Meal Planning Question

[SquirrellyMama]

I've always planned meals by picking recipes and shopping for those ingredients. Sometimes I end up not wanting what I have planned.  Does anyone just buy food without recipes picked out?  I know we use chicken, ground beef, sliced beef and fish every month.  Our fruits and veggies are usually similar each month also.

 

Would it end up costing me more money by just buying certain foods we almost always use, and also buying lots of spices, seasonings, etc... Is it possible to get many recipes covered by having certain staples in the house?

 

I'm trying to find new ideas because our food costs have gone up and my dh isn't very thrilled.  We are spending $800 for 5 people.  This is only food.

 

Kelly

[Mrs Mungo]

I keep a reasonable amount of staples on hand. This means even if I decide not to cook spaghetti with meat sauce, then I could actually use the meat for tacos and the pasta to make pasta with peas and bacon and a cream sauce or I could use the meat to make chili and the pasta to make pasta primavera. That sort of thing actually happens a lot at my house. Is that what you're asking?

 

Staples for me are things like: olive and vegetable oils, spices, baking ingredients, onions, garlic, tortillas, rice, frozen veggies (in addition to the fresh that I buy for snacks and/or I buy with a specific recipe in mind), bacon, cheeses, chicken broth, cream, olives, canned diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, various beans (black beans, pink beans and garbanzo beans are almost always in my pantry), salsa, etc.

 

It is pretty rare that I buy spices or seasonings on a regular grocery trip. I only need to replace them now and then.

[Mrs Mungo]

I'm trying to find new ideas because our food costs have gone up and my dh isn't very thrilled.  We are spending $800 for 5 people.  This is only food.

Is that per month? I spend more than that per month, but I'm still below the USDA's "thrifty" food plan for 5 people in my region. Food is a major expense for most people.

 

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm#AK%20and%20HI

[PeachyDoodle]

I know there are lots of people who do this. I, however, am a TERRIBLE cook, so I don't find that it works well for me. I am just not good at opening up the pantry and creating a meal on the fly. I wish I was.

[SquirrellyMama]

I keep a reasonable amount of staples on hand. This means even if I decide not to cook spaghetti with meat sauce, then I could actually use the meat for tacos and the pasta to make pasta with peas and bacon and a cream sauce or I could use the meat to make chili and the pasta to make pasta primavera. That sort of thing actually happens a lot at my house. Is that what you're asking?

 

 

 

In a way I think this is what I'm asking.  Right now I do a list of Mon-Sun and have a meal picked for each day.  I'm tired of doing it this way and wondered if I had enough on had I could google a recipe and make it.  Similar to what you did with your meat in your example.  I have all sorts of seasonings and spices so I wouldn't need to pick them up every shopping trip.  I'm thinking I'd need lots of broths, beans, tomato sauces, etc... on hand. 

 

Just looking for new planning and shopping ideas.  I used to love planning meals and shopping, but I don't anymore.

 

Kelly

[regentrude]

I've always planned meals by picking recipes and shopping for those ingredients. Sometimes I end up not wanting what I have planned.  Does anyone just buy food without recipes picked out?

 

Would it end up costing me more money by just buying certain foods we almost always use, and also buying lots of spices, seasonings, etc... Is it possible to get many recipes covered by having certain staples in the house?

 

I never meal plan. I shop, buy what is on sale and what looks good, and then decide how I want to prepare it. We have staples and spices, potatoes, pasta, and rice in the pantry, and butter, cream and eggs in the fridge. So, it's about deciding what meat and what vegetables to prepare, and take it from there.

So, for example, when I went to the store this week, I noticed baby carrot on sale (crazy - 39 ct per pound) - so this week, our veggie sides will involve lots of carrots. I found some nice cut of beef and some chicken on sale, so that's what the meats will be.

I have ground beef in the freezer, and I can decide spur of the moment whether I want to make meat balls, or meat sauce, or lasagna.

Ditto for fish; a few packages are in the freezer, and we decide short notice if and how we want it.

 

I fail to see how planning before shopping vs planning after shopping should make any difference in cost, provided that there is no food wasted, and that you don't tend to impulse buy stuff you would not want to eat.

[mom31257]

I try to keep some things on hand which I can just throw together. I like to experiment and try things a little. I keep canned chicken (can't stand fresh meat, frozen and rethawed), pouches of wild caught salmon, meatballs in the freezer, etc. I keep broth, pasta, noodles, rice on hand. I buy packs of frozen mixed veggies in different varieties and blends. I buy a lot of spices at the Decatur World Market in Atlanta because they are so stinking cheap there. 

