Okay, friends. Confession time. I’m a type-A planner. Going to the grocery store without a detailed list of what I need organized in order of the store’s layout makes me break out in hives. I just can’t take it.
Needless to say, I’m a meal planner and grocery list maker. Yes, my personality is a big reason why I make a meal plan, but it’s not the main reason.
Our budget is the biggest reason we meal plan.
We literally save hundreds of dollars every month by making a meal plan and grocery list before heading to the store. It’s our biggest money saving strategy for food.
I think there is this perception that in order to meal plan, you need a complicated system with awesome printables and a large stash of recipes. Let me be the first to tell you that’s not the case. My system is simple, I use basic recipes from my childhood and ones found online, and I don’t use printables. I use…wait for it…
a piece of paper!!
I can count on one hand how many times in 6 years of marriage that I have gone to the the grocery store without a meal plan or list. It was stressful. I forgot a ton of things, spent way too much money, and ended up returning to the store for the forgotten items several times throughout the week to try to come up with complete recipes. This is why i ALWAYS meal plan.
We do a big grocery shopping trip once every two weeks. On the off week, we run into the store for an extra gallon of milk or two, some fruit, eggs, and usually a few other small items that we have run out of. I usually put back ~$25 from our grocery budget for this small trip.
Using the following 7 step process, I can usually meal plan and create my grocery list in about 30 minutes. I figure this 30 minutes of planning every 2 weeks saves our family approximately $200 over the course of the month! Not too bad for an hours worth of time! Once you have a system in place, it begins to run like clockwork. Here is how we do it.
1. Keep a “We’re Out” List
We have a clipboard holding a few pieces of lined paper that hangs on our pantry door. The top sheet is labeled with the date of our next planned shopping trip.
As we run out of staple foods and household items, they get added to the list. Down to 3 rolls of toilet paper? Add it to the list. Run out of cinnamon while baking cinnamon rolls? Add it to the list. Use up the last stick of butter? Add it to the list.
See how that works?
This ensures that we don’t forget anything important when making our grocery list.
2. Create a “Staples” List
Since I use the “We’re Out” method, I don’t use one of those pre-made checklists of everything I may purchase in the store. When I look at those lists, I just feel overwhelmed! I prefer to just write them down as we run out.
However, I do keep a short “staples” list of items we buy every single time we visit the grocery store. Currently our staples list includes:
- Milk
- Eggs
- Bread
- English Muffins
- Protein Bars
- Coffee
- Coffee Creamer
- Half & Half (yes, we drink A LOT of coffee around here!)
- Bananas
- Yogurt
- Frozen Strawberries (for smoothies)
- Chicken Breasts {We purchase a 10 pound bag from Sam’s Club every 2 weeks. We eat a TON of chicken!}
If you plan to follow this method, you could type out your “Staples” list and add it to your clipboard for quick reference when meal planning.
3. Shop Your Pantry, Fridge, & Freezer FIRST
Before I even start to plan my meals, I check to see what I have in my pantry, fridge, or freezer that needs to be used up. What I’m mainly looking for is fresh produce and meat. I jot down the few ingredients I have on hand that haven’t been used (and I know aren’t meant for another meal I already have planned.) I will then base my first meals on my meal plan off of these ingredients. For example:
- If I have chicken breasts and 2 peppers, I may plan for chicken fajitas.
- If I have a chuck roast, I may plan for Italian beef.
- If I have a package of pork chops, I may plan for BBQ pork chops.
I also check the meal plan for the last two weeks to see if any meals weren’t used. Inevitably, I have at least a meal or two to roll over to the next meal plan. Sometimes we have unexpected dinner with friends or family. Other times one meal made enough for leftovers the following night so we didn’t use up a meal. Whatever the case may be, we roll the unused meals over so that the ingredients we have on hand don’t go to waste!
4. Gather Your Supplies
I will sit down at my kitchen table with the following items to plan my meals:
- my recipe binder
- clipboard including my “We’re Out” list, “Staples” list, and short list of items I found in my fridge, freezer, and pantry
- calendar or planner
- a blank sheet of paper
- a pen or pencil
5. Plan for Everything
Before you start making your list, plan for everything. Plan for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks and things I call “specials.” Specials are things that are not in a normal week to week meal plan, but things you need to remember. This is where your planner comes in handy!
- Is there a potluck at church? Make sure to note what you plan to bring on your meal plan.
- Need to make cookies to send with your kids to school? Make a note on your meal plan.
- Christmas gathering at a families house? Make a note of what you plan to bring on your meal plan.
When planning for dinners, I always plan for a side dish or two. We usually eat leftovers for lunch the next day, but I include a few extra lunch options in case the meal didn’t make enough for us to eat it a second time.
We eat a lot of the same things for breakfast so I just make sure we have them in stock or I have the ingredients to make them. I don’t make desserts a ton, but I try to plan for a couple dessert ideas every two weeks for a special treat.
6. Make Your List
Don’t get me wrong, I think all of the cute meal planning printables are awesome, I just haven’t found one that works for me. Plus, I really didn’t want to waste ink to print out a new copy every week or two. So I’m old school and just use a piece of lined paper and a pen. It gets the job done!
I set up my meal plan by numbering from 1-14 at the top of the paper. I go ahead and fill in any roll over meals from the previous two weeks. Then I start adding any meals from stuff I have on hand. These first two things will usually give me 4-6 meals. That’s always a great start!
I will note any meals we plan to eat out (very, very rare!), eat at a friend or family’s house, or anything else I know we have planned. By noting this, I remind myself that I don’t need to plan a meal for that night.
Then I open up my recipe binder and start searching for meals that look good. You may be thinking, but Kaitlin, don’t you use the sales flyer?
Nope! Sure don’t! This frugal girl doesn’t even look at a sales flyer when meal planning! Shocker? Here’s why:
- I do the bulk of my shopping at Aldi and Sam’s Club. Both of these places have everyday low prices and don’t offer sales.
- I usually finish up my shopping at Kroger. What few items I purchase here are often not on big sales.
- I have found that when I look at sales flyers, I’m more tempted to put extra items on my list because they were a good deal. Most of these items would not have been purchased if they weren’t on sale so in turn I’m spending more money at the store.
I will separate my list into the three stores: Aldi, Sam’s Club, & Kroger. I first add everything from my “We’re Out” and “Staples” list to the correct store.
I then go down my meal plan and note everything I will need for each meal. Once I have everything on my grocery list from a certain meal, I place a checkmark beside it.
Finally, because I’m OCD and I don’t like to waste time in the store with two little ones in tow, I go back through my list and put everything in order of the store’s layout. This is not completely necessary, but I’ve found that when I don’t take the 5 extra minutes to do this, I end up wasting at least 30-45 in the store going back and forth from one side to the other.
7. Go Shopping!
I will finally grab my list and any coupons I may have for items I already have on my list, and head to the store. This may seem a little complicated, but I promise it doesn’t take that long. Once I put a good system into place, things started to work easily and quickly and we started saving a ton of money at the grocery store!
Do you meal plan?
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Mindy says
Wow. Amazing article! I try to do most of what you said but you helped fill in the cracks! Thanks for sharing!
Ev says
We have meal planned since I became a (mostly) stay-at-home mom 2 years ago. We keep a little white board in the kitchen to write down things we run out of & I too use a plain old paper and pen method to write the menu. We live in a smaller city without much for bulk stores so I do use flyers or facebook groups to keep an eye out for meat deals in particular. I embrace leftovers as well, something it’s taken hubby awhile to get used to! I also plan to double & freeze things if it doesn’t require many extra ingredients. This works especially well for soups, sloppy joes etc.