In this part of the Saving on Groceries Series, I will discuss how I utilize meal planning and Once a Month Shopping to cut down on our grocery expenses. The other parts in this series can be found in the Frugal Tips tab up above.
Meal Planning
I think, of all the ways I’ve learned to save money on groceries, having a meal plan has saved me the most time and money. I’ve been able to pare it down even more by shopping in bulk and cooking from scratch, but planning my meals and then shopping for only the meals I’ve planned has definitely been the biggest saver for me. My husband gets paid biweekly, so for the last 5 years, I have gone shopping every other week and planned 2 weeks worth of meals. At first I only planned dinners, and I had a basic rotation of breakfasts, lunches, and snacks that we would go through. Then as the family grew, appetites got larger, and food prices went up, I started planning breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks for each day. This did a couple of things:
- I was able to figure out exactly how much of each ingredient I needed to buy, eliminating *most* of our food waste.
- Allowed me to have things planned ahead of time, so all I needed to do was look at the calendar the night before and see if I needed to thaw anything or prepare anything ahead of time.
- My husband is now able to check the calendar and help with meal times if I’m sick, busy, or just need a break (this is most common during first trimesters and right after a baby is born. I’ll usually try to make sure I’m planning meals that I know he’s comfortable with preparing if I see one of these times coming).
- Saved a TON of money on the grocery budget. The truth is, our grocery budget hasn’t changed much since we only had 2 kids. We’re literally a couple of months away from welcoming Baby #5 to the clan, and we spend exactly what we spent five years ago on groceries when we were a “small” family of four…and think about how much food costs have risen since then! Meal planning helps me be as efficient as possible with our time and financial resources.
Shopping Once a Month:
Four months ago, I took this a step further and started meal planning and shopping only once a month. It’s something I’d read about on other blogs, but just didn’t think we could come up with that lump sum of money at the beginning of the month. I also didn’t think we could stick to a meal plan for a month. I envisioned us eating like kings for the first half of the month…and then living on rice and beans for the second half of the month due to poor planning. It was a little nerve wracking for me. I finally decided to take the plunge, though. I wanted to spend less time at the store each month, and I wanted to see if I could cut our grocery bill a little bit more. Our bill had started to creep up toward $450/month and I needed to get it back down to $350-$400/month because hubby’s slow season at work was coming.
And I was successful! I cut our grocery bill by anywhere from $50-$150 per month just by starting to shop once a month instead of twice!So, how did I do it that first month?
Well, like I said before, we typically shopped twice a month with about $200 for each trip. So that first month, I tried super hard to come up with the most frugal meal plan I could. I shopped for an entire month for a family of 6 with only $200 (half of our typical monthly budget).
We did have meat in the freezer from the cow and pig that we purchased last spring, but we didn’t eat much of it that month to be honest. I really try to save our meat for the months when I know my husband’s work tends to slow down and money is tighter than usual.We ate a lot of oatmeal for breakfast, a lot of bean dishes for dinner, and leftovers as often as possible that month. Then I saved as much as I could from the second paycheck of the month to put toward a huge one-month shopping trip at the beginning of month 2. And it was mostly successful. I did have to go and spend a small amount toward flour, eggs, and some other pantry items to get us through, but for the most part, I only used half of my grocery budget that month to feed our family. This meant that at the beginning of Month #2, I had one month’s worth of grocery money saved up (because remember, we get paid twice a month with my husband’s job). Does that make sense? Let me know if you need further clarification…it can be kind of confusing to type out!
The Meal Plan:
Basically all I do is create a list of 14 dinners that I repeat twice. I always try to have leftovers at least once a week, and we are meatless 2-3 times a week (this is both for budgetary reasons, and also because we carry the Lenten practice of Meatless Fridays throughout the year as a small sacrifice to offer up to commemorate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross). Soups also save a lot of money and time! Breakfasts, lunches, and snacks are repeated a little more frequently…so I may only make a list of 3-4 each and then repeat those throughout the month.
As I’m writing out my menu, I have my notebook open with 3 columns for the 3 stores that I shop at. I am checking my pantry, fridge, and freezer while writing out the menu, and adding the ingredients that I know I’ll need to the list, depending on which store has the best deal on that item. I also usually have the websites for those stores open so that I can price check, or I use my price book to write out the cost of each item next to it on the list so that I can guesstimate pretty closely how much I’ll spend at each store.
Sometimes when my list is done, I’ll realize that I’ve planned to spend more than what I can afford or what I’d like to. At this point, I go back through and make adjustments to my menu…swapping out less expensive meals to bring the bill down. I ALWAYS menu plan and write out my grocery lists in pencil, because changes inevitably need to be made.
Once I have the list done, and if there is any money left over in the budget, I will check my pantry list and see if there’s anything I can stock up on. We try to always have a well-stocked pantry in case of a financial hardship, or some other sort of emergency. I try to spend $20-$30 per month, give or take, to make sure we never run too low on any of our basic essentials.
