If you haven't already read the first part of this 3 part series, click here to
check it out. This is a very basic, step by step instructional for how to be a
successful menu planner. Part 1 covers the first steps (using both paper
systems and MealBoard), part 2 covers how to set up your paper menu planning
system, and part 3 tells you how to set up MealBoard and use it if you would
rather have an automated ios program do all the hard work for you.
The reason why menu
planning is so important is that you can save an enormous amount of money
without actually sacrificing the quality of your life. Let's say you eat out 3x
per day for every day on a week. We'll assume an average of $4.00 for breakfast
(bagel and cream cheese with a coffee), $7.00 for lunch (sandwich, chips and a
drink) and 12.00 for dinner (chipotle or diner). You would spend $322.00 in a
week to feed two people, or $483.00 to feed three people. Through menu
planning, I can feed everyone great meals that they love for between $100.00 -
$120.00/week. For two people, that would be a savings of $10,504.00 per year
and for three people, that would be a savings of $18,876 per year. Now likely,
you don't eat out for every meal. But if you really track your grocery spending
carefully, unless you're menu planning, I bet you'll find that it's easy to
spend $200.00 or more per week to feed your family.
This doesn't have to be
hard though! It's actually really easy! Click here to complete the important
first steps (#1-4), then come back to start your paper meal planning system!
To create your paper
planning system:
Set Up A System
Step #5. Find an old binder,
fill it with a menu schedule. You can print one here from Passion for Savings Blog. Fill it
with blank pages for shopping lists or print these blank shopping lists by
clicking here from
Cornerstone Confessions. Do you use lots of cook books? Have a page with a
recipe index including the recipe name, cook book and page. If you'd rather
just print recipes from the internet, print away and then add them to the
binder. You can organize them alphabetically or into categories (chicken, beef,
pasta etc).
Paper Preparation
6. Get out the menu schedule sheet for next week and add dates.
Separate each day into 3 sections: B L D (breakfast lunch dinner). Take a look
at your schedule for next week and make small notations of things that will
affect your meals (early days at work, event invitations, overtime etc).
Breakfast
7. Start assigning
breakfasts. Think simple! If your working, keep to simple breakfasts. Try Milk,
cereal and bananas; Oatmeal and raisins; or Bagels and cream cheese. Keep a
stash of either protein bars, or granola bars in case you over sleep and need
something to grab while dashing out the door. We don't assign things like
juice. If we want to have juice in a week, we'll just get a jug and drink a
little at will.
Lunch
8. Choose your method
for lunches. You can either pack, buy or plan to take leftovers. Planning to
buy lunches is still menu planning because you have a set budget and your
incorporating a set amount into your menu budget for those meals. A great way
to handle that is to know you don't have the organization skills yet to pack a
lunch in the morning, and to bring a drink, an apple and a bag of trail mix to
work and then hit Subway for a $3.00 6 inch sub every day. $15 in a week for
planned eating out isn't bad! If you have a big family, you may not have enough
leftovers for lunch the next day unless you double the recipes. If you plan to
take leftovers, think ahead. For the first week, since you don't know how many
leftovers you'll have with each recipe, have a few days where you can enact the
above subway plan if needed.
Dinner
9. Plan your dinners.
This is my favorite part! I love meals eaten together. Choose a mix of recipes.
A simple easy dish, a recipe that you guys already love, a brand new recipe,
maybe a complicated recipe for a cooking date night one weekend (or a family
cooking night!). Unless you're a pro, don't plan recipes for a main dish, side
dish and dessert. We've been doing this for a while and still rely on frozen
veggies, canned veggies, salads, and pantry staples for meal accompaniments.
Often, I don't even feel the need to plan the veggies. I keep the freezer and
pantry stocked with veggies ( about .49 cents per can and .99 cents per bag at
wegmans) and buy something delicious and in season at wegmans for their club
pack price. This week, I got a giant club pack of grapes that we've been
snacking on all week. Pick out your 7 dinners but don't assign them dates yet.
