Happy Monday fellow peeps! Time for some coffee, breakfast, and a day spent hanging out with my mom. I know I woke up on the right side of the bed this morning and I hope you did too!
Last week I had an insightful comment made by my Grammie (grandma). She thinks it’s great that I’m planning out my meals for one week at a time, but wondered how much I could save by planning out a whole month of meals instead of just one week at a time.
Wow, I didn’t know what to think. Kind of overwhelming. She went on to say that when she herself was a housewife, she would plan every dinner out for one month at a time. She told me it saved her time and a lot of money.
After our conversation I got to thinking. Sure, sitting down and planning out a month of meals would take a lot of patience (and we all know how much I hate planning meals every week), but I would only have to do it 12 times a year, AND I would be buying more in bulk, making my Monday morning shopping trips easier and simpler. Heaven knows I’m all about simplifying.
I decided to take this grocery project one week at a time until I felt like I could handle planning out a whole month’s worth of meals. This past weekend I went ahead and planned out our meals for two weeks. I spent more time trying to think how far I could stretch the meat products seeing as how it was going to be our biggest expense. Obviously you can’t buy everything you need for one month in one day as certain items spoil. BUT you can buy most of it. Example: Household items (laundry detergent, dish soap, paper towels, cleaner, toilet paper, etc.), can goods, junk food (chips, popcorn, soda, etc.), seasonings, dressing and sauces, etc.
One thing that concerns me is my money saving apps. What if I can get money back on items I need but it won’t be available until after I buy it? Will the apps accept my receipts three weeks later? This is definitely