Mom plans meals for entire year to save $

[gillenkl]

I saw this on a frugal group I belong to - includes the article and her monthly calendar.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/consumer&id=7227646

http://dig.abclocal.go.com/ktrk/ktrk_011910_dinnercalendar.pdf

 

[ILUVPOOH1]

No way I could plan for a whole year! Especially not in the summer months as we frequent the farmer's market and have a CSA, so we never know what produce we will have.

However, I did see this and thought, "hey I could plan 1 month). So I planned all my Feb meals. It was easier than I thought, and I did all the grocery shopping yesterday. I spent a total of $300 for the month, and all I'll need to do is pick up milk, eggs and fresh produce each week. That $300 included LOTS of meat from Sam's so actually I have a ton of meat in the freezer for next month too.

I broke the days of the week down by categories. So that made it easier

Mon- pasta
Tues- mexican (we love mexican)
Wed- crock pot or easy meals
Thurs.- ethnic (could be asian, indian, irish etc.)
Fri- pizza and dessert
Sat- something new
Sun- sunday dinner (like roast chicken, pot roast etc)

I got the ideas from another website, but I can't remember which one!

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

It wouldn't be cost efficient unless you could afford to stockpile. Otherwise things like mahi mahi would not make sense. And she lost me with the hamburger helper. Nasty. Same with cheese rice.

 

[DawnM]

Well, she did ask her family what THEY liked and wanted, so I assume someone wanted that.

I can't plan an entire year because I have no way of knowing what will be on sale or couponed.

Dawn

It wouldn't be cost efficient unless you could afford to stockpile. Otherwise things like mahi mahi would not make sense. And she lost me with the hamburger helper. Nasty. Same with cheese rice.

 

[MissMichelle]

I saw this on a frugal group I belong to - includes the article and her monthly calendar.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/consumer&id=7227646

http://dig.abclocal.go.com/ktrk/ktrk_011910_dinnercalendar.pdf

I've seen others do this, but I am looking and see a lot of the rice a roni, hot dogs, grilled cheese etc on her menu...Most of that I could throw together if I DIDN'T have a plan.

I have my budget typed up for the year, but not a menu---I should see how a monthly menu works out for me (I work a lot of nights so its hard unless I crockpot it for them). Ive done a weekly one before.

Thanks for sharing

 

[DawnM]

I like this one better:

http://www.budget101.com/Ebooklet/EBooklet_Fam4.pdf

 

[delmar411]

it's an interesting idea but they eat a ton of junky meals. What's the point of planning ahead if you are still going to eat bad food?

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Well, she did ask her family what THEY liked and wanted, so I assume someone wanted that.

I can't plan an entire year because I have no way of knowing what will be on sale or couponed.

Dawn

i know. I still couldn't feed them hamburger helper.

I love a good loss leader, and that menu doesn't make room for them, best I can tell.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

it's an interesting idea but they eat a ton of junky meals. What's the point of planning ahead if you are still going to eat bad food?

Exactly.

 

[mom2d&b]

I have tried to stockpile but it does not work in my house. My DH and both kids sede the food and eat and eat and eat. I was buying food to last for 4 - 6 weeks and it lasted just over 2 weeks. Until I can find a spot to hide the stockpile I am stuck.

 

[Purseval]

We stockpile and every once in a while we take a month off from shopping and just eat whatever is in the freezer/pantry, not to save money (which we do just as a byproduct of stockpiling) but to get rid of stuff that's reaching the end of its storage life and make room for more stuff. There are only 2 of us so we don't really worry about losing food due to midnight raids like a larger family would.

 

[wdwfan16]

it's an interesting idea but they eat a ton of junky meals. What's the point of planning ahead if you are still going to eat bad food?

This was my reaction too.

 

[thebeesknees]

Hmm, I have to agree that her meals seem to be not the best nutrition-wise, but the idea of planning meals ahead is a great one. I wouldn't do a whole year, for the reasons stated above, but I do plan 2 weeks at a time, using the loss-leaders as my guide, and we eat what I think is a pretty healthy diet, low on processed foods and simple carbohydrates and high in vegetables, fruit and whole grain. It makes my life a lot easier to just glance at the calendar and pull out the meat to thaw ahead of time, etc. Also, I use a small white board for my planning, so if we decide to have leftovers, or unexpectedly go out that night, I can easily erase or move around my meals.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I plan two weeks at a time, but still not what we're going to have on specific days, I only do that about a week at a time. I couldn't plan an entire year because I have to plan things like crockpot meals (or frozen pizza ) for nights when the kids have sports/activities and I usually save pasta for when DH isn't going to be home since he's not a pasta fan.

 

[MissMichelle]

I like this one better:

http://www.budget101.com/Ebooklet/EBooklet_Fam4.pdf

I really liked this one! Her meals were things for the most part that we would eat here. I don't exactly think I can pull off $200 for the 4 of us, maybe I'll try $400 and see where I can skim back from there.

 

[bettymae1121]

I don't think planning for a whole year is realistic for most people. Schedules changes, activities get added or dropped, heck with the economy your employment situation can change (you used to work 8 to 5 and now you have a new job and work 9 to 6 and your comutte is much longer)

But planning for a month or two is a good way to go. I don't plan so much as I have a "meal" that is really easy to fix but yet can be a combination of about a hundred different things. It's a meat (or fish) served with a startch (rice, potato) and a veggie. The meat can be beef, pork, chicken, lamb, or any type of fish you can think of, same with the veggie...it can be plain ol' peas and carrots or it can be fresh spring asperagus. I can mix it up a hundred different ways, but it all usually takes less than 30 minutes to make and it's easy to grab whats on sale and stock pile. I can make it for dinner every night of the week and we still don't eat the same thing twice. So once I add in pizza night (which I make from scratch, including the dough) and meat loaf night and a pasta/mexican night, we have a pretty good mix of meals and I don't really have to plan anything, other than making sure the meat/fish is thawed out.

 

[TiffanyK]

I couldn't plan a whole year at a time. But I do offer free, printable 1 week menus with complete grocery lists and recipes on my blog. I just posted the 26th menu today, so that's 6 months worth.

Here's a link to them. I need to add the newest 4 menus to this list, but there are 22 there to choose from.

ETA: I just added links to all 26 menus with grocery lists, so you can see them all from that page now.

 

[deerhart]

I can only plan ahead about 7-10 days. I can occasionally plan out 2 weeks, but its not full (for example my mom is coming down over Lincolns b-day weekend so I planned it out).

Heck, I plan out a week and then during the week change things around.

I do stockpile things like meat and things I know we will use for a variety of meals (like pepperoni, I can plan a pizza night and then make Pasta Margherita)

I use springpad to store my recipes, create a meal plan, and make my grocery lists

 

[mamo-4-wdw]

I couldn't plan a whole year at a time. But I do offer free, printable 1 week menus with complete grocery lists and recipes on my blog. I just posted the 26th menu today, so that's 6 months worth.

Here's a link to them. I need to add the newest 4 menus to this list, but there are 22 there to choose from.

ETA: I just added links to all 26 menus with grocery lists, so you can see them all from that page now.

Thanks TiffanyK for the link!!!

 

[neatokimmo]

I planned out Feb in advance, it wasn't too bad. I was trying to use up stuff I already had.

I wonder if she is doing all canned veggies? The menu wouldn't be that bad if she was using fresh or frozen ones. And the salad? Bagged iceburg or organic spring mix? Besides the obvious things, like hamburger helper, you can't really figure what type of food she is feeding her family.