Just a heads up, recipes that have many ingredients (not counting spices) tend
to cost more.
Preparation and
Planning
10. If you're using
printed recipes, pull them out of the organized section- you'll keep them up
front while you're making them this week and then refile them after. Browse
through the cookbooks. Mentally note any ingredients in your head that would go
bad quickly and that won't freeze. I want you to only have to do one grocery
trip for the week, so if any of your recipes have ingredients that don't last
or store well, plan for them on the first or second day of the week. I'm a food
safety nut so I freeze any meat that I won't use right away. If you're the
same, then plan on freezing meat right away and make notations on your schedule
of what to thaw on what day. I.e. You're making chicken potstickers on Tuesday
and grilled steak on Wednesday. So mark a notation on Tuesday to thaw steaks in
fridge before making pot stickers. Some fridges might need two days in order to
thaw (that would be my fridge set to the lowest setting... the food safety
nut). If you're planning on a freezer casserole for a busy night, pick a day to
make the casserole (like a day off or on a day that you're already cooking with
that meat). If you have a slow cooker meal planned, mark a notation the night
before to mix ingredients in the crock and leave in the fridge, so all you have
to do is insert into crock pot and turn on in the am. Then mark a notation to
leave yourself a post it note on the door the night before, because you know
you'll forget to start it if you don't have a reminder.
*HINT* If you're an
avid coupon user, this would be a good time to pull them out and decide what
ingredients you can get cheaply. If you aren't already using coupons regularly,
skip that for now until you can easily menu plan. We shop at wegmans with
consistent low price lists (they change seasonally to reflect the lowest prices
of items popular for that season). I'll occasionally coupon, but I mostly use
the CPL list to plan. You'll still save tons of money by eating in every day,
even if you don't coupon or use flyers (as long as all of your meals aren't
lobster, filet mingnon and beef wellington).
Create your Shopping
List
11. Write categories on
a blank piece of paper (meat, dairy, deli, produce,
canned, etc) or use the link on step #5 to have a preprinted list. Think about where the ingredients are in your grocery store. List
those areas. Start adding the ingredients from your recipes (even if you think
you already have that ingredient!) to the correct category. If you come up with
a duplicate ingredient, just add it to the first entry like in the photo below.
Check through your kitchen and cross off any ingredients you already have.
Pricing and Budget
12. If you have a
pretty decent idea as to what things cost, estimate the costs of each item by
putting a small number to the side of it. If you aren't sure, estimate up. Add
up the costs of your groceries and decide if that's a manageable number for
your budget. If it's not, take a look through the list and decide where you can
save. Is there an ingredient that can be cut? Can you cut out mushrooms or
similar ingredients from a recipe? Is there a substitute that can be made (purchasing
store brands for cheaper or buying in a bulk pack to use the ingredient next
week as well)? Is one of your recipes particularly expensive? Can you
substitute that recipe out? Can you go meatless one day? After you're all done
and you have a final price, add that amount in large numbers to your grocery
list. That's your goal amount. We're almost always under our goal amount and if
we aren't, something will be getting cut. Our grocery budget for two adults and
one child, plus 3 additional children during the days (breakfast, lunch and
snack) is between $100-150, depending on what our monthly budget goals are. We
average $120.00/week.
Grocery Shopping
13. Head out and buy
those ingredients! Store things so they will last until they are needed. Post your
menu and schedule on the fridge so you can refer to it every day and ensure
things will run smoothly.
Tips and Tricks
14. If you're packing
lunch, you need a small cooler and at least 2 ice packs. It's imperative that
you (or your husband!) remember to bring in your cooler at the end of the day,
put your ice pack back in the freezer and empty your cooler. I would have a
minimum of 2 ice packs per person available in case you forget one day.
Good luck! Think of me
when you're chilling in Disney World spending the money that you saved!
