Getting Control of The Grocery Bill Part III

This is copy of my weekly post I am doing for TopekaKidsRock.com Be sure to head over there to see all the exciting events going on around Topeka!

Getting Control of the Grocery Bill Part III

In the 1st post of the series I talked about the need to have a grocery spending plan. Last week I discussed what items with in that spending plan might be creating "waste" This week I want to focus on the idea of menu planning.

I cannot remember a time growing up when my mother did not have a dinner plan for the week. Every Saturday morning she stood at the kitchen counter and asked us what we wanted for dinner that week. She then would make up a store list based on what she decided we would have and other things we needed for the week and off to the store she went. This was my first introduction to menu planning. I hope in this post to give you other practical ways and suggestions to plan a menu.

Why I Menu Plan:
I firmly believe that having a plan really does help you spend less at the grocery store. When you have a plan it is easy to stick to buying only what you need (and what you budgeted for) and hopefully you don't get side tracked buying things you don't need. For more reasons to menu plan see this post here... I love it!

How I Menu Plan:
I grocery shop once a week, therefore I make up a menu plan once a week. You can see many of those menu plans here. I usually make a plan for at least 5-6 dinners knowing that a few those meals will serve leftovers for lunch and even an extra dinner. I know that coming up with 5-6 dinner ideas a week can be daunting so I created what I call "Our Family Favorites" list. This list is comprised of at least 30-40 meals that my family likes to eat (my husband calls these "do overs") and I know the recipe and ingredients to off the top of my head. These meals can be as simple as grilled cheese or as complicated as lasagna. This list gives me flexibility and allows to almost always create meals based on what is on sale for the week in our local grocery fliers and with what I have on hand.

Menu Planning around weekly sales:
If you are looking to cut your grocery bill a great way is by using the local grocery fliers as a starting point. Look to see what is on sale for the week and try to come up with dinner ideas based on the sales. Not all items in your menu are going to be sale items for the week and that is okay. Just look to these as a good place to start. If you are unsure of what a good deal for the week might be at our local grocery stores, you can always look here and here to get ideas. Along with the weekly flier deals look to see what you already have on hand. Try using what is in your pantry and freezer. This helps ensure that food is not getting wasted or going bad before it is used.

These are just few ideas that help me and I am truly not the expert when it comes to menu planning. So below I want to encourage you to visit some other blogs that I visit often and have learned a lot from!

I'm an Organizing Junkie
Money Saving Mom (link to her other blog Biblical Womanhood)

If you are looking for inexpensive recipes to start menu planning with here a few of the sites I use:

Dining on a dime
The Aldi Queen
Miserly Moms
$5 Dinners

If you are interest in seeing a weekly Menu Plan based on our weekly Dillons and Hy-vee ad I would encourage you to visit these 2 sites here:

Amy's Finer Things
Cutting coupons in KC

One other thing I will mention is this 17 e-book promotion that is going on right now and ends March 23rd. If you are new to this whole idea of menu planning and saving money at the grocery store you may find these books helpful.

Next week I will be posting the 4th and final post this series. It will focus on how using coupons can also help you get your grocery bill under control.