Once the list is done and the menu is planned, I write it out on my meal calendar which gets taped to the refrigerator so that everyone can see it. There’s a slot in each day for each of the 3 meals of the day, as well as room for a snack. At the bottom, I have a space where I can write a small grocery list as I run out of ingredients throughout the month. Then I refer to that list as I’m writing the next month’s shopping plan.
Monthly Meal Plan (Click here to download and print a PDF of the Monthly Meal Planner)
If there is an interest, I’d be happy to post one of our monthly meal plans to give you an idea of what kinds of dishes we eat.
This post may contain affiliate links. That means that if you clink on a link and then purchase something, I receive a commission. Thank you so, so much! This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occasionally link my posts at. They’re all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out! The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens, The Modest Mom Blog, Nourishing Joy, Home Grown and Healthy, Hump Day Happenings, Living Well Spending Less.
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Love your meal plan ideas and thank you for sharing! It is pretty amazing that you are able to still stick to the same budget as you did many years ago – wow!
I love meal planning and I would never go back. I try to plan the meal plan around most of the things that we already have in the house to see what minimal things that I can get to make it through the month while stocking up on most of the lowest cost things that I can turn into meals for the following months with sales and coupons. This has gone totally off track for me because are going to be moving so I am currently working on trying to use as much stuff as I can in the cupboards and not buy anything. The great news is that I feel like I spent a lot less but we have been so busy that I haven’t added up December totals yet so I have to see. I think that I need to get back on track and do my normal shopping because preparing for the move is really hard to make sure that we are eating quick and healthy dinners because we are so busy. I like to do a few meatless meals during the week too because it also works better for my son because the things that he likes are so limited and there are only so many times that I can have enough time to make two meals- one for us and one for him. We like breakfast for dinner and pasta for our meals. Since the weather got cold, we are eating more soup. Last year we did a lot of grilled cheese or paninis with side dishes of leftovers or soup but this year I have had trouble getting a good price on cheese so we haven’t had that much
Hopefully you have motivated me to get back on track even if I will never be able to only shop once a month!! Thanks for the great post!
Moving is such a crazy time, Alison! I think even the best laid plans have a tendency to fall apart during a move. Lots of prayers for a smooth transition for you guys. Moving is one of my least favorite things in the whole world…even though it usually means moving to a better situation. It’s just so. much. work!
Yes, I don’t always get my meal planning done, but I find that my week goes so much more smoothly time-wise when I plan it out. I’m not scrambling aroudn after homeschooling wondering what I can make with a hunk of frozen meat or un-soaked dried beans!
I try to meal plan. My husband always ends up changing his mind on what he wants for dinner and we end up making 2-3 different meals. I’ve asked him to give me a list of the meals he wants, but that doesn’t help. I don’t know how to get him on board with the meal plan thing. He used to be fine with it, I did meal plans all the time.
Hi Jessica! For us, we meal plan out of necessity, and I’ve been blessed in that my husband has never put up much of a fuss about any of the meals I’ve made. He works very long days, so it’s not abnormal that he’s not even home when I make dinner, so he doesn’t have much of a say. He ends up reheating leftovers when he gets home at night. If meal planning is something that you want or need to implement (either for budgetary reasons, or just to save your sanity- I see that you’ve got a larger family, and cooking several meals must make dinner time kind of crazy!), try discussing that with your husband. Explain WHY you’d really like to implement a more organized approach to meal times, how it will help you, and probably even save quite a bit of money. Perhaps, up until this point, he hasn’t realized that it’s important to you. Sometimes I think we wives try our best to please our hubbies and end up being a little passive about expressing our needs or wants because we’re trying to say it “nicely” in hopes that he’ll catch on. I’ve found that sometimes I need to start the conversation with, “this is important to me,” in order to really grab his attention and express to him that this isn’t just something I’m suggesting on a whim…it’s something I’ve really thought about and need him to be on board with if at all possible. Just a few thoughts. I hope this helps! Thanks so much for stopping by.
I meal plan, but not to this extent!!! I am so impressed. I usually plan for a week at at time, which is exhausting enough for me : ) Thanks for sharing on Hump Day Happenings!
It is a little exhausting the first couple of times you do it…then you just find a groove and really find an appreciation for not having to do it again for another month! Lol!
Wow, this is amazing. It is hard for me to meal plan because we are able to garden almost year round and I never know what it going to show up in the kitchen. However, I do like the idea of being prepared ahead of time and knowing you have all the ingredients… I would be interested to see a monthly plan to see the kind of meals you make. I am assuming (hoping) with your busy schedule that they are on the basic and easier side?
Jes, yes most of my meals are pretty simple out of necessity! I’ll work on a post with an example of a monthly meal plan.