 

I normally shop in my own fridge/pantry first (to see if something needs to be used before expiring), then I look at what is on sale. I plan meals around those two things before just a recipe.

 

 

[Desert Strawberry]

IMO a well stocked pantry is a necessity.

 

I do buy fresh fruits and veggies in season, not knowing what I will get a good price on and what will make it home. I know that we will eat whatever I buy. 

 

I use a flexible plan. I don't necessarily assign a day to each meal. I had Dragon noodles assigned for tomorrow, but I don't want to cook that, so I bumped up butternut squash soup and added barley mushroom soup in it's place. I have dried barley, dried mushrooms,and seasonings on hand.

 

I don't think it's wise to shop without a plan. You will end up with random odds and ends, and have to wing it or pick up filler items through the week.

[SquirrellyMama]

Is that per month? I spend more than that per month, but I'm still below the USDA's "thrifty" food plan for 5 people in my region. Food is a major expense for most people.

 

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm#AK%20and%20HI

 

It is our monthly food budget.  We've seen that site before. My dh is a frugal guy, which can be good and bad.

 

Kelly

 

[SquirrellyMama]

IMO a well stocked pantry is a necessity.

 

I do buy fresh fruits and veggies in season, not knowing what I will get a good price on and what will make it home. I know that we will eat whatever I buy. 

 

I use a flexible plan. I don't necessarily assign a day to each meal. I had Dragon noodles assigned for tomorrow, but I don't want to cook that, so I bumped up butternut squash soup and added barley mushroom soup in it's place. I have dried barley, dried mushrooms,and seasonings on hand.

 

I don't think it's wise to shop without a plan. You will end up with random odds and ends, and have to wing it or pick up filler items through the week.

 

I wasn't going to go in without a plan.  There are certain things we always get.  I just don't want to pick the meals out ahead of time.  I'll have to look at some "pantry must haves" and decide from there.

 

Kelly

[Mrs Mungo]

It is our monthly food budget.  We've seen that site before. My dh is a frugal guy, which can be good and bad.

 

Kelly

You are still below the lowest category on average food costs for the makeup of your family. It's okay to be frugal, but your dh should be expecting miracles. Maybe going over this site with him would help him see that only a certain level of frugality is possible. Plus, if keeping on an extremely strict budget means that you're no longer enjoying making meals, which often leads to more eating out, then it might not be cheaper in the long run.

[Alenee]

You are still below the lowest category on average food costs for the makeup of your family. It's okay to be frugal, but your dh should be expecting miracles. Maybe going over this site with him would help him see that only a certain level of frugality is possible. Plus, if keeping on an extremely strict budget means that you're no longer enjoying making meals, which often leads to more eating out, then it might not be cheaper in the long run.

 

Yes.  DH is doing most of the shopping now and can't believe what he ends up spending.  I keep telling him, "Every two week shopping trip, I blow $600 in two hours, including a tank of gas."  That's about $1000 a month, not counting the gas fill-ups, but it does include our toiletries and dog food.

[LostSurprise]

I think there are staples for every home. They may be different for different people. Staples are usually things you use so often it just makes sense to replace them. If you get too tired to make the meal on your meal plan, or if your kids want to make themselves breakfast or a snack, the foods you're most comfortable with are usually staples. 

 

For me, that would be baking items, oil, butter, pasta, rice, potatoes, apples, carrots, garlic, canned tomatoes, chicken, chicken broth, milk, yogurt, almonds, coffee, breakfast cereal, popcorn. 

 

There are many items that I usually get (various fruit or vegetables, meats, bread) but many times I'll trade things off depending on prices, the season, and what I feel like eating. They fall into categories more than staples. 

[Ottakee]

I try to keep a stocked pantry and basics in the fridge.  I shop Walmart or Aldi for most things as they are way cheaper for many things than the local grocery stores.

 

I then fill in the extras with whatever is on sale that week.......esp. for fruits and veggies.  We often buy our beef and chicken in bulk so I almost always have that in the freezer.

 

I can then make a host of recipes by using what ever we have on hand.

[Desert Strawberry]

I never meal plan. I shop, buy what is on sale and what looks good, and then decide how I want to prepare it. We have staples and spices, potatoes, pasta, and rice in the pantry, and butter, cream and eggs in the fridge. So, it's about deciding what meat and what vegetables to prepare, and take it from there.

So, for example, when I went to the store this week, I noticed baby carrot on sale (crazy - 39 ct per pound) - so this week, our veggie sides will involve lots of carrots. I found some nice cut of beef and some chicken on sale, so that's what the meats will be.

