Budget Meal

Eating on a budget is made deliciously simple with planned budget meals.

A few tips:

• Plan your meals (including desserts, if desired), make a list, and stick to it.
• Plan meals according to your grocery store specials.
• Plan on using leftovers (Monday's pot roast turns into Tuesday's roast beef sandwiches).
• Incorporate at least one or two meatless meals a week into your menu.
• Reduce the amount of meat in recipes and increase the amount of another less expensive filler such as rice, beans, or pasta.
• Make your own cookies, cakes and breads instead of buying them premade (they taste better this way, too).
• Compare prices.  You may be surprised to discover a sale item isn't always cheaper than another brand not on sale.
• Browse through the discontinued and damaged items.  They are still good, and a lot cheaper.
• Stock up when you come across an unbelievable buy.  Spending a few extra dollars one week will yield high rewards in the following weeks.
• Never shop hungry.  You'll find more things ending up in your shopping cart than normal.
• Use coupons.  Better yet, couple them with an in-store special for an even bigger savings.
• Shopping wisely, and following a Meal Planning Guide, will enable you to enjoy more expensive cuts of meat occasionally.  The key is in planning, price comparing and taking advantage of store specials.

 

MEAL PLANNING GUIDE

Simplifying meal planning and grocery shopping will help you breeze through the grocery store in less time and with less headache. If you go to the grocery store empty handed.......no list, no coupons, no store ad, and no earthly idea of what you are going to buy for a week's worth of dinners you will end up spending much more money. Going to the grocery store un-prepared is a disaster waiting to happen............missing key ingredients, forgetting toothpaste, or only buying enough food to last 5 days instead of 7, then going back and doing it all over again!

So, with that in mind, skim through these meal planning tips and apply what will be of use in your household.  It's easy, quick, and saves money.  Use the money you will save to treat your family to an evening treat at Molly Moo's!  Yum!

STEP 1 - Organize Your Recipes

This part may be time consuming at first, but once you have completed this important step, you'll reap the rewards from having done it.  There are many different ways you can organize your recipe files..........by category, by ingredients, by ease/difficulty, alphabetical, etc.  The easiest way is to organize them in Recipe Books according to category (Appetizers, Meat, Chicken, Casseroles, Soups, Cookies, Pies, etc.). That way, cookbooks, magazines and index cards, are stored neatly in your pantry.  Space will determine where you store your cookbooks and recipes, but if they're organized, they'll be easily accessible anywhere (except maybe the attic!).

Okay, now you have that job done.......whew!  You deserve a cup of hot chocolate!

In your organizing, did you notice you have quite a few recipes that you have clipped or marked in a cookbook that you have not yet tried?  To eliminate the hunt-and-peck game for that "something new" to try, create a simple file of just........Recipes To Try.  Take a big recipe filing box and make category cards (this can be fancy or simple, however you wish to do it).  Then, file all of the loose recipes behind the appropriate heading.  On an index card or piece of paper for each category, write down "to try" recipes in cookbooks (title, cookbook and page number) and file them accordingly, too.

Now you're set...tried-and-true recipes are organized, and you have a handy box full of recipes you want to try.  You are ready to begin meal planning.

STEP 2 - Meal Planning

Grab a piece of paper or two, a pen and your "To Try" box.  If you shop weekly, number 1-7 on the top of your paper (1-14 for two weeks).  Now you have 7 (or how many ever you're shopping for) dinners to plan (the fun part).  Start with line number one, and write down a complete meal (ie:  Lasagna, Garlic Bread, Salad...or Grilled Steak, Rice Pilaf, Green Beans).  Continue on down through the remaining lines, trying to add a new recipe or two if possible.  Try adding 1-3 new recipes a week.  

To save money, try to plan meals according to your grocery stores specials.  If chicken breasts are on sale, plan a couple of meals using chicken or the same goes with ground beef, roasts, pork chops, etc.  Also browse your coupons for ones that expire soon and see if you can't incorporate that item into a meal or dessert. You can often times buy a box of cereal for well under $2 because you can buy the store's special and use a coupon to go with it.  You can buy items for pennies using this thrifty method.  Another money-saving tip: plan on using leftovers!  If you make a pot roast one night, automatically plan on French Dip Sandwiches the next night.  Team it up with some home fries and a veggie or fruit of some sort and you'll have a complete and inexpensive dinner!

STEP 3 - Shopping List

Once you have all numbered lines filled in with a complete menu, now go through those recipes and determine what ingredients you need to buy.  Categorize your second sheet of paper (or the back of the first one) with appropriate headings (meat, dairy, produce, canned, frozen, bread, cleaning, etc.), leaving enough space in between categories to write down what you need underneath.  Let's take the first line, Lasagna, Garlic Bread, and Salad.  Under meat, do you need ground beef for your sauce?  If so, write it down under "Meat" (or if you buy canned, write spaghetti sauce under "Canned").  Same with lasagna noodles, cheese, spices, etc.  Continue on with the Garlic Bread and Salad.  Once that line is completed, move on to line number two, and so on.  Very simple, and not as time consuming as it may sound.

Once you have your dinner ingredients complete, decide if you'll be doing any baking in the next week or two.  If you will, write down the ingredients you will need.  Now is a good time to try a new dessert recipe!

Now go through your refrigerator and cupboards to determine what staples you are low on.   Don't forget to keep breakfast and lunch items in mind...cereal, eggs, bread, fruit, etc.  Make sure to check out your bathroom and cleaning needs, too.  Running out of toilet paper is the pits!

Want something even easier?  Keep a handy list posted on your refrigerator or somewhere within easy reach, and whenever you run out of something, write it on the list.  Just grab that list when you're making out your shopping list!

STEP 4 - Tackling The Grocery Store

This part is easy when you have a tidy little list with you!  Bring along your list, your menu, and your coupons.  Make sure you take your menu, because sometimes you might have to refer to it during your shopping.  Better to be safe than sorry.  If you've been shopping in the same grocery store for awhile, you probably know the layout by heart (and you can even organize your shopping list by the store layout rather than category, if desired).  Tackling the store now should be a breeze.  You'll no longer be rushing around with no idea of what to buy, and going through the same aisles three times because you forgot something, or are "planning" meals as you go.  We can all simplify life in small ways, just like this.

THAT'S IT!  THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT!