differently. Choose whether or not you want to go to the grocery store every week, every two weeks or every month. Do whatever works best for you.
CHOOSE A GROCERY/PREP DAY – Choose a day and time that you can go to the grocery store with minimal distractions. If you plan on doing some make-ahead cooking, be sure to budget time to prep your ingredients before hand as well!
“SHOP” YOUR FRIDGE, FREEZER AND PANTRY – Start menu planning by looking first at what needs to go. Prioritize what is in your fridge first to go within the next few days and then move onto the freezer and pantry. Use the FIFO rule of inventory – First In, First Out.
For maximum effectiveness, try to use EVERYTHING in your fridge that needs to be used but be a bit more conservative with your freezer and pantry stash. A well stocked freezer and pantry can help stretch the budget in leaner budget weeks.
SIMPLIFY THE MENU – Don’t feel like you have to make something different for every meal, every day. If you take a look at the blog carnival Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie, you’ll find that most menus include only dinner with various choices for breakfast or lunch. Do what works best for you.
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Do you have more tips for menu planning? Feel free to share in the comments!
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