Amy Hannold, 247Moms Frugal Living Editor Good deals can be found with planning, skill andpractice. The same is true forgreat meals. To maximize your fooddollar and dollar-stretching efforts, meal planning is essential.
We know that store sales cycles of most products revolve in12-13 week cycles. Stocking up oncereal, snacks, etc. should be done, within budget, when those items are onsale. Use coupons if possible orenjoy your store brand favorites. Meat prices also revolve; buy two week’s worthnow, saving on the cost of meat for next week.
Meal planning can be as simple as spending a few minuteslooking at what you have at home, your schedule for the upcoming week, and areading of the “Good Deal Alerts” from your favorite stores (found by visiting local money-saving websites). The pre-shopping “Home Review”, as we’ll call it, is a goodfirst step for those new to planning. Knowing what you have is the fastest way to see a decrease in yourspending. Everyone should reviewtheir refrigerator, freezer and pantry on a regular basis to avoid wastingfood. Statistics tell us that wethrow away up to 40 percent of the food we purchase – that’s a lot of moneywasted! (WastedFood.com)
Weekly meal planning doesn’t have to be daunting task. Websites such as Meals4Moms, OrganizedHome.com,DonnaYoung.org, ChartJungle.com, TheHomeschoolMom.com and others have preparedprintable meal planning sheets. Some of the websites offer links to files you can customize, thenprint. Food manufacturer and onlinerecipe websites offer you menu planners and/or recipe indexes based on diets,ingredients you already have, kid preferences, and special occasions.
My favorite printable meal planning tool is the GroceryList/Meal Planner sheet found at Menus4Moms.com. I print several for a month of meal planning and efficient grocery shopping.
Here are my meal planning tips for you:
Our schedule determines our meals. I plan to “cook once, eat twice” in between busy family days. Summer means crock-pot meals and theuse of our bbq. Fall and winterare great for my indoor grill, crock pot and baking. When I buy chicken breasts or pork chops in bulk, I freezethem in meal-sized amounts with marinade, Italian salad dressing or creamsoups. Marinating as they thaw,they are ready to toss into the oven or crock-pot. An hour before serving, I add vegetables to the crockpot,serving the juicy mix over rice or noodles. We love our rice cooker – for breakfast or dinner- rice isdeliciously easy.
We avoid wasting food by packaging our own “conveniencemeals” for my husband’s work meals and my “too busy to eat well” days. We compliment the packaged meals withdivided portions of cream cheese (for bagels), cottage cheese (add pineapple,pears, or peaches), cheese sticks and hardboiled eggs. Produce is washed and divided into afew day’s worth of snack-ready bags. Brownies and cookies are made several batches at a time and divided,then frozen for long-term storage. Beans stretch meat in meals and are also the feature of meatless fajitasor soups.
When produce is plentiful, I freeze sauces and slices offruit for winter delights. Berriesare picked from farms and frozen. Thosegoodies are then pie-baking or breakfast-ready. Brown bananas are frozen, and then thawed in the refrigeratorfor morning smoothies. Our summergarden saves us money on herbs and root vegetables.
My children are more interested in the shopping trips, useof frugal-sense, preparation and eating of meals when I include them in theprocess. I find that they eachhave their own specialties or elements of the meal process they enjoymost. Pride, creativity, and alegacy of family meals grow right along with them. I save money, as they learn to like better food choices anddelight in homemade snacks.
Nutritional Meal Ideas: Find “How To’s”, printables and helpful meal planners atChooseMyPlate.gov