Menu planning??

[Zoesmama03]

Anyone here menu plan? I did one week and it seemed to shave quite a bit off our grocery bill since we knew exactly what to get.

Any tips or web pages you use to menu plan? frugal meals that cost little yet are nutrtious, because I don't want to compromise nutrition for our family.

 

[jenndisney]

Try my favorite site

www.mealsforyou.com

They help you to plan your meals and you can print a shopping list. This is a great site!

Hope it helps.

 

[kandeebunny]

I use my cookbooks, and meal plan from those, it takes a little extra effort but is well worth it. My favorite easy inexpensive meal is a pasta dish:

1 lb pasta ($0.69-0.99)
1 stick butter ($0.25)
2 8oz frozen veggies ($2.00) I rotate broccoli, snap peas, carrots anything really
1tsp minced garlic (I buy the jarred minced stuff for 99cents)
2oz cheap white wine (we buy the $2.99 bottle and it lasts forever!!!)

Make the pasta as directed, in a frying pan melt the butter and mix in garlic, add in defrosted (i microwave em) veggies until cooked through and starting to brown, add wine let cook 2-3mins until alcohol burns off. Drain pasta and put in bowl then mix in veggies. Really simple takes less than 20mins to make and is a family favorite here, we have also made it with chicken and shrimp. We are a family of 2 and get about 5 meals out of it so it makes a lot!!!

 

[wide awake]

I plan my menus for the week. When you get your sale flyer go with what is on sale...plan on how you're going to use the leftovers or the extra and you'll end up saving quite a bit. I have found that I generally plan a little over, so now just plan for 5 meals and figure that the other two are taken care of with leftovers or eggs, pasta, something easy that I have on hand.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

It really depends what works for you. I've seen some people that plan out what they're going to eat on a calendar , but I grocery shop for 15 days at a time so all I do is sit down and make a list of 15 dinners with all of the ingredients for them and then add the things we usually buy (bread, milk, our breakfast faves, etc.) and I keep a wipe-off board on my fridge so when the kids ask for something specific I add it on and it goes straight to the list when I'm ready to make it. It also helps to have the store ad on hand so you can plan by what's on sale, and I look through my coupons to see what meals I can make with what I have coupons for.

 

[mkladypink]

I have the Saving Dinner cookbook by Leanne Ely of FlyLady fame...she gives you a grocery list for the 6 meals each week. I have gotten my picky DD to eat a wider varity with this book. Website is www.savingdinner.com

 

[Zoesmama03]

Thanks.

Yeah I'd love to get my hands on the savingdinner cookbook. I LOVE Flylady keeps my house in a lot better order. I'm not a natural housekeeper.


I thought about signing up for her frugal menu plan but we can be quite picky on what we eat. I think I'll do some recipe diving and find a few that are fairly cheap. I also try to limit meat to a few times a week. I would do vegetartian but dh can't handle it. I'm not a meat eater really and can't handle more than a few ounces of it. Dh on the other hand can eat A LOT of it. I know beef in general has gotten really expensive. I usually get chicken on sale or pork on sale and canned tuna.

I'll note these tips they will really help me. I'm trying to see if I can budget us back to $200 a month grocerys. I've just been working on a budget this evening and found a way we can have about $124 left. I'm trimming back to NO Internet I'll do my check ins from my moms on the weekends for awhile. If I get my business moving better I may get it back and won't have to scrimp soo much but I'll still budget so we can save even more. Got 6 months and we only need air fare, park hopper tickets, meals and spending cash. We will get by fairly cheap on the vacation spendage. My brother may be helping with air fare but we will try to save it all. If my business isn't building in 2 weeks I'm gonna find an evening 2nd job for awhile so I can save a portion of that too.

 

[Aidensmom]

Definately plan in the leftovers. If you don't, you may end up just wasting a lot of food. If I roast a chicken, I make homemade chicken soup the next day. If I make chili, we have chili dogs (with turkey hot dogs to make it a little less "bad" for you) the next day, etc. When planning your menus, check to see what you already have in your pantry, and also what is on sale at the store you plan to shop at. I actually match my available coupons with the store ads to see what store I want to shop at, and then go from there to plan my meals. I don't actually take the time to plan out the entire meal though, just the main dish, don't have that much spare time on my hands!

 

[aussiemouse]

I plan my meals for the week, usually on a Sunday (clip coupons, check flyers). I alternate beef, chicken, fish, pork, venison etc. Also plan cook ahead meals for the nights we have lots of activities. I love this website. Lots of reviews. www.allrecipies.com I find that if I do a menu each week, I definately save on groceries.

 

[cbrfan]

I'd love to find a menu planning site that I could work around our likes/dislikes. I don't eat fish, DH doesn't eat poultry, neither of us eats pork or mac and cheese. Doesn't leave us much besides beef.

 

[jenndisney]

cbrfan: Try www.mealsforyou.com

It lets you pick and choose your ingredients. You can select a group of recipies and it will make a shopping list for you.

 

[welovedis]

I've tried mealforyou and really like it, and it definitely keeps our preferences in mind!

 

[tbelfonti]

We do that here! I plan for 6 nights and we take Saturday off for takeout.

I use my cookbooks on hand - I pick up the Cooking Light Annual Recipes cookbook and we cook 90% of our meals from this (we're both weight watcher members). You can also get recipes from cookinglight.com and weightwatchers.com which are healthy and nutritious - even my picky DH will eat them!

We don't usually have leftovers but when we do, they are eaten for lunch the next day.