Meal Planning

It's taken me a while to get good at planning meals for the week. I was into couponing for a while (not extreme - just beginner level) I realized rather quickly, that if you aren't buying for a huge family, you spend significantly more than you would if you stuck to a list. So I started planning a weekly menu and then, if I happened to find any coupons or sales going on that matched my items, I would go for it. Some people have asked what my average grocery trip costs. I will admit its around $85.00 per week and this is for a family of 2. (we also have our fur babies - a cat and dog) I try to stick to this number, but if I need to get dog or cat food, toilet paper, paper towels or other items that cost a lot more, this number goes up. This may seem large, but we only go out to eat once during the week. We have really tried to cut back on this. Not only is it healthier to cook your own meals, but yes, YOU SAVE MONEY! If you figure you are going out to eat 3x per week (in addition to going grocery shopping) depending on the restaurant, you can figure it will cost about $30.00 each time. Sure, doesn't seem like a ton of money, but if you do average monthly budgets, this will quickly come to 360.00 per month on dining out. That is the cost of an airplane ticket to somewhere fun - Why not save that money towards a cool vacation? Seems like a good idea to me! Anyway, I always do an inventory of what I have in the fridge or pantry, then try to make meals around those items. Here is my method for menu planning. I write down the items below the meal that I need.

Example:

Monday night: Spaghetti & Turkey meatballs with garlic bread
-ground turkey
- frozen garlic bread
Tuesday night: grilled chicken sandwiches with grilled corn
- chicken breasts
- hamburger buns
Wednesday night: Beef stew
- baby carrots
- stew meat
Thursday night: Fried shrimp Po-boys
- French bread
- tomatoes
- lettuce
Friday night: Burgers with fries
- ground meat

Additional items:
Fruit
Chips
Yogurt
Canned veggies
Snacks
Eggs
Milk
Half and half

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This is how it goes. Sometimes I may have to
run to the store during the week. I usually make a batch of muffins or something for breakfast during the work week. I hope this helps!