I have ground beef in the freezer, and I can decide spur of the moment whether I want to make meat balls, or meat sauce, or lasagna.

Ditto for fish; a few packages are in the freezer, and we decide short notice if and how we want it.

 

I fail to see how planning before shopping vs planning after shopping should make any difference in cost, provided that there is no food wasted, and that you don't tend to impulse buy stuff you would not want to eat.

If you know that you are going to cook seven meat-starch-veg meals each week, but you aren't sure how you will fill each of those categories, that is a plan. 

I am vegetarian. I can't really plan my meals that way. I might say I want 3beans and rice meals, 2 soups and a curry. That is a meal plan.

It's just the level of detail that differs.

[regentrude]

If you know that you are going to cook seven meat-starch-veg meals each week, but you aren't sure how you will fill each of those categories, that is a plan. 

I am vegetarian. I can't really plan my meals that way. I might say I want 3beans and rice meals, 2 soups and a curry. That is a meal plan.

It's just the level of detail that differs.

 

But I don't really know ahead of time that the meal will be meat-starch-veggie. I may decide that no meat looks appealing and not buy any. Or our schedule may be such that too few family members are home and I won't cook. The weather may turn cold and I may decide it feels like a soup day. Or we are just ravenous very early and it's going to be eggs.

I really do not have a plan. I do not even know how many times a week I will be cooking. Shrug. We eat. Well. Thanks to modern conveniences like refrigerator and freezer.

 

[cjzimmer1]

my shopping list and meal plan very seldom have much in common.  My shopping list includes any of my pantry supplies that I am low on or out of as well as anything on sale that I want to stock up on.  My meal plan is based on whatever I have in the house.

 

So for instance, whole chickens go on sale for 99, if there is no limit I will buy 6-8 of them (I have two large freezers).  If I'm low on frozen veggies, I will by 20 packages (we go through 3 pounds in a meal though so it's not nearly as much as it sounds). Ham will be going on sale soon and I will probably by 3-4 of them.  I buy other cuts of pork/bacon, fish, seafood, other cuts of chicken etc when I see a good sale.  When spaghetti sauce is on sale I buy 50 jars.  I always keep a stock of assorted pasta shapes on hand as well as couscous, quinoa, potatoes, rice and wheat berries(I make all our bread products).  I buy a half of beef and that lasts us a year (right now I'm down to a few steaks and some soup bones). 

 

So my point is I always have at least 3-4 kinds of meat in the freezer (that's not counting all the different cuts of beef when I have the full supply), I will have 4-5 kinds of frozen veggies, I have fresh veggies after a grocery run (but of course I have the frozen veggies when I run out), I have a multitude of starch options.  I have home canned and frozen fruit in abundance as well as 3-5 types of dried fruit at any one time.

 

So when I meal plan, I simply plan based on my available time during the week with whatever we have on hand.  So salads won't occur right before a grocery run because the fresh stuff is used up but we will probably have a veggie stir fry instead. We are having few beef meals right now since we have about a month to wait till the next half comes in.  Then we will probably eat a lot of beef for a month or two because I'm getting really tired of chicken right now. 

 

I do find it saves me a ton of money because I buy probably 75% of my stuff at deep sale prices.  I also save money by not running to the grocery store as often (currently I go about every 10-14 days).  But it does require a somewhat decent sized place to store both dry goods and frozen goods.  If you can't carve out storage space it won't do you any good.  The other thing is you have to be good about monitoring your supply and rotating through your foods.  If you have to throw out food then you won't save any money.  I think the last time I threw out any food was last summer when some of the produce from my garden got away from me.  It's very rare for us to throw anything away.  We have "clean out the fridge meals" at least 1-2 times a week.  My kids think it's normal for everyone to be eating a different thing for a meal. 

[KungFuPanda]

I think the trick is to use the sale flyer to make the menu and the menu to make the list.

[Ameena]

my shopping list and meal plan very seldom have much in common.  My shopping list includes any of my pantry supplies that I am low on or out of as well as anything on sale that I want to stock up on.  My meal plan is based on whatever I have in the house.

 

So for instance, whole chickens go on sale for 99, if there is no limit I will buy 6-8 of them (I have two large freezers).  If I'm low on frozen veggies, I will by 20 packages (we go through 3 pounds in a meal though so it's not nearly as much as it sounds). Ham will be going on sale soon and I will probably by 3-4 of them.  I buy other cuts of pork/bacon, fish, seafood, other cuts of chicken etc when I see a good sale.  When spaghetti sauce is on sale I buy 50 jars.  I always keep a stock of assorted pasta shapes on hand as well as couscous, quinoa, potatoes, rice and wheat berries(I make all our bread products).  I buy a half of beef and that lasts us a year (right now I'm down to a few steaks and some soup bones). 

