Monthly Meals
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Happy Homemakers, What's Cooking Good Looking?
In an effort to stay organized and start eating more meals at home I decided to take weekly meal planning to a whole other level. Monthly planning. Crazy huh?
I read about monthly meal planning here. We had been doing the weekly meal plans but almost every week I would be an ingredient or two short for a recipe and would have to run out to the store. That meant more grocery trips and more money spent there. You know I didn’t just buy my one ingredient.
Anyway, I thought I would give this a shot and it’s been working pretty well for us. So, here’s how I tackled it.
- At the beginning of the month I gathered all of my recipe books, torn out recipe pages and bookmarked recipes. I simply made a list of 30 or so of tried and true recipes and a few new ones mixed in.
- I filled in my calendar of each day what we would be having. I added breakfasts meals for Sundays.
- I took inventory of my pantry staples (pasta/rice/etc) and then went through each recipe to make sure I had the ingredients.
- I started making my grocery list from there. I included any meat I would need to buy or any missing ingredients. I separated my list into two, Costco and groceries. I always buy chicken, cereal, fiber one bars, and a few other staples at Costco.
That’s it! It’s been working really well for us. I haven’t had to worry about what to defrost or if I need to run to the grocery store for ingredients once this month! I’m trying to limit my grocery store runs to every other week for fresh stuff- produce, milk, etc. I’m hoping that cuts down my grocery budget. Dave would be proud.
This sounds time consuming but it really isn’t. From planning to inventory and grocery list making it took me less than 2 hours. I think it will get quicker each month. I also left a “free night” open each week. We typically just have leftovers that night since it’s hard to make a meal that only serves 2. We also plan dinners out too (usually a Saturday).
So, do you meal plan? Weekly or monthly? Or are you a fly by the seat of your pants gal or guy? Any suggestions for me?
Tags: bulk buying, costco, grocery list, monthly meal planning
August 18th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
I fly by the seat of my pants, but that’s largely because I rarely follow recipes for weeknight dinners.
We tend to have the same huge supply of pantry and freezer staples on hand and just wing something every night using whatever fresh veggies we’ve picked up that week. One of the big things that helps us do that is having a ridiculous amount of condiments and spices – tons of assorted vinegars, hot sauces, random asian things (miso, fish sauce, etc) and a ton of spices. Being able to do something mexicany one night and then taking pretty much the exact same basic ingredients and do something asianish the next night is a life-saver.
August 18th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
This is such a great idea. My life needs it soo badly. I just need to put some will power into it. Thanks for the encouragement! = )
August 19th, 2010 at 11:41 am
yup. i do this, but on a weekly basis (we have a 2-year-old, so we have to buy milk and a few other things weekly). Meal planning helps the budget tremendously, and even if I’m not using recipes, it’s still good to just know ahead of time what I’m making for the week. Sometimes I’ll use the hy-vee website for ideas if i’m feeling stuck,as they’ll often construct menus based on their hot deals for the week. So yes, I’ve found this to be a big help – we eat out less, waste less food and it brings the joy back to cooking when I’ve got stuff right on hand
August 19th, 2010 at 11:56 am
LOVE this! I’ve been trying to find a way to do meal planning to save time and money. I also eat out wayyy too much and I think this would end that! Thanks for sharing!