A couple of days ago, I shared our family grocery budget and how we stick to it!
Something that is super important in being about to stick to our budget is meal planning!!
I love meal planning. There is something about writing everything down and getting it out of my head that is therapeutic. In just a few minutes, I’m able to have all of our eating plans completely organized and taken care of.
So, I thought today I would share my meal planning and grocery shopping routine with you. You can have stress free meals, and a stick to a tight budget too! Just follow along.
The first thing I do is I pull out my meal planner.
After I get my pencil ready, I write down all of the dates for the 10 days that I’m planning. I like to use both the numeral and the day of the week.
By seeing both the date and the day of the week I’m able to quickly recognize if we have something planned for that night. For example, church nights need to be quick and easy, date nights just need to have food for the kids, etc.
The next step is SO IMPORTANT to budgeting success!
I go shop my pantry and fridge.
It usually takes about 5 minutes to assess what food we have left over from the last food shop and what needs to be used!
I first fill in days with the food that needs to be eaten that we already own.
If I have only part of the ingredients needed to make a meal, I put the remaining ingredients down on my grocery list.
We’re not wasting food and we’re saving money here!!
After I do this, I check to see what staple items we are out of or running low on.
I quickly go through the oats, coffee, flour, sugar, etc. If we need one or more items, I add it to the list at the bottom of the page.
By only buying these things when I really need them I’m saving money and I’m saving valuable space in my cabinets!
Finally, after I’ve shopped my fridge, planned out any days that we won’t be eating at home, and checked for staple items I plan new meals.
First, I’ll fill in a couple of the days with old faithfuls.
We love chicken and rice, and red beans and rice in our house. Those two almost always have a place in our meal rotation.
If I need any items to complete those meals I add them to my grocery list at the bottom of the page.
After that I fill in the remaining spots.
Judging by the amount of food in the grocery list, I know how expensive or inexpensive my meals need to be for the remainder of the days.
If the list is short by this point, I might go for a dish with shrimp or steak. If it happens to be long, we go for more bean based dishes instead of meat.
After about 10 minutes, I’ve completed my list and meal plan and I’m ready to shop.
Am I going to grab my keys and heading to the store?
NO WAY!
I want to stay on budget! Surprises at the cash register are not helpful to that!
My grocery app is the next place I head to place an online pickup order.
I have my list completed and ready to go, so I just quickly go through and add things to my cart.
In about 10 minutes, I’ve finished my grocery shopping and I get to see what the total is going to be!
Usually, since I’ve planned according to the budget I’m good, but sometimes there is a surprise!
If the cost of a certain cut of meat has gone up since the last time I purchased it, I might go back and make some last minute changes to the plan.
Or if there is a significant amount of extra money remaining in my budget, I might use the opportunity to stock up on a meat to put in the freezer.
Seeing my total and not being chained to a checkout counter is SO HELPFUL!
I schedule my grocery pickup about 2 days in advance.
That way, if I happen to run out of an item before the trip, or we need another random household item, I can add it to the order.
By picking up the groceries, I am saving myself from the stress of the store with kids! I am also preventing the almost inevitable extra spending that comes with going inside.
So, there you have it! Our meal planning and grocery shopping routine for saving success!