 

So my point is I always have at least 3-4 kinds of meat in the freezer (that's not counting all the different cuts of beef when I have the full supply), I will have 4-5 kinds of frozen veggies, I have fresh veggies after a grocery run (but of course I have the frozen veggies when I run out), I have a multitude of starch options.  I have home canned and frozen fruit in abundance as well as 3-5 types of dried fruit at any one time.

 

So when I meal plan, I simply plan based on my available time during the week with whatever we have on hand.  So salads won't occur right before a grocery run because the fresh stuff is used up but we will probably have a veggie stir fry instead. We are having few beef meals right now since we have about a month to wait till the next half comes in.  Then we will probably eat a lot of beef for a month or two because I'm getting really tired of chicken right now. 

 

I do find it saves me a ton of money because I buy probably 75% of my stuff at deep sale prices.  I also save money by not running to the grocery store as often (currently I go about every 10-14 days).  But it does require a somewhat decent sized place to store both dry goods and frozen goods.  If you can't carve out storage space it won't do you any good.  The other thing is you have to be good about monitoring your supply and rotating through your foods.  If you have to throw out food then you won't save any money.  I think the last time I threw out any food was last summer when some of the produce from my garden got away from me.  It's very rare for us to throw anything away.  We have "clean out the fridge meals" at least 1-2 times a week.  My kids think it's normal for everyone to be eating a different thing for a meal. 

 

This is the way we do it as well. With the exception of meals tend to be planned that morning, based on our schedule for the day.

 

I try to always have enough meat / pantry goods / frozen veggies to last 2 months without shopping for anything but perishables like milk & fruit. We once had to coast 6 months on what we had in the house & another $50 cash each month. We still had food left at the end.

 

I buy meat on clearance mostly - which helps a lot. While I do shop every week or so, I don't buy a ton & those foods might not be eaten for weeks / months, especially if they are frozen items. It all gets added to a rotating stockpile. That way I can shop just the loss leaders / coupon freebies / cheapies / clearance.

 

[Prairie~Phlox]

my shopping list and meal plan very seldom have much in common.  My shopping list includes any of my pantry supplies that I am low on or out of as well as anything on sale that I want to stock up on.  My meal plan is based on whatever I have in the house.

 

So for instance, whole chickens go on sale for 99, if there is no limit I will buy 6-8 of them (I have two large freezers).  If I'm low on frozen veggies, I will by 20 packages (we go through 3 pounds in a meal though so it's not nearly as much as it sounds). Ham will be going on sale soon and I will probably by 3-4 of them.  I buy other cuts of pork/bacon, fish, seafood, other cuts of chicken etc when I see a good sale.  When spaghetti sauce is on sale I buy 50 jars.  I always keep a stock of assorted pasta shapes on hand as well as couscous, quinoa, potatoes, rice and wheat berries(I make all our bread products).  I buy a half of beef and that lasts us a year (right now I'm down to a few steaks and some soup bones). 

 

So my point is I always have at least 3-4 kinds of meat in the freezer (that's not counting all the different cuts of beef when I have the full supply), I will have 4-5 kinds of frozen veggies, I have fresh veggies after a grocery run (but of course I have the frozen veggies when I run out), I have a multitude of starch options.  I have home canned and frozen fruit in abundance as well as 3-5 types of dried fruit at any one time.

 

So when I meal plan, I simply plan based on my available time during the week with whatever we have on hand.  So salads won't occur right before a grocery run because the fresh stuff is used up but we will probably have a veggie stir fry instead. We are having few beef meals right now since we have about a month to wait till the next half comes in.  Then we will probably eat a lot of beef for a month or two because I'm getting really tired of chicken right now. 

 

I do find it saves me a ton of money because I buy probably 75% of my stuff at deep sale prices.  I also save money by not running to the grocery store as often (currently I go about every 10-14 days).  But it does require a somewhat decent sized place to store both dry goods and frozen goods.  If you can't carve out storage space it won't do you any good.  The other thing is you have to be good about monitoring your supply and rotating through your foods.  If you have to throw out food then you won't save any money.  I think the last time I threw out any food was last summer when some of the produce from my garden got away from me.  It's very rare for us to throw anything away.  We have "clean out the fridge meals" at least 1-2 times a week.  My kids think it's normal for everyone to be eating a different thing for a meal. 

