Tip #2: Cut Your Budget Through Menu Planning
Can I just make this one my tip #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7 and #8?
It really doesn’t matter how many things you can get for free or cheap at the grocery store and drug stores. If you don’t have a PLAN for how you will use them to feed your family, then you can STILL be overspending on groceries each month!
Planning what you will eat for the week BEFORE you get to the store will likely save you a tremendous amount of money (even without couponing!) If I could give y’all (yes, I’m in Texas) JUST ONE piece of advice on how to reduce you grocery budget it would be to MENU PLAN!!
What does that mean?
It’s actually pretty easy. Intimidating at first. But easy once you try it.
The way you menu plan will evolve a lot as you get better at couponing and stockpiling (we’ll talk about all of that in future posts!), but you have to start somewhere! Eventually (with the next post actually) we will move away from the idea of menu planning based off of what you want to eat that week, and start menu planning off of what’s on sale! Then, by the end of the series we are going to come around FULL CIRCLE and menu plan again based off of whatever you want to eat that week.
But the difference between the end of the series and what’s outlined in this post is that you will already have EVERYTHING that you need for your menu each week in your house! You won’t need to go to the store for a single thing. Sound like a plan? Sound a little overwhelming? Don’t let it be – we will go through it all step-by-step!
Pick a time each week (preferably a time when the kids are tucked in bed and the house is quiet) and write down what you want to feed your family that week.
That means that you take out your recipe books, or look at recipes online ALL ON THE SAME NIGHT (or whenever is best for you) and write down the ones that you want to fix.
You will need 7 dinners, 7 lunches, 7 breakfasts and however many snacks your family needs.
Write them all down and then write down next to them all of the ingredients that you need to make them.
Cross off the ingredients that you already have in your pantry or freezer, and then write down on a separate sheet of paper the ones that you need to buy at the grocery store.
Then, when you go to the store… here’s the tricky part… ONLY BUY THE THINGS ON YOUR LIST!!
I know. It’s hard. The marketers think they know us. They think that if they put items in certain places in the store or at the end of an aisle then we will buy it even if we didn’t come to the store for it. In fact, they would bet money on it that we will (and do with their advertising dollars). But we are smarter than that, right? 
We can go to the store and JUST get what’s on our list. Then we can take our extra cash that we didn’t spend and laugh at all of the marketing gimmicks and ploys on our way out the door.
Even WITHOUT couponing, stockpiling, or shopping the sales cycles, just making this one change can save hundreds, if not thousands, each year!
But you’re reading this series to learn how to save money through couponing, so we’ll go on to to the next step which is learning how to menu plan off of the store sales flyers! :)
Do you menu plan? How has it helped you?
| << Tip #1: You don’t have to be an “Extreme Couponer” | Tip #3: Menu Plan Off Of The Store Sales Flyers >> |
I plan a menu out of our sale flyers… Then look for coupons that i already have or print them!
Absolutely. And I prep what I can Sunday. Leads to much less stress during the week of “what for dinner?”
I don’t plan all week…but since I work in a grocery store I will follow the sale ad and most of the time plan the meals around it…sometimes we stray cause we are hungry for something…:)
We absolutely menu plan. We actually started out of necessity when I started graduate school and we were living on one very small salary. It’s amazing how that small idea saved us so much by combining our pre made menus with the sales fliers. And we got into such a habit of doing a menu every week, we still do it. It takes a lot of stress off during the week knowing what we are having for dinner that night!
My mom used to plan (and shop) for a month at a time! Of course some meals would be repeated throughout the month. I remember helping her decide the menu every month…cookbooks and old menus spread out for ideas. She would make a list of the options and not necessarily have a set day for each meal, but still….amazing. If only I’d take the time to do that!
That’s what I do too. I only look for coupons on things I’m planning to buy and usually only have printable coupons to use.
Immensely helped! We save so much money. And, I try to buy main dish ingredients that are on sale. I don’t go crazy, searching ads, but if I get there and something is on sale, I might change my menu on the fly.
I do basically the same as those comments above. We have our favorite TNT (tried n true) recipes and a file of recipes I’d like to try. When I see meat, especially, I’ll load up and freeze in recipe sized portions using my FoodSaver. But, I also let the sale ads determine what we’re going to eat for the week. I only buy things I can freeze or items I have room for in my pantry. I refuse to be a food hoarder. Also, did you know you can freeze milk?? It’s a real money saver too.
I am trying to begin couponing because I’m tired of spending so much money!!! I’ve read the blog and love it but is there any other advice you could offer a true virgin couponer? It seems overwhelming still with menu planning and the organizing especially with my busy schedule…but I amwilling to try! I also have a question I live in San Angelo, TX and we really only have Albertson’s and HEB and HEB does not double your coupons nor can you use more than one coupon on an item any advice for this?
As a single mom & sole breadwinner for my family, I have been menu planning for years. It really really works! Because we are a really busy family, when I make something like stew or soup or chili, I double the recipe & put some in the freezer, then take them out the night before & let them thaw in the fridge, or put them in a crock pot on “low” while I’m @ work the day I plan to serve that particular item for dinner. It’s a godsend on those nights when we get home from sports activities @ 7pm & are starving & keeps us from ordering out in desperation!
I try to make a menu list for us, and we try to stick with it. Our real problem is organization and time management with my husband and I both working full time, I am in school full time (senior year, accounting degree here I come!), and raising two little ones. Things get a little crazy and frazzled! is there a specific system you use for menu planning? Right now I am going through and putting “inventory lists” on our cupboard doors so we know what and how many we have of whichever product. I have a menu list in my notebook, and we are really working hard to stick to it! Do you use a calendar and write your meals on it and place it in a central location in the house?
I do a lot of crock pot cooking and we do freeze a lot of things. That part I have down pat, it’s just the “shopping while saving” and planning part that gets tricky!