Weekly meal planning??

Jen&Louie · April 2009

In an attempt to organize our home and to be a healthier couple, I've been thinking about planning meals by the week. I'm hoping that it will help lessen trips to the grocery store, save money and alleviate the dreaded last minute "What am I going to cook?" panic that inevitably happens at about 4:45 pm each day.

Does anyone else do this?
How is it going?
Do you use any kind of chart or system to help with the planning/list making?

(BTW - I just posted our meals for this week on the sidebar of my blog)

haydence@hotmail.com · April 2009

DH and I use to do this when we lived in Kentucky...every Sunday we would sit down after church, make a list of what we wanted, then would go to the grocery store, and actually prepare some of the meals that day if they would keep in the freezer...it worked great until we got on totally opposite schedules, and then i moved to TX...we need to restart it to save money!

kelcat · April 2009

We do this. It usually happens before we go to the store and I try to make a list of everything we need so 1) I stick to it and sepnd less, and 2) don't forget anything. We don't plan each day out, just ok what are the dinners we will eat next week. I usually decide on what will be cooked 24hrs before and it's usually me askind DH what he wants for dinner the next night. And we usually have at least one night of leftovers. It works well.

bkenan · April 2009

I try to do this. With me working crazy hours right and and I never now if I will have to work late or not, and having a 2 1/2 year old who is hungry whenever she walks in the door from daycare its nice having a plan.

Most of the time I cook 4-5 meals a week then use the rest for leftovers,when we have them Smile . Dh eats anything so we have to plan our meals around our daughter.

I make a list of what meals we are planning on having, go through the pantry and fridge to see what we have so I dont buy things I dont need. I leave the eaiser meals for Dh when I know im closing and wont be home until around 5:30.

megan1010 · April 2009

I haven't mastered or attempted this phenomenon yet....i'm curious to try though...I need to. It is hard with my new schedule now. I just need to start planning the meals to cook on the nights I don't work my second job. And I need to start using some of my recipes.

I have like 8 chicken breasts in our freezer that I need to use but haven't. I want to find a good chicken recipe, DH is not a HUGE fan of chicken, the man loves his BEEF!! But whenever we are able to go to the grocery store, it's usually for neccessities not intentionally for dinner unless stuff is on sale. We are bad grocery shoppers, but need to get into a better habit.

bkenan · April 2009

I cant take Dh grocery shopping with me! When he goes we spend so much more money and dont get nearly as much as I can without him. I have turned into a "coupon queen" the past few weeks! I have saved a bunch of money so far!

iteachkids81 · April 2009

DH was in the habit of eating out all the time when it was just him here. Now that I'm here we were in the habit for a little while of me cooking most nights, but since we got back from the honeymoon I have cooked like twice. ?We've been out of town a lot, and there are a couple nights a week where we are out and food is provided, but altogether it is a LOT of eating out.?

I actually mentioned to him that we sit down this weekend and talk about planning the meals for the next week.

as far as leftovers go, thats generally what I eat for lunches while he is at work.?

?

shell211 · April 2009

Yes I try to plan each week's worth of meals and shop once a week on the weekend. DH and I are pretty much same schedule so we do spend every night together which is nice and I cook about 5 nights a week. I like to buy meat in bulk and freeze out small portions for us to just put in the fridge to thaw the day before. Alot of nights I just have a few easy choices for dinner on hand and I'll ask DH what he wants when he gets home. I need to make more healthy meals and get new ideas.

megan1010 · April 2009

Jen, I love your planned out meal on your blog!!!! Looks yummeh!!

Jen&Louie · April 2009

Thanks, Meg! Here is a link to one of my favorite chicken recipes...

Rasperry Balsamic Chicken

thom2022 · April 2009

I LOVE the idea and I'd love to start doing more planning. Sometimes we'll plan out a few days, but that's as far as we get:)

mrskimm09 · April 2009

Ive been thinking about doing this also.

Irisheyes1247 · April 2009

I usually just give myself a general idea - meat, veg, starch - and jot it on our calendar (we have a dry erase one in the kitchen). The problem I was running into was I would plan to make and make things and not take into account the fact that there may be leftovers. I was able to purchase gift cards at work with a 10% discount, $250 a week. So before we got married, I used some of the money in our wedding savings to buy $1250 in Wegmans gift cards (so technically we get $125 of free groceries!). But I have a hard time sticking to a budget. I do buy most of my meats in the big bulk packages and divide it up and freeze it.?

haydence@hotmail.com · April 2009

we sat down this weekend and made a budget, and menu for the week....so far so good

We're hoping to use the extra money to pay off our debt quicker!

Weekly meal planning??

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