Saving Money by Menu Planning

Did you know that the simple act of planning your weekly meals can save you hundreds of dollars on your grocery bill?  We used to spend about $150 per week to feed a family of 5.  Our grocery bill is now hovering around $60 per week.  That's more than 50% less!  This is how I do it:

1. You need to find yourself a binder (start with a 2-inch, then adjust from there) and begin to organize all of those recipes that you have in magazines, drawers, or on the computer.  Copy them, print them, clip them, do whatever you need to have these on individual pages, then place them into a sheet protector that will be placed in your recipe binder.  My binder contains primarily dinner appropriate recipes, with a section for "other" recipes such as breakfast or dessert.  The binder is ideal because recipes can be rotated as you see fit.  The goal here is to make handy the recipes you know your family will love the most.

2.  Make sure you have a form of some sort to plan on.  I have created one that has worked well for me because I can plan the menu and grocery list for my next shopping trip at the same time.  (Click the image to access the PDF).  When you are planning, you should focus on items you already have on hand, then check sales for other items you can use for your meals.  After a while, you will be able to strictly plan from your current items and add as sale items come around. 

3.  Keep a coupon binder where you can collect all of those coupons and have them on hand to further lower your grocery bill.  Make sure you check out the list of coupon sites I have accumulated, listed at the very bottom of this page.)  Create one by purchasing at least a 2 inch binder to begin and some 9 pocket baseball card holders.  The binder can then be organized any way you wish.  Some like to organize by

store, others like to organize by category. 

4.  Be consistent.  At first, it may seem overwhelming - but if you stick to it, you will begin to reap the benefits!