Let's be honest for a moment. Planning a weekly menu can be a difficult and tedious task. There are many weeks that I'd love to skip it altogether and eat out every night. Unfortunately, this little thing called a "budget" obliterates those ideas.
Being a single-income family means that I have to be as creative as possible with my dinner planning; it has become this really awesome game for me. I've played the "lets stay under $X" game with many different dollar amounts. Each week I try to push myself even harder to make that number as small as possible while planning the most healthy and delicious meals. Now I'm going to try my darnedest to explain this little game I play with myself to you!
My current goal? $50 per week.
Do I always succeed? NO. And I'm okay with this. Some weeks I blow it and others I'm way under... I figure those weeks average themselves out eventually {just keep averaging, just keep averaging... And James says my logic doesn't make sense sometimes. Psssshhh ;)}.
Does this include household necessities, personal hygiene items or pet food? NO. {I do ALWAYS try to buy them when they're on sale though!}
Do we get a discount because James happens to work for the grocery store I shop at? NO. Every store has the option to give their employees discounts. He's worked at 2 different locations in the history of us and neither have given employee discounts.
WHAT YOU NEED:
1- A realistic budget for YOUR family. My menu feeds James, Jackson & myself. Some meals leave enough leftovers for dinner another night, others I expect to have leftovers of but every last bit is devoured that night. You can't expect to feed a family of 2 adults and 2 older children (older than 2 anyway) on my budget using my weekly menu ideas. It's just not going to happen. Don't beat yourself up about it. If it doesn't work for you, the menu-planning-budget-following police aren't going to come arrest you. I promise.
2- The weekly ad from your favorite grocery store. I only plan my menu based on the items that are on sale that week at the Vee. If you're a P.C. fan, sorry bout it... And shame on you ;)! The Vee also has a "Digital Exclusive" ad as well as special sale ads {Columbus Day, Veterans Day, 2-Day, 3-Day, etc}. Make sure you check those too.
3- Knowledge of your store. When a store orders too much of something for a sale, they'll knock it down to an awesome price in order to get it out of their back rooms. Space is money! Pay attention to all those shelf tags as you're shopping. Your store may have marked produce items down because the truck just came in & they have to move the old to bring in the new. When items are close to date they'll be knocked down too. Many items can be kept past their "expiration date". That date is a requirement for the company but it doesn't mean that you have to throw out half a dozen eggs because they "expired" a week ago.
4- A notebook & a pen.
5- A shopping day. Thursday or Friday work best for me because I can look over the ad when it comes out on Wednesday for inspirations. Your menu will be planned accordingly.
HOW YOU DO THIS:
Step one: In your notebook, write the days of the week leaving enough room to write the things you need to make those meals.
Step two: Look through the ad. Pick items on sale that look good to you. Look in your cabinets, do you have something to cook with those items already? Something in the ad look interesting but you have no clue what to do with it? Google it.
Step three: List the meals inspired by those items and list the additional items you'll need below {note: I have a little cheat... Meat isn't listed because we get a meat bundle from the Vee and its chilling in our deep freeze... A slight advantage in this game for sure!}
Step four: Make sure you plan breakfasts and snacks too!! I write those sale items at the top of my weekly menu, along with those things that we need in addition to ingredients for meals.
Step five: Use those items you listed to make your list. I always make my lists in order of the way I shop; produce first, bakery, deli, aisles before the meat department (if I want something other than what I have frozen), frozen aisles, meat department, aisles after the meat department, dairy department, healthy & beauty and last but not least, the health market.
Whew! That's a lot harder to list out these steps than it is to just do it... Puts the once daunting task into a little perspective!
Not sure if I have forgotten anything at this moment in time. If I have, I will add it and share the link to this on Facebook again.
Hope this gives you all a little more insight... If not, thanks for letting me tell you anyway! :)
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