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How to Menu Plan

​If you really want to stick to your grocery budget you need to plan your meals. Without a meal plan you really can't write a shopping list that will see you through the month. Without a meal plan it's so much easier to pick up take-away or eat out or spend a fortune at the supermarket on the way home.

To anyone who does it regularly, menu planning is simple. To someone who has never tried it before it can be horribly daunting. It's not hard and if you've done it once, it's a breeze.

A quick and simple trick that can really speed things up is to assign a type of meal to each day of the week i.e. Sunday – roast, Monday – pasta, Tuesday – fish, Wednesday – mince, Thursday – takeaway (either bought or from Mum's Kitchen), Friday – leftovers, Saturday – soup and sandwiches.

If you've followed my meal plan each week you'll have noticed that Sunday is always a roast, Tuesday is a pasta dish, Wednesday we have something a little spicier (Hannah works late and she doesn't like spicy food) and Thursday is MOO pizza (everyone makes their own and cleans up too - it's my night off). The other three days I slot in meals to use up what is leftover in the fridge and freezer.

If you do this and nothing else, you at least know what to take out of the freezer in the morning. You can spend the day thinking of ways to prepare it if you need to.

The next step is to actually assign recipes to the meal i.e. Roast- stuffed chicken, lamb with rosemary and garlic mustard coated beef; Pasta - spag bol, lasagne, Chicken Alfredo Roll-ups, Vegetable Pasta Bake etc. Doing this helps with your shopping list – you'll know exactly what you need to buy to cook these meals.

When you've mastered these two steps, you can get adventurous and assign new recipes to the meals. Start with one new recipe a week and aim for a day when you know you'll have time to spend in the kitchen – a Sunday night dinner could become a regular new recipe night in your house.

If you or your family have favourite meals, you can safely repeat them during the cycle. My family love pizza. It's easy to make, cheap and great for using up little bits of leftovers and Thursday night is a hectic night in our household, so MOO pizza on Thursday suits us. Everyone knows what's for dinner, there are no complaints, everyone makes their own to their taste and best of all they all clean up the kitchen. Thursday night really is my night off.

Some tips to help you:
• Write your menu down
• Start small – a week if you're really unsure, two weeks if you have a bit more confidence.
• Put your menu on the fridge so everyone will know what's for dinner.
• Involve the family – let everyone choose a favourite meal. Then tell them that they have to prepare it!
• Choose recipes within your cooking experience.
• Make a note of the new dishes you like – mark them as keepers.
• Once you have your fortnight menu under control – go for the month. A whole day of dinners planned and you'll really be on the way to mastering Menu Planning. And once you've mastered a month why not go for a year - I love spending a couple of hours in December planning what we'll be eating for the next 12 months and my family loves being able to check the meal plan on the fridge to see what's coming up.
Want to learn more about meal planning?

Take my Menu Planning 101 e-course!

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  • Home
  • Join the Club!
    • Twenty Reasons to Join the Cheapskates Club
  • About Us
    • Cath's Story
    • Ask Cath
    • Glossary of Cheapskating Terms
  • Forum
    • Current Forum Discussions
    • How to Use the Member Forum
  • Inspiration
    • Getting Started
    • 31 Days of MOO Index
    • Articles
    • Housekeeping Routines
    • Budget Renovations
    • Saving Stories
    • Learning Centre
  • Recipes
    • Recipe File Index
    • Meal Plans
    • Add a Recipe
    • $300 a Month Food Challenge >
      • $300 a Month Food Challenge
      • The $300 a Month Food Challenge Forum
  • Newsletters
    • Newsletters 2023
    • Newsletters 2022
    • Newsletters 2021
    • Newsletters 2020
    • Newsletters 2019
    • Newsletters 2018
    • Newsletters 2017
  • Saving Money
    • Latest Tips 2023
    • Latest Tips 2022
    • Cheapskates Tip Store
    • Tip Sheets
    • Top Tip Competition
  • Contact
    • Changing Details
    • Help Files