Meal Planning

Following the New Year, a friend of mine had posted a link on Facebook with several meal planning guides to choose from to help plan your meals and grocery list for the week. You can find them here. I originally printed out one and made a few copies, but never filled it out. As you may remember one of my resolutions was to plan meals and do make ahead meals, which I have done.

Just the other day another friend posted a picture of her meal plan for the week and I realized I really needed to get with it. One of the things I noticed I do is spend way too much in the grocery store. (Another resolution is to save money.) It's just two of us. If you looked in our pantry and freezer, you'd think we're feeding a family of four or five. There is no reason for me to spend $100 or more every week. Yes, some trips will be more costly because meats & seafood are on sale and I buy to stock up, but I really should only be buying perishables - produce and milk - weekly.

Anyways, I went back to the link and printed out a few copies of a planner and started planning it out. I originally started planning next week since I already made my meals for this week. After writing it out I saw I didn't need to buy anything except shrimp, avocado, and pesto. (I might actually skip the avocado.) So in addition to the limited produce, milk and yogurt I'll be buying Sunday, I should be spending no more than another $20 for shrimp and pesto. That sounds so much better. I then decided to write out the meals for this week as well. Now, I'm not trying to figure out what to make with stuff this week. It's nice to see it on paper.

I'm definitely going to be keeping this up. I know it will help save so much money in the long run and that is my ultimate goal with this menu planner. I'm good at preparing foods on Sunday for the week, but this will help me not overspend on food that sometimes gets thrown out. Now, I just need to stick with it. Doesn't seem too hard! The recipes I keep on my Pinterest food board are very helpful too!