Menu-planning seems like a lot of work, and if you are not used to doing it, it does take a bit to get used to. But I guarantee that once you start, you will feel so much more at ease both when you go food shopping and when you’re cooking. Now, I have to hand it to the folks who do the whole oamc thing, (once-a-month-cooking), but the prospect of going on marathon shopping and cooking sprees is too much for me, even if it appeals to my “extra time upfront to save time later” mentality.
Instead, I aim to shop no more than once a week, and I make it my goal to push food shopping to a day or two past when I went grocery shopping last, though not at the cost of going out to eat. The goal here with menu planning is that you have all the ingredients that you need for a week’s worth of food for you and your family and you know up front what you will be cooking for the week.
You, of course, still need to decide what you want to eat during any given week. You can do what many families do: Monday is spaghetti and meatballs, Tuesday is tacos, and so on. Personally, I get way too bored with food for this idea to appeal to me. But oamc and the set menu plan methods do offer some important corner cutting ideas:
- Arrange menu and shopping around types of foods, ground meat, soups, and so forth.
- Shop from sales flyers and buy in season. Most are available online, and some even allow you to create shopping lists right from the flyer (score!).
- Build options in the menu and in your shopping to make extra to freeze.
- Stock up on staples when they go on sale.
- If you want, set price points and savings goals. For instance, you may aim to spend nevermore than $2 per pound on meat, not buy certain convenience products unless they are on sale, or to save at least 15% of your total through sales, coupons, and manager specials.
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March 13th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I have always prepared weekly meals by a plan that I begin on the Saturday before. It makes my life so much easier. I have found that I not only save time, but I also save money by not purchasing items that I think I may use. Each day of the week I know exactly what I’m going to be cooking and how long it will take. It also helps me to include my children in the cooking. Once a week a plan a night for each of my children. They get to cook what they want. They love this idea. Menu planning takes a little of my time on Saturdays, but in the long run it is such a time saver because I can spend a few extra minutes each night with my children or alone. I love menu planning. I think more people who find it useful if they would try it.
March 14th, 2009 at 4:52 am
I remember my mom having meal plans when I was younger and they were always so well thought out, I don’t ever remember getting bored with any of the dinners she prepared. With a tighter budget lately I have been thinking about starting to do meal plans, but I have been at a total loss as to where to start.
Now that I read this though, it doesn’t sound that hard and I think it would save me a lot of money in the long run. As it is, I just kind of buy things as I please and we end up tossing about a quarter of it because it does not get used before it goes bad.
March 15th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Beautiful suggestion. I am to go shopping so often due to not planning the menu beforehand as suggested by you. So most of the time I find that some items are missing for the menu item I am planning to cook and many a time I have to pay more for them. But for the next week I will plan my menu and shop for the things at one go. I think, I may not be successful in just one week. But continuing the habit would do much good for me.Thanks for the idea.
March 15th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
That’s the spirit! It took a while for me to get used to it. An additional upside is that the actual shopping now takes much less time. It used to take me close to an hour to go food shopping, now, I’m in and out in usually less than 35 minutes and I spend on average $30-$40 less a week with a lot less that I throw away too.
March 15th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Thanks for your valuable suggestions. I think i can follow your ideas and it seems work well and also i need to inform my sister who is doing a ugly shopping every time.