Someone recently asked: Do you make a meal plan first and then shop? Or do you shop for food and plan your meals around what you have? What saves the most time and money?
I certainly can’t speak for everyone as to what saves the most time and money. And you know I highly recommend that you subscribe to receive our Simple Meals plans so that you don’t have to think as hard and work as hard. :)
What I have found to work best for me right now is this:
- Shop. Buy all the food. Buy more food. We need so much food.
- Try to stay organized. Have an entire grocery store inside my house if possible.
- Each morning, consider what the day holds. Meetings, appointments, court for the kids, Matt’s schedule, kids’ events, and so on. Once I think through what the evening will look like, I plan our evening meal accordingly.
- Along with that, I work with what we have on hand. I look through our fridge, freezers, and pantry. Then I decide on an evening meal that works!
This shelf sits in my kitchen, so I can look and get ideas with a quick glance. Pizza sauce and olives? I have crusts in the freezer so I could make pizza tonight. However, that is a meal I like to make on a night we have games or other outings. So I nix that idea and decide to make a burrito bar since I have plenty of tortillas and all the fixings on hand.
My meal planning decision is also dependent on how many people we’ll be feeding that night. Will it just be Matt, me, with the six littles? Or will all the bigs be home too? With their gals join us? Any other friends? We feed anywhere from 8 to 18 depending on the night. So I always get a feel for who will be around for dinner as I’m making our nightly plan.
Isn’t it harder this way?
This current method means that I’m coming up with a meal plan every single morning. But because of our very full house and so many coming and going, I am finding that planning day by day works so much better than planning ahead for the week and then reshuffling it because of what each weekday holds.
What saves the most money?
Again, I can’t speak for everyone. But for me, right now, I believe that shopping first and meal planning later is saving me more money.
When I’m shopping, I can pick up meat that has been marked down – then I make meals based on the discounted meat I’ve found. I can take advantage of sale items, then make meals based on the deals I’ve found. I can pick up staples to keep on hand so that I can always make basic, easy meals with no effort.
This works well for me and saves money too!
What is working best for you right now as you plan meals?
I follow your plan and think it the best: shop and then plan the meals. I cook for only 2 most of the time, but we have 4 kids and 17 grandkids. I used this plan when my children were growing up also.
Trying to keep a “grocery store” is extremely helpful. Because my husband has several underlying conditions, we stayed home for the first year of the pandemic. Because I try to stay “stocked up,” we went at least 6 weeks without having to buy groceries. (I freeze milk.) The first thing I ran out of was eggs, and my daughter left some on the porch. ?
I meal plan and then shop. :) For us, that saves the most money and makes sure the food gets eaten with minimal waste. Everyone works differently and everyone has a different method. We feed ten daily (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). I’m also open to the possibility of this changing in the future. But for right now, with everyone, except my husband, home all day, this works best for us. Also, my adhd brain appreciates not having to think of what to feed everyone on a daily basis. I can do snacks daily, but not meals :) God Bless!
I make (I really just reuse last year’s) a month option list. Listing seasonal meals then shop for the month. Then I plan my meals for the week based on what I have and can incorporate the deals too. So I guess I do both. Plan, shop, plan again. It did help when I realized I kept writing similar monthly menus.
I also “backwards” plan and keep a small grocery store.. shop mostly at BJs and Aldi’s and our local dollar tree, Meijer and Walmart for fill ins and then plan based on that.. daily… We are a family of 9 ( 7 living children, eldest passed on two years ago)
I would shop without a plan the first week of a two week pay period then the second week would shop my pantry first to meal plan and just get whatever’s needed to fill in from the store. This is when I’m too busy to meal plan and we just need to get food in the house. It does not save me as much $ though.
I’m with you Laura. I like buying items on sale and stocking up my freezer and pantry. It’s so nice having everything on hand that I ‘might’ need when I’m planning our meals for the day. When shopping I love taking advantage of sale items, and excitably bring them home and figure out the best way to incorporate them into meals. I keep a small shopping list of items that we are getting low on, and only these items I will pay full price for to keep the cupboard stocked. A well stocked cupboard saves me money and gives me the freedom to make whatever my heart desires without making extra trips for just a few items.
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