How to Plan Your Weekly Dinner Menu

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'meal planning' photo (c) 2009, Liz - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/There are several ways to plan a weekly menu:
  • eat exactly what you’re in the mood for this week (no plan)
  • plan to eat what’s on sale this week
  • plan to eat what’s in your cabinets and fridge/freezer this week

There is no right or wrong way to plan, but there are costs associated with each plan or lack thereof.  

If you have no plan for your meals each week you’ll be paying shelf price for most items you want to eat, and you’ll likely find yourself making multiple trips to the store for items you need to finish a meal. Usually when people mention an astonishingly high # for their monthly grocery budget (notice only for groceries) it is because they are eating what sounds good at the moment. Obviously having a plan would save a lot of time and money. 

I recommend that you stock up on the sale items each week and plan your menu around those sale items and the items you already have on hand from previous shopping weeks.  Try to only make one trip to the grocery store(s) each week and include your purchases of milk and fresh fruits at the same time.  If you find that you’re missing something you need to make a particular dish.  Make do or switch to another planned meal for that week.  Rushing to the store to buy one thing wastes a lot of time and money. For our family it works best to choose the meals for the week but not plan them for any particular night. When we cook everything on the list we know it’s time for leftovers. This still allows us some flexibility to decide what sounds good for each night, yet stay within our budget.

It may be intimidating to make a menu from what’s on sale each week, but it doesn’t have to be.  Simply look at the meats that are on sale and think of what dishes you can prepare using those meats.  Don’t forget to cook up a double batch of some meals so that you have some freezer meals ready for nights that you’re short on time.  If you have a Brookshire’s nearby, my friend Julie over at Pary Moppins is your meal planning expert friend.  Nearly every week she will post a menu that is planned exclusively from the current Brookshire’s ad.  The meals are usually pretty economical and have a decent variety.  Here is her latest Brookshire’s menu plan. You could combine meals from this menu each week with items you already have at home.  Using her plan would save you both time and money-a perfect world- LOL

Do you have a different way of planning your menu?  Do you have a set type of meal for each night of the week, or a set balance of particular foods?  I’d love to hear how other families plan their meals.

You might also want to read my post on how I keep my meal plans to just $5 a cooked meal.


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Comments

  1. Friday is always pizza night per my husband’s request so usually it is a frozen pizza that I add extra toppings and cheese to though I have made homemade as well.
    The rest of the week I usually don’t plan until the day of and I just try to figure out what I have on hand or if there are any leftovers that haven’t been used for lunches, they get used for dinner. Last night I saw I had a lot of leftover rice from making kabobs the other day so I decided to make Spanish rice with sausage to use it up. I also thawed some meat and started marinating it for the weekend. I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to meal planning. I make one meal and if my teenagers don’t like it, they have to make their own dinner. The little ones have no choice but, to eat what I make. I always thought I liked to cook until I had to do it on a regular basis and it’s hard to please everyone’s tastes so it is a very thankless job but, we all have to eat.

    – Angela

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