Why is meal planning the best way to save money?
As a stay at home mom and housewife I am always trying to find ways to save my family money. I have been using a meal plan since 2012. I have learned a lot throughout the years, with the rising costs of groceries I have adjusted my plan to fit our family and our budget. With a family of 3 and for our particular budget we have a $155 to spend every week (in 2024). I take our total monthly amount and divide it by 4 to know what I can spend each week. That amount must cover our meals, my daughter does online school so is home for lunches and breakfasts, snacks and drinks. Having a meal plan absolutely helps me stay within our budget.
It can be hard to go the grocery store these days, it can be overwhelming trying to make sure you have enough food for your family, feeling like you may need to take out a loan to buy groceries. I feel fortunate that we have $155 to spend every week, it can still be a challenge to stay within budget but I make it work every time. I am going to show you today how I do it and how it works every week.
Make a list of meals.
This is a job you will only need to do once. Grab yourself a notebook or some paper. Write it down or if you prefer type out a list of meals that you like to make. Meals that your family enjoys. At this point I want you to write them all down. From the easy budget friendly meals to your more fancy dinners. Get them all on paper. My particular list consists of 2 pages with 2 columns. It is meals I have been making for the last 12 years. I have updated this list continuously adding and removing. There are some meals that we all used to love that we just don’t enjoy like we used to. I have removed those and added some yummy new meals that we have experimented with and loved. It is ever changing with our tried and trues sticking in there.
Make a list of 7 meals.
I personally go to the grocery store every Thursday. What I like to do is to sit down on Wednesday afternoon, look at my list of meals and pick 7. I write them all down on a piece of paper, I always have my calendar handy also. This way I can also pick meals according to the time of year or any certain occasions that may fall that particular week. This will end up being my menu for the week. I like to put it on the fridge and use this menu to choose my dinner for that particular night and mark them off as I prepare them. I look at it the night before that way if I need to set out something that is frozen it gives it plenty of time to thaw. You’re going to want to also write down some ideas for breakfast’s, lunches, etc… Especially if your little ones are home with you. Plan accordingly and remember that this doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Easy, affordable options are cereal, bagels, toast, pb & j, crackers. There are so many options. My family enjoys the refrigerated bagels in the morning. Not only are they a cheaper option, being refrigerated they last longer. For cereal I buy the Walmart Great Value brand. It saves me money and in our opinion they are just as good as the name brand option. Same for snacks, I always choose Great Value. I like to have some sort of cookie in the pantry along with 2 types of salty snacks. My husband works outside, having some sort of drink with electrolytes is a must. I always make sure I am stocked up on the musts. This may sound like a lot but I save so much this way. It keeps me on track without spending more than I have budgeted.
Let’s make a grocery list.
Now we are going to use your menu for the week and make a grocery list. I like to have a notebook for all this. My main meal list is typed out on a paper and I keep it handy with my calendar. I am old school and love the idea of writing on paper. I am a product of the 80’s and 90’s. To be quite honest I enjoy meal planning. It is calming for me. I absolutely look forward to it every week. A lot of the times I will make myself a glass of iced coffee (my cold brew recipe here) and dive in to my list making. Throughout the week I keep a small list on my phone of things I have run out of. I start my list with those items. I write them down on my paper and then began with my weekly menu. I almost forgot I have a large recipe binder. I have this out with me at the grocery list phase this helps to know the ingredients of each meal if I don’t know it by heart. Starting with the first meal write down the ingredients, check your cupboards, you probably have some of these items already. Continue this through to the 7th meal. Take a look at your local grocery ads as well. Some items you need may be on sale, if so write it down on your list with the price that it is, if it is a digital coupon I write a “C” next to that items with the store’s initials, that way I can download any coupons I need. Sometimes ground beef will be on sale or chicken, if so I will buy what I need and if possible, depending on what’s left in my budget I will buy extra to put in the freezer. Now make a list of your other items, the breakfast’s, lunches, snacks, etc….. Before Walmart grocery pickup I used to take the list I just made and organized it according to the store I shopped at. I am a Walmart shopper so I made my list to start at the back of the store and ending at the front. Now I use grocery pick up so that no longer works for me. If you still shop in store re organize your list to match the layout of your store. Don’t skip this step. It helps you to save money, you won’t be mindlessly walking through, stick to your list and you will make it to the register without any unnecessary items and never shop hungry!!!
I accidentally went grocery shopping on an empty stomach and now am the proud owner of aisle 4.
Grocery pick-up.
If you shop in store, you can skip this step. For you that choose grocery pick up, as I do then continue to read. With the list you just made we are going to add these in to your food store app. For me, like I said I am a Walmart mama. I will grab my laptop, log in to my account and start shopping. Since I am not going in store I just start at the top of my list working to the end. I start typing my first item, choosing my quantity and adding to cart. This is also an excellent way to see how much you will be spending. I am not going to lie there have been times that I have gone over. I will either adjust and remove if possible to stay in my budget or if there are items I absolutely have to have then the next weeks budget would have to be minus whatever I went over. I choose my time for the next day, for me it is always between 7 and 8 am. I prefer to go in the early morning, 99% of the time there is an item that is unavailable without a substitute, I go in to grab those few items myself or stop at another nearby store. The store is quiet and near empty, so I am usually in and out. I get home with plenty of time to put all my groceries away and get them organized. If I bought larger quantities of meat, I like to seal a meal in the proportions I need and put in freezer.
I hope this helps you to save money and have a kitchen full of food! It has worked for my family for the past 12 years. We have adjusted as needed staying within our budget. I will be starting a new series of posts soon, showing my weekly meal plan and grocery list. If you have a similar budget please feel free to use my method. Here is my exact meal plan and list in a printable version!! Give it a try. If you found this helpful, please let me know. If you have your own version, share it with me, I enjoy seeing the meal planning methods of others!
