Frugal and Healthy Meal Planning

June 14, 2009

With 3 meals a day and 7 dinners a week, most moms or dads who are in charge of food for the family find themselves swimming in confusion as to what to make for dinner or just serving up the same boring meals over and over again.  Here’s the  answer to your dinner planning woes: a weekly menu plan.  It doesn’t have be complicated and a small time investment can reap great rewards.  A menu plan saves money by reducing trips to the supermarket, and impulse spending. When you use leftovers, you efficiently cut food waste, and buying in bulk makes it easy to stockpile freezer meals at reduced prices.  It also saves time and improves nutrition because you have time to prepare side dishes and salads to complement the main dish, increasing the family’s consumption of fruits and vegetables.

How to do it:

Begin with a notebook and a pen, or your computer and make a list of all of the things you like to cook and your family likes to eat, using these categories:

• Main Dishes

• Starches (Rice, Pasta, Potatoes etc.)

• Vegetables/Salads/Fruits

• Breads

• Desserts

What’s the next step?  Go through and highlight all of the dishes that are budget friendly or that can be adapted to be and place them on a Master List. Dishes like oven fried chicken, veggie casseroles, ground meat dishes, favorite veggies, homemade breads and desserts usually make the list.  Of course if your list is lacking a bit, add some new items you would like to try, and use them along with family favorites.  Then if they turn out to be winners, you can add them to your Master List.  Get the picture?  The dishes on your Master list can be fitted into the categories above and rotated weekly. Be sure to visit the sales section of the local paper to see what the grocery store has on sale—be sure to factor in some frugality too!

1 Comment

1. 

   Totally agree! Not sure how I would do it without a meal plan. You should really checkout http://www.plantoeat.com if you are into meal planning. It’s really nice because you can search your own recipes by your current ingredients and it creates the shopping list (categorized into shopping categories – love it) from the meal plan you make. It cost $5 a month but I figure we save much more than that from having a plan and eating out less.

   Comment by Meal Planning Mommy — June 15, 2009 @ 2:23 am

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