Budgeting & Meal Planning

One of my greatest accomplishments since we got married has been my meal organization. Before we got married I was already tired of eating the same thing every week. I wanted to try something new. But every time I wanted to do that we didn't have one of the ingredients so it was back to the normal hamburger helper... After meal planning for over a year now, I have finally gotten it down.

I will sit down one afternoon or evening and plan out at least a month's worth of meals. I pick out things that sound good and not too complicated from cookbooks, online websites, and Pinterest. I then fill in a calendar with important evening events such as GS meetings or church gatherings. I use this information to help plan the type of meals that I will make. For example, if I know I will be at school until late I will cook a crock pot recipe.

Here's an example of one week:
Monday - Hawaiian Ham (Cubed ham, chunk pineapple, apple, brown sugar sauteed and served over white rice)
Tuesday - Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo (Pinterest recipe... not a favorite so I won't share.)
Wednesday - Bourbon Chicken  (Cookbook)
Thursday - Herbed Turkey & Wild Rice Casserole (Betty Crocker)
Friday - Skillet Calzones (Betty Crocker)
Saturday - Enchilada Lasagna (Pinterest)

I will typically leave Sunday off because one day during the week we'll eat out because something comes up or end up eating with our parents. So Sundays we make whatever meal we missed during the week.

Since I already know what I will be serving for dinner it makes grocery shopping SUPER easy. I make a super long list after checking each recipe for ingredients and hit up Aldi and Walmart. (I buy what I can organically but when that's not available--or in the budget--Aldi is awesome!) I will honestly do one "big" Aldi/Walmart run about every 2 months.

What is great about this method is that I don't end up buying ingredients that I don't use. I stick to the menu plan so that random jar of Alfredo sauce won't sit in the pantry for 2 years. I do end up running to the store to buy milk, fruits & veggies, bread, and meat about every other week but this keeps our grocery bill WAY down. On the last Aldi/Walmart run we spent $175 and have yet to go back to the grocery store. That was 2 weeks ago. Our leftovers make for excellent lunches the next day so we don't have to pay to eat lunch out.

It's amazing to see the difference in our bank account when we aren't eating out every night or running to the grocery store once or twice a week. I feel this also keeps us from buying that random box of Oreos that we obviously need.