Meal Planning: One Way To Save Money

With the Christmas spending slowly catching up to us as we begin the new year, now is a perfect time to cut back on other areas in your budget. One way to counteract the spending on gifts is to cut back on your grocery bill. But how do you do that if you and your family still need to eat?

Two words: meal planning. Everyone has heard that before, but I believe it actually does save you money!

When it comes to buying groceries, you have two options: 1) You can go around the store and put things into your buggy that sound good or look appealing. Then the rest of the week you can go about your days normally and then get to about 5 o’clock and say hmm.. what’s for dinner? From there you look around and see what you have. Then you try to think about dinner tomorrow night. You pick a meal and then realize you have to go back to the grocery store because you don’t have all that you need... and then this cycle repeats itself again and again. OR 2) You can meal plan: decide what meal you’re going to cook on what day, and then prepare accordingly.

I don’t know about you, but the first option truly sounds stressful. I’m a planner and I like to know what I’m going to eat before dinner time gets here!

How do you meal plan?

- Each week, when we are down to our last meal or we’re running out of snacks, milk, etc., I sit down and pick out about 4 meals that sound good for dinner. I look through my cookbook I’m trying to make (a possible post on that soon!) or I look on Pinterest.

- Then I write down the meals I choose so that I don’t forget. (Actually, I send them to myself on Messenger, as well as the links to the recipes if I got them off Pinterest.)

- Next, I go to my Walmart Grocery app and add the ingredients to my cart. (Yes, I use grocery pickup! Going to the grocery store doesn’t bother me that much, but for some reason going through the checkout line causes me great stress and anxiety because I feel as though the person behind me is going to get super impatient and irritated. That is stupid, but it’s just how it is!)

- Finally, after adding all my ingredients to the cart, I place the order for the day and time I need it. My husband then picks it up on his way home from work.

So instead of guessing each night what I’m going to make for dinner, I mentally know what I’m going to make for the rest of the week, before the night actually gets here! Y’all, it is SO simple! I believe that meal planning reduces stress and takes some of the pressure off of your day. If you don’t use grocery pickup, simply write down your ingredients on a notepad and carry this with you to the store!

But how does this save you money?

Because when you go to the grocery store, you will only be getting what’s on your list; nothing extra. You will not be randomly throwing things into your buggy that you may or may not use. Instead, you will be buying only what you have written down. This is especially helpful if you are trying to stick to a strict budget!

This is what we do in our home and it works very well! If you and your family give this a try, please comment below and let me know how it goes! I hope you all have a great start to the new year!