 

This is more how I shop.  For instance, Aldi had hams $5 off one time, so I bought the smallest hams and paid about $3 each and bought three of them.  I always watch their clearance meats and will buy several packages.  We do keep beef in the freezer, as we buy it from a farmer.  I garden and can/freeze what I can and then will shop Sam's Club for frozen vegetables that we like.  I always just buy what we need when it's on sale.  I buy a lot in bulk and always have a lot of different things on hand.  My goal is $400 a month, this does not include the beef, catfood or paper products.  Those are separate categories.

[Plateau Mama]

Is that per month? I spend more than that per month, but I'm still below the USDA's "thrifty" food plan for 5 people in my region. Food is a major expense for most people.

 

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm#AK%20and%20HI

 

Thank you for this.  My husband has been in shock by how much we spend in groceries.  I keep telling him that it's expensive to feed a family of five, especially when we don't do any processed anything.  Even at that I'm at the Low Cost Plan.  I added up what the different levels should be for our family  and told him.  He was surprised. 

 

I feel so much better now.  I can stop stressing about why I'm spending so much.  I'm spending so much because I have 5 people to feed.  Two of them eat their weight in food a day!

[welovetoread]

I do what you do to a point.  We always sit down and do a menu for 3 meals plus snacks for the week. However, we try and use what we have on hand to create our menu and the ingredients that we don't have plus dairy etc is what our shopping list ends up being. Does that make sense?  We are a family of 8 and spend anywhere from 500-700 per month

[QueenCat]

My plan isn't strict to certain nights, unless there is a reason for it. For example, Fridays are generally leftovers/soups/sandwiches unless we go out with friends. Dh teaches on Thursday nights so whatever we have needs to be easy to reheat, so I plan accordingly. Saturday/Sundays usually means dh is cooking so I plan for two nights of his cooking but he can pick which one to have which night.

[JustEm]

Is that per month? I spend more than that per month, but I'm still below the USDA's "thrifty" food plan for 5 people in my region. Food is a major expense for most people.

 

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm#AK%20and%20HI

I look at that chart and think that is not thrifty at all. I feed a family of 5 on $250/month. Now my 3 are 5 and under so that of course will change when they're older but it certainly won't be $800 a month so I think OP has lots of room to save. We save on beef by buying a quarter of a cow and storing it in the freezer. We save on veggies by participating in a CSA each year. Because of the CSA I meal plan after I pick up my share each week.

[abba12]

My mum never meal planned, she kept a stocked pantry, bought meat abed veg each week and made what she felt like.

 

I tried to do the same, but I found, for me, it cost more because there was waste and because I would find myself eating the more expensive meals more often, and for lunch etc we ended up with much more basic foods because I would get too busy to figure out what to have. For me a meal plan allows me to balance expensive meals and cheap ones, to plan for leftovers in ingredients ante meals, and to plan for more interesting, balanced lunches and breakfasts.

 

however, like I said, my mum never meal planned. If you can manage to do it with minimal waste and a balance youre happy with, I'd say go for it!

[SeaConquest]

Food costs are very regional and vary widely by preferences, but I'm convinced that people who meal plan do save quite a bit. I budget $1600 per month in Southern California for a family of 4, shopping mostly at Whole Foods and Trader Joes. I basically do what Regentrude does.

[LucyStoner]

I look at that chart and think that is not thrifty at all. I feed a family of 5 on $250/month. Now my 3 are 5 and under so that of course will change when they're older but it certainly won't be $800 a month so I think OP has lots of room to save. We save on beef by buying a quarter of a cow and storing it in the freezer. We save on veggies by participating in a CSA each year. Because of the CSA I meal plan after I pick up my share each week.

 

For me, a cheap CSA and sharing a side of beef and say one lamb adds up to more than $250 a month for the year.  And oddly, we eat other things besides red meat and produce.   A CSA could easily be $100-160 a month on the LOW end. 

 

 

Are you really factoring in ALL of your food expenditures to get your $250 total?  $800 for 5 is not especially high at all for healthy eating. 

 

[Alice]

I only sort of meal plan either. We buy things that look good or on sale. We tend to have some meats in the freezer that were bought on sale. We always have veggies and fruit. I keep the pantry and fridge stocked with things we tend to use a lot. 

