Apr 25 2009
Planning Menus
Planning your menus for the week is your key to getting your food costs down. I ignored this for many years. Finally, a year ago, I was desperate enough to try it. I went out of business because of the economy, and we had no food money while I looked for a job. I took stock of what we had in the freezer and in the cupboards. Then I made a menu for every supper as long as we had meat in the freezer. We had enough for a month, which was more than enough time for me to find a new job.
When that happened, something clicked inside my head. I realized that you shouldn’t buy groceries to keep the kitchen full, you should buy them for what’s on the menu that week. There are two schools of thought when it comes to saving on groceries. One says you should stock up when something is on sale, the other one says to buy what you need for the menu that week. I grew up stocking up. When I started making a plan for the week and buying groceries just for that plan, I cut my grocery bill in half.
So, how do you make a plan? It’s very simple.
Step 1: Go through the grocery ads and choose which has the best sales.
Step 2: Make note of the cheapest meats.
Step 3: Create a menu for the week (supper only) based on what meat is on sale.
Step 4: Write a list of what you don’t have for each meal.
Step 5: Add to the list sandwich stuff, breakfast, and snacks as needed.
Step 6: Go to the grocery store and buy only what is on the list.
The hardest part is creating the menu. It gets easier every week. You have your stand-by recipes, start there. Then start thinking about ethnic foods.
Some people use leftovers for lunches, some have leftovers as a day on their menu, and others trade leftovers with a neighbor. The choice is yours. Hopefully you can use this information to cut your grocery bill in half, too.
