Monday, January 3, 2011

Meal planning

A few years ago, when money got tight after having our sweet little girl, I started to meal plan. I wrote out a weeks worth of meals and snacks, and wrote a grocery list according to it. We only bought what went on the list.

A few perks about this.
1. You will have everything you need for each meal
2. You can plan healthy meals, like buying fresher ingredients which is actually cheaper than all the canned stuff.
3. You eat healthier!!
4. You don't end up buying a bunch of junk
5. It saves a lot of money to plan ahead
6. You can make a list based off of stuff you already have on hand.

I am sure there are more good perks to this, like not having to decide what to make for dinner last min. when your all tired, it will just be there for you.

Here is an example of our next weeks menu, which I figured the cost without minusing what I might already have at $125 That may be a lot to some people, but I use a lot of the other ingredients for the following week, which will cut my cost down by a ton!!

Menu for Jan 8 - 14




Saturday:

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Snack: Smoothie

Lunch: Salad

Snack: veggies

Dinner: Split pea soup



Sunday:

Breakfast: Muffins

Snack: Banana

Lunch: Pesto wrap

Snack: spinach dip

Dinner: Eggs benedict with avocado



Monday:

Breakfast: Cereal w/ pb toast

Snack: Fruit

Lunch: Tuna

Snack: Guacamole

Dinner: Beef stir fry



Tuesday:

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Snack: Smoothie

Lunch: Leftover soup

Snack: Leftover spinach dip

Dinner: Salad, Tom soup/ grilled cheese



Wednesday:

Breakfast: Eggs and toast

Snack: Pb and apples

Lunch: Leftover stir fry

Snack: pico de gallo

Dinner: Enchilada bake



Thursday:

Breakfast: Cereal

Snack: Bread

Lunch: Baked potato

Snack: Pistachio’s

Dinner: Crock pot bbq chicken



Friday:

Breakfast: French toast

Snack: Smoothie

Lunch: Enchilada bake

Snack: Avocado’s

Dinner: BBq chicken sand (leftovers)

3 comments:

  1. I love this! I do this too! I sit down for about an hour per week, plan out all of my dinners for the week and make a list. It saves soo much time during the week. When I get home, I know what I am making and have everything I need. Also, it helps me to plan healthier meals because I can see what we are eating throughout the week. :-)

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  2. I love it, what spinach dip recipe do you use?

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  3. I do, frozen spinach, cream cheese, yogurt and milk, it's my moms recipe, I made it for new years and it was hit!!

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