 

What I do is more of a flexible planning. For example, I just shopped today. I looked at the week coming up and saw that really we are only home to cook three nights. I know we have stuff for quiche and I've been wanting to make it recently so that might be one night. We have some pork dh bought on sale but I didn't know what to do with it (a cut we never use). So I googled a couple of recipes and got some ideas but they all used stuff we have on hand so we're good there. That's two meals. One night I know I want to use the slow cooker and we have some chicken so I looked up a chicken recipe we like a lot and added the two ingredients I didn't have to the list. Then I remembered that my 7year old is a vegetarian so that's a lot of meat meals for the week so I thought about what I wanted and thought of a recipe I hadn't made a lot recently and got the one thing I needed for that. So now I have four meals and three nights. I jot them down on a list. I often also jot down reminders of what meat we have in the freezer or other things we might make. 

 

So the list says: 

Quiche

Pork

Chicken in Crockpot

Hummus and Brown Rice Fritters

 

Pizza

Ground Beef

 

The last two are reminders that I have pizza dough and ground beef in the freezer in case I need to come up with another meal. What usually happens here is that I won't make the things as planned. We'll get home late from swim practice or have more leftovers than I expected or I'll forget to take something out to defrost. So that list of meals may last two weeks. Next weekend or as I think about it I'll jot down other meal ideas. 

 

What really helps me is to have two or three quick meals that I can always make, almost "no brainers" for those nights I just need something quick. For us those are usually some kind of eggs, bean burritos, bean and spinach quesadillas or pasta. So we always have things on hand to make quickly if needed. 

 

I have found that I spend more when I have no plan (we end up ordering out) or when I plan too much (I look up recipes and shop based on those rather than what is one sale.). That said, we spend WAY more than you so I think you are doing very good for that budget. 

[Mrs Mungo]

I look at that chart and think that is not thrifty at all. I feed a family of 5 on $250/month. Now my 3 are 5 and under so that of course will change when they're older but it certainly won't be $800 a month so I think OP has lots of room to save. We save on beef by buying a quarter of a cow and storing it in the freezer. We save on veggies by participating in a CSA each year. Because of the CSA I meal plan after I pick up my share each week.

 

Those are not good options for every family or even every region. When I helped with a food bank, most of our families didn't even have real homes or refrigerators, never mind a freezer to hold that much beef at once.

 

Even so, are you actually figuring in the CSA and meat in your expenditure estimate, plus all other food?

 

I would be happy to make a sample weekly plan along with my expenditure based on my local prices, if you want to do the same.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I recently tried to do a monthly meal plan.  It took hours and I didn't stick to it past day 3.  What works best for me is to just buy the same stuff ("staples") every month.  I try to buy the expensive stuff on the middle month paycheck.  Then I go to the store on the other weeks for extra fruit and veg.  I mostly stick to staple buying plus a few "extras".  I do think the "monthly meal plan" helped me figure out how much of particular items we eat.  We are a family of 4 who eats every meal at home (DH comes home for lunch most days) and we spend around $600 on food and "sundries" (t.p., paper towels, laundry & dw soap.) The only way I'm able to do this (and I know some of you do even better) is by cooking almost every meal.  Except for the occasional mac and chz or oven pizza, I cook from "scratch" everything we eat.  We rarely eat meals that have a meat "entree".  Years ago I cooked like that and would spend $800 or more.    So if I buy all the meat and pasta, rice, frozen food, and boxed, I need for the month then all I have to get is the fruit and veg, milk and sour cream (we don't have enough room in the fridge for the amount of sour cream we eat each month).

[toawh]

I agree that where you live varies your food budget. We do 400 for a family of 5. There is no way I could get it down any further. This includes any special occasion foods and all household products. We go to the store once a month and stock up on all our staples. Then the once a week I go the farmers market for fruits, veggies, and bread is bought as needed. I find if I go to the store every week two things happen. We eat heavier meals that include less vegetables and I spend more because of all the sales that are too good to pass up. I buy a good stock of everything we consider staples, like green Tabasco, but once an item runs out, it's done for the month. I think not having everything available all the time makes me more creative in the kitchen.

[NASDAQ]

I go by a set schedule. I'll have slow cooked beef every Sunday, chicken on Tuesday, &c. We buy our meat six weeks at a time so I need to ration that. Then I just keep staples in the house. We always need onions, garlic, salt, flour, the major spices, soya sauce, and about a billion other things. As soon as I get to the end I replace them and I usually have backup stock of the non-perishables. We're starting to run them down before Passover though.

 

If you know you use a can of tomatoes and a bag of egg noodles and, and, and every week you can just get six bags of egg noodles next time they're on sale.

[SquirrellyMama]

So what is happening when you don't make what is planned?  Do you take the stuff out (like the meat) and then it sits there and you throw it out?  Do you go out to eat instead? 

 

What is the stuff you tend to throw out most?

 

I really don't throw out that much food.  Mostly leftovers after they have been reheated twice.  I won't eat leftovers after I've had them 2 times. Since the kids are getting bigger that isn't even much of a problem anymore. 

 

Most of the price increase has been fruits and veggies.  We go through a lot of them.  I sometimes shop at Aldi for them but Sam's has much nicer produce and more expensive.

[Ellie]

That's pretty much what I do. Sometimes I have specific recipes in mind when I shop; sometimes I don't.

[SquirrellyMama]

I'll give a new plan a try today. I usually have a very detailed menu and list which is where I think I'm going wrong. I'm not sure my personality works with that.  I like to be flexible and change my mind.  The way I do my list doesn't really allow for that.  I'm glad to see others shop with more of a staples plan instead of a detailed menu plan.

 

I do cook mostly from scratch.  I do have some bean burgers and some other quick dinners on hand in case we get busy, or I change my mind about dinner.

 

I'm glad that many of you can make it on less than $500 for your menu.  My dh would love it.  I think that would depress me even more.  I don't want to put that much work into saving money on groceries. I think we all have areas where we can save without pain.  Unfortunately, food isn't my area :)

 

We've talked about doing 1/4 cow, but when we looked at the cost found we'd be paying more for meat.

 

Kelly

[G5052]

You have to work out what is reasonable for you and your schedule.  Food is almost the only area where I can really cut back because we're already pretty spare in our other expenses.

 

I keep a price book, and cook from the freezer and pantry with one grocery trip a week.  I shop at mostly one store, order online, and about 3/4 of my cart is what is on sale.  I'm pretty much a scratch cook and make my own breads and rolls.  

 

We are also big gardeners, and I can and freeze as much as I can stand.  It was more expensive to get started, but our garden will probably be about $50 or so to get started this year because of seed saving and buying supplies in previous years.  In the summer I also go to local vegetable markets and buy less-than perfect produce at the end of the day that I preserve.  In the fall I canned applesauce from apples that I paid $10 a box for.

 

I work out my menus on Sunday.  Apart from an occasional Panera run to get bagels and DH's lunches out, I'm pretty close to the "thrifty" or "low cost" plans.  Thankfully mine are done growing now, and we have pretty simple tastes.  A hearty soup, salad, and rolls is a good dinner for us.

[skimomma]

I have found that I have to meal plan in order to keep control of the budget AND to keep our meals balanced.  We also have a crazy schedule during parts of the year so I need to take advantage of days I have time to cook to have extras for says when I do not.  And I am generally a "planner" so this works well for me.  We have some food that comes into the house each week that I do not get to pick....CSA, the garden, and our dairy share.  This varies by season.  So, I try to take that into account and time my planning and shopping to occur after I know what I will have to work with.  I also will take advantage of sales when I get the chance.  I do all of our shopping at our local co-op and I don't buy many non-perishable items....but sometime there is a big sale on olive oil or a tea we like and I will go ahead and stock up.  Then "shop" for those items out of my pantry before they hit the real grocery list.

 

All of that said sometimes a meal is on the schedule that I am not in the mood for or do not have time to cook.  My first course of action when this occurs is to shuffle the weekly plan and maybe swap a meal or two to make it work.  If that fails, I will see if I can redistribute the perishable ingredients into existing planned meals or a new meal.  For instance, if I planned kale soup but we got a last minute dinner invitation, the kale might end up being a kale salad that goes with the next night's chili.  If that all fails, I will attempt to put up the ingredient(s).  In the kale example, I might quickly blanch it and stick it in the freezer for future kale soup.

 

Now, the part I set out to say to begin with.....

 

Sometimes I just toss out the plan for a few weeks.  One of two things happen.  Either I get sick of the whole planning/shopping/recipes cycle OR we have a lot of CSA/garden food coming in that I cannot wrap my head around a plan.  I appreciate the break.  I get to be a little creative in the kitchen.  I will dig through the back of the pantry and bottom of the freezer (oh look, blanched kale....) to make stuff up.  I like to cook without recipes sometimes.  When I know I am about to do this, I might make a list of the things I want to use up and make a challenge to find a way to use it in a given week.  I also will shop with those ingredients in mind.  I might not know exactly what I am going to make but I usually know if I will need legumes, grains, or staples.  This rarely costs more than I would spend meal planning, it gives my mind a creative break, and it usually tidies up the pantry/freezer.  After 1-4 weeks off of the plan, I am usually ready to get back with my usual routine.  And so is my family....."mom, why are there radishes and blanched kale in my oatmeal?"

[KungFuPanda]

I look at that chart and think that is not thrifty at all. I feed a family of 5 on $250/month. Now my 3 are 5 and under so that of course will change when they're older but it certainly won't be $800 a month so I think OP has lots of room to save. We save on beef by buying a quarter of a cow and storing it in the freezer. We save on veggies by participating in a CSA each year. Because of the CSA I meal plan after I pick up my share each week.

When my kids were three and five they ate like birds. Realistically, I wasn't really cooking for a family of four. It was more like cooking generously for two. Once they both got into double digits, the rate at which we could go through groceries doubled and I then needed to produce six servings at each meal rather than three. Even with this drastic increase to us personally, my kids are fairly light eaters compared to most of their friends. They very rarely want seconds even as teenagers. My sister with 4 kids needs to produce 12 servings at every meal to fill everyone up!

 

In my area, a CSA and a side of beef would be $50 a week combined. The CSA is only available half the year. I don't have a freezer, so I don't actually know how long a side of beef would last or how many servings you get from a 350 lb cow. $250 a week might just be mathematically impossible in my area unless the bulk of your meals are bean or rice based.

[Lady Marmalade]

I don't meal plan all the time... and I should, because I spend far less on groceries when I do meal plan. 

 

I meal planned for this week because it's a busy week for me, and I felt like I needed to plan or we'd be eating pancakes all week.   For my planning this week, the first thing I did was take a mental inventory of what I had on hand in the freezer.   Next, I went through a stack of old favorite recipes (which I have on an app called Pepperplate) to find recipes that would use one or two of the meats we have in the freezer.  I found four recipes that appealed to me greatly for this week, so next I "shopped" my pantry with those recipes in mind.  I was delighted to discover that the recipes that I wanted to make used almost all on-hand ingredients.   My shopping list for the entire week was very short.  I added a small bit of fresh fruit and some frozen ground turkey to my shopping list because it's at a deep sale price this week.  My total bill when shopping for this week was just $17.

 

With the four recipes I found, one for sure will make leftovers for a second meal, so that's five nights of dinners.

 

Obviously, without a well-stocked pantry it's not so easy to "shop" the pantry first, and I don't go to crazy extremes either.  When something is on sale, I'll buy three instead of one.  That's not a lot, but we eat quite the varied diet, so I try not to repeat a meal in at least a two week time period.  I also garden and can a lot of produce as well, so that helps me out tremendously.

 

Also, if I need a staple that I really can buy in bulk for not too much more, I'll do that when I run low and need to replenish instead of buying a smaller package.  I buy rice, all-purpose flour and bread flour in 25 pound bags, for pretty significant cost savings.  The flours will last me anywhere from 3-6 months depending on the time of year.  This time of year I bake bread more often, so I got through the bread flour pretty quickly.  Late fall I go through the all-purpose flour with all the holiday baking.  Bulk purchasing only works if you're going to actually use what you buy in a reasonable amount of time.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I usually plan out 7 meals, but don't assign days.  I take meat out of the freezer the night before based on what sounds good for the following day. 

 

I have really put a lot of effort lately into learning to cook cheap cuts of meat well- shoulders, shanks, chuck roasts, chicken thighs and legs, etc.  These meats are way cheaper, and if cooked correctly, they are very tender and much more flavorful than the more expensive cuts of meat.  I buy meat in bulk and freeze, usually based on sales at the bulk store.  For my location, this is a HUGE money saver to be using these cuts of meat.  It also almost always involves the crock pot, so easy cooking. 

 

I try to plan one egg or potato based meal each week, which is cheap and fast and easy. 

 

We usually have homemade pizza once a week, also cheap especially if you stick to vegetarian toppings. 

 

I keep things on hand in the pantry for easy meals, usually stuff that just requires ground beef.  So chili stuff (canned tomatoes, beans, corn, spices), pasta stuff (noodles, sauce), nacho stuff (tortilla chips, refried beans, salsa), etc.  This way I can substitute a meal or two if I'm just not in the mood or need something faster than what I had planned due to a last-minute crisis of one sort or another.  :-) 

 

 

 

 

[Baseball mom]

I have a pretty well stocked pantry.  I buy things on sale and plan from there.  So if ground beef & say canned veggies is on sale this week I really stock up on it then pick up a few other items we need.  Put the ground beef in the freezer in various ways (some raw, some shaped into patties, some browned & and drained).  The next week it might be chicken breasts and spag. sauce.  I do the same again. 

 

Then I generally make my "loose" plans from what I have on hand or what is in the sale paper for the week.  I say loose plans because I just make up a list of meals and then each day choose from one of them and fix it.

 

Maybe not the best way but that is what I do.