Menu planners - budget meals....

[chris31997]

I made a cookbook of our fav recipes.

I ask the family what they want during the week.

Lasagna, chicken chili........

Then I make a grocery list according to that.

I cook what I want when I want, sometime during the week the family gets what they asked for. I don't plan to cook certain things on certain days. I plan to cook certain things during the week.

 

[Lisa0620]

Once I have figured out all of this it is easy to pull menu cards from my file and put them in my hanging menu board......

This is genius! I have a 'week at a glance' type calendar that I got in the dollar spot at Target where I hand write the menu for each day and then there's space off to the side where I write down any foods we're low on for the next week's shopping trip. I like this index card idea SO much better! So many inspiring ideas in this thread, thanks everyone.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

I used to plan for the week and go shopping every Sunday but I found that I was getting frustrated with myself when I would get home from a horrible day at work only to discover that I was supposed to make some big production of a meal, at which point I would throw my hands in the air and order pizza. Now I plan for 5 weeks at a time and try to do one big monthly shopping trip (I get paid once a month) for the majority of the supplies I need. I print the 30 meals on a calendar looking grid and put it in a 8x10 picture frame that hangs on my pantry door. This way I can take a dry erase marker and mark through what I made that night. If it's still on the grid, I should still have everything to make that recipe. Of course, I still have to make small weekly trips to pick up milk and whatnot, but it is saving me money, time and sanity. Hope that helps!!

erin

Your meal organizing plan would work perfectly for us as well - thanks!

For a couple of years we've had a permanent "Cheeseburger Friday" and "Pizza Saturday". It has saved us an incredible amount of money since we plan for this homemade "fast food" every weekend - nobody wants to grab a burger or call for pizza since we just had it! There's usually enough pizza left for Sunday's lunch as well - that's another tempting time for us to hit the drive thru!

 

[tlh0726]

I wing it.

Seriously, I just sit down once a week with a piece of paper with

M
T
W
Th
F

on it, and write in a meal. Then I look at the recipes and make a shopping list from that menu.

Usually I aim for one meatless, one beef, one chicken, one soup and bread (in winter) and Friday is always pizza.

Sometimes I'll plan 5 of 7 meals, and maybe even execute 3 or 4 of them, LOL.

Some weeks I'll plan meals, but not which day we execute them which leaves flexibility in the week.

I think that if you start small and build from there you'll have great success.

this is what I do but I do it for a 2 week time period.
We have cut down eating out to one time per month.

friday is homemade top your own pizza night
We do breakfast for dinner once in that 2 week period.
toasted cheese and tomato soup is DS favorite so that is saturday lunch
Mac and cheese is DD favorite so we have that once a week as a side item.
Sunday lunch I try to a big meal (example roast beef, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn, green beans)
Sunday dinner is our leftover night