Menu Planning and Biweekly Grocery Shopping

Meal planning has been such a game changer for us!  It’s so helpful if you’re trying to save more money on your grocery bill, eat more healthy, or even to just avoid the dinner time scramble of “I don’t know what we are having” that sometimes can happen.  Not that I would have any experience with that…. 🙂  I try to grocery shop once every two weeks and then I will go one other time for fresh veggies or fruits if we need them but most of the time we are fine.  When I started meal planning, I was so confused about how to do it.  I wanted to make sure to do it in the most efficient way possible but not make myself crazy!  Here are some of the tips I use when I am planning out our meals for two weeks and hopefully they can help you too:

• The first thing I do is write out each of our names and each meal/snack time.
• Next, I look at our budget for “Grocery” to see what amount I am working with for the 2 week period.  For us, one week it’s a bit higher than the other week so I try to buy more expensive items when I have the higher budget.
• I get out a calendar and see if there are any special holidays or dates coming up within these 2 weeks that I need to account for.  An example could be a birthday celebration where you need to buy items for cake or ice cream, etc.  Or, weekend meals might look different than weekday meals.
• I always look in our refrigerator, pantry and freezers to see what we already have or what I want to use for the next 2 weeks.  I fill in as needed into my handy dandy piece of paper with our names and meals on it.
• Next, I get out the ads for the stores that I shop at so that I can meal plan for things on sale.  Currently, I shop at Costco, Sprouts and Target (sometimes Walmart).  For grocery stores like Sprouts, look at the front and the back pages.  Those are where the great deals are and what they use to get you into the store!
• If there is a sale on something that we use, I stock up for about a 6 week period.  That’s typically how long it takes for the sales to rotate.  Just remember stocking up needs to be factored into your total.
• After I’ve filled in the sale items that I want to use for our meal plan, I outline what eat meal will look like for each person.  I like smoothies for breakfast and my husband enjoys oatmeal while our kids like waffles, pancakes, turkey bacon, etc.  I write every little thing down.  I do this so that I can double check things like butter, coffee, sugar, maple syrup, etc aren’t running low.  At this point, I always check the app on my phone that I use to keep track of things we are running low on.
• I always try to add one meatless meal for dinner which can equal huge savings.  I promise this can be done! My husband loves meat with every meal but we have been able to find some meatless meals that he really enjoys.
• It’s a good idea to keep a binder with favorite recipes for dinner so that if you’re not feeling very adventurous or if your budget is a little tighter than normal and you need a cheaper meal, you can easily pull one from there.
• When I have everything filled out for each person and each meal, I highlight each item on the sheet that needs to be purchased for that shopping trip.  I hang the plan inside my pantry so that I have easy access to it whenever it is mealtime.
• Now I can make my shopping list using these highlighted items.  I write them on a sheet of paper, according to each store, and then next to it I write about the amount that it’s going to cost.  Doing this helps to figure out how far your budget can go or if you need to re-evaluate some meals.  This has helped so much!  There are also apps where you can do this too but I prefer good ol’ pen and paper.

Here are some tips now that we are ready to hit the store(s);

• If your store has a special day where they use double coupons (we don’t have that here in Northern California) then shop on that day!  For Sprouts, on Wednesdays is their overlap day for the old ad an the new ad.  They honor both ads that day so I try really hard to always shop on Wednesday.
• I try to only go to Costco 1-2 times per month because I love Costco so much and they have so many cool things but it can break my budget ASAP!!!  I almost always wait to go to Costco until their next ad is running because, without fail, I will buy something and it’ll be on sale the next week.  (If that happens, go to Customer Service and they can give you the difference for the sale price if it’s within 30 days of purchase).
• At Target, I love and use Cartwheel.  Peruse it before you even leave your house, and add items that you know you need to avoid adding things that aren’t necessary.  I have been using Cartwheel for years and I have saved $534.76 using just this app.
• I also know a lot of people have luck with Ibotta so that’s a good app to check out as well.
• If you eat meat, try to shop the Manager Specials section where they put meat that is still very good but just needs to be consumed or frozen very soon.
• As I’m shopping, I write the total next to each item or circle it if I had the correct price.  That way, I am able to calculate it all up before hitting the registers so there are no surprises.
• Remember to stick to your budget!  If you’re over when you’re calculating, get creative.  The other day I was shopping and realized I didn’t give myself enough money for a few items so I quickly re-evaluated a meal and figured it out.  This gets easier the more you do it!!

Thanks for checking out my very first blog post!  I hope these tips are able to help you meal plan for your next trip to the store 🙂