When I first began grocery shopping I realized what a bad shopper I was. I would take my 6 year old daughter and we walk around aimlessly for about 2 hours going down every aisle and put things in my cart that looked good. When I would finally finish look into my cart I would realize that I really didn’t have meals or foods that “went” together. I would become so frustrated that I would actually abandon my shopping cart and we would go out to eat. It honestly didn’t seem more costly because of my bad shopping skills and the toy in a kid’s meal was free compared to the ones my child would toss in the cart. I knew I had to develop a plan! I searched the internet and found a few places that I could relate to www.flylady.com and www.orgjunkie. They were tremendously helpful. Now I shop with a plan, coupon organizer and most importantly ALONE!
My I begin planning my weekly menu on Wednesday. Hannah is at church and I have the new sales papers for the week. I have a zippered binder that I altered to be my shopping. I have several tabs and use baseball card & photo holders. I have my master menu & current menu in sheet protectors to refer to as needed. There is also lined, full sized writing pad for my list.
I do shop at Wal Mart and use the price comp. I have the sale papers in a front pocket and I note on my shopping list the sale price and store. The basic staples are priced higher at Kroger and Albertsons but I can’t buy the prepackaged meat from Wal Mart.
Menu planning saves time, money & energy. It is a lot less stressful when you don’t have to worry about what you are going to cook.
1. Take inventory of frozen meats, canned veggies & misc items on hand.
2. Check my grocery store sale papers of Kroger and Albertsons for great prices
3. Check for requests and craving
4. Check my coupon organizer
5. Master Menu Planning Guide
Monday
Breakfast ~ Eggs
Dinner ~ Meatless Monday
Tuesday
Breakfast ~ Cinnamon Toast
Dinner ~ Taco night/Mexican
Wednesday
Breakfast ~ Cereal
Dinner ~ Slow cooker or dinner @ church
Thursday
Breakfast ~ Instant breakfast
Dinner ~ Chicken
Friday
Breakfast ~TGIF Cinamelt from McDonalds
Dinner ~ Pizza (game night or movie)
Saturday
Breakfast ~ anything goes
Lunch~ anything goes
Dinner~ Cookout celebration
Sunday
Breakfast ~ muffins, fruit, juice
Lunch ~ kids meal at the park
Dinner ~ Nice Sunday dinner, rolls & desert
6. Check my list on the fridge for things we have run out of.
7. Make my list based on the above.
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