Frugal Living Community
Need help reducing your grocery spending, or with meal planning and couponing? Then you are in the right place! Sign up to receive FREE recipes, coupons and other money saving tips in your inbox or in your feed reader. And for even more updates on what's happening in the kitchen and around town, follow the $5 Dinners adventures on Twitter and Facebook too! Thanks for visiting and I hope you'll stay for dinner!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I have a magentized dry erase calendar that I use for meal planning. For each day of the week, I assign the main dish we’ll be having for dinner. I do not plan breakfasts and lunches, and just make sure to always have bread, lunchmeat, fruit, oatmeal, and eggs on hand for those meals. My calendar also has other commitments (like DD’s Taekwondo), so that I can make sure to plan simple meals for busy nights and more elaborate foods for less busy nights.
As others have mentioned, I go through the weekly flyers to plan out what to buy at the store and make the next week. I also keep a running grocery list on the fridge so that if I run out of a staple, I can immediately add it to my list. As well, I generally cook a big batch of something (chili, chicken soup, bbq pork) on the weekends and freeze leftovers for future meals.
As much as possible, I shop the sales (I don’t coupon because no stores near me double coupons and the store brand is cheaper than the national brand + coupon) and stock up when I know an item has hit the best price. Several weeks ago, 8 oz bags of shredded Tillamook cheese were $1 a piece. I bought 10 bags and froze most of them for future use. Between meal planning and shopping the sales, I am able to limit how often I have to shop, and keep my food bills under $100 a week.