Meal Planning

I love me some planning.  Sometimes I add things to my to-do list just to cross them off.  So when we were assessing our grocery costs it made perfect sense to get cracking on a meal plan.

Our  grocery store has double coupons on Wednesdays (I'll save coupons for another post).  So usually on Thursday or Friday when the younger gals are napping I pull out my menu planning template.  You can purchase this template here or just make your own.

Here's the play by play -

1.  Fill in meals where we already have plans (church for dinner, a party, etc.)  We also have a tradition of pizza night and a movie on Friday nights at our house.  We buy the $5 Mama Cozzi pizza from Aldi and add fresh toppings with a side of salad.  Seriously it's so good and we have leftovers for a lunch during the weekend.

2.  Look at the deep freezer inventory and pantry staples.

3.  Review coupons clipped from Sunday's paper and deals on Mariano's website.

4.  Head to Pinterest where I keep a record of new recipes I want to try or pull out old favorites.  I have now really focused on simple ingredients and vegetarian options to keep the cost down.

5.  Review additional staples that I can make homemade - granola, sandwich bread, cookie dough, etc.

6.  Check out this website to see if I can gather any additional items from couponing -

7.  Plan my trip to Mariano's for Wednesday morning with the girls.  They match every coupon up to $1 for a total of five but will totally let you do more than one order.  Honestly, while I'm not a major coupon girl I will say I do get satisfaction out of getting things like Gardein "Chicken" for 49 cents rather than $4.99 but I'll talk more about couponing later.

I know this sounds like a lot but honestly it probably takes me a half hour and then I'm ready to go for a week's worth of meals.  Not bad if you ask me.