Meal Planning

Meal Planning

This is an entirely different way of thinking about food.

• Instead of standing in front of an open refrigerator while your electricity bill goes up, you can look at your meal planner and know that you are there to grab the ingredients you need for a planned meal.
• No more anxiety or pressure from everyone asking “What’s for dinner?” and then arguing about what everyone wants.
• No more having to make decisions – you already know what you are going to make.
• No more thinking “Oh, I want to make this,” and then realizing you have to go to the market to get the ingredients
• No more impulse buying – you have a list and you buy what’s on the list.

Inventory

There are several avenues you can take to start meal planning. But, probably, the most important one is to take inventory. Yup, boring and a pain, but necessary. Think of it this way, when you take inventory of what you have in your refrigerator and pantry, you can:

1. Find out what you actually have
2. Find science experiments in the back of your refrigerator (what the heck was that in the first place?).
3. Get rid of expired foods – do not go by the Best Buy Date, go by the Good Until date instead
4. Arrange things so they are easy to find in a First In – First Out arrangement.

I find the best way to take inventory is using the AnyList app, available for iOS, Android, and the web.

The best low-budget healthy recipes are the ones you like. I’ve been in a position where I had to be very careful about my food budget, and I’ve discovered some ways to keep myself on budget and still eat healthy foods.

The first thing to do is make a shopping list and stick to it. Seriously, stick to it. Supermarkets love to entice you with “on-sale” things you really don’t need.

It doesn’t mean you have to buy it because it’s on sale. For example, when you have to buy 10 of something to get 10% off, it’s not worth it. If the item on your list is on sale or the store brand is less expensive, get that.

Making Your List and Checking it Twice

About that shopping list… there are some things you need to do before you make it. First, go to your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer and figure out what you already have. For a good recipe planner with lists for inventory, a meal planner, shopping lists, and can grab recipes from The Good Plate and other well-formed sites, I recommend using AnyList. You could also use a spreadsheet program or just plain paper. No matter how you do your inventory, just make sure you do it.

Now that you know what you have, you can think about what you like to eat and when you want to eat it. For example:

• Sunday night is International night, so Asian, Mexican, Mediterranean, etc.
• Monday night is always hectic, so I like throwing a pattie in a skillet and having a burger and salad for dinner.
• Tuesday night is leftovers from Saturday.
• Wednesday is a day off, so I experiment with new recipes.
• Thursday might be leftovers, something I froze, breakfast for dinner, or dinner out since I have a standing appointment every third Thursday..
• Friday is our meatless night – it can be vegetarian or pescatarian.
• On Saturdays, I make something big enough to have leftovers for Tuesday. The good thing about making the big meal on Saturday, Sunday can truly be a day of rest.

You can figure out your schedule and what you like to eat. I make my schedule for a month, print it for the refrigerator, and also put it on my Google calendar.

Making the List

Now that you know what things you want to make, you can look back at that inventory and figure out what you already have to make them. You also know what you need and can put those items on your shopping list.

Another thing to put on that shopping list is things you are low on. For example, if you are going to run out of olive oil before the next time you do a “big shop,” then put olive oil on your list, too.

Keeping your pantry stocked will save you money when you are using and sticking to a shopping list. I realized about a $ 50.00-month savings when I started using this method.

For your recipe planner, I’m going to recommend Anylist for keeping track of recipes and menu planning. It also allows you to price items on your shopping list. I’m going to recommend Out of Milk for the pantry and shopping lists.