Meal Planning

Another way we save money is to meal plan. This doesn't happen every week and there is not perfect way to do it. However, meal planning gives you a guide to follow throughout the week so you can hopefully avoid that last minute stop at the fast food restaurant!

There are several ways to do meal planning. Like I said there is no right or wrong way to do it. I personally just plan 1 meal a day for everyday of the week. Most time there is enough for leftovers, sometimes not. Either way at least having that one meal a day planned makes it easier for us.

Check out the post from Mom's Plan over HERE. She gives several different examples on how to meal plan and different idea's on how to do it.

A few of the subjects she touches on are

1. Assign a Meal to a Day of the Week
   
2. Make a Menu Plan Once a Month
3. Choose Your Menu Plan Based on What Is on Sale
4. Choose Your Menu Plan Based on What You Have in the Pantry

We have tried several of these. We find the one that works best for us is to choose our menu based on what is on sale. We have also occasionally done plans where we eat only out of our pantry for a week as well.

Making a menu plan for the month was one we tried and did not like. We only had to go to the grocery store once which was amazing! However, it was much harder to incorporate fresh foods and was something we were thrilled doing. We actually ended up spending more money on those months because we were trying to anticipate the little things that come up.

Do you menu plan? Which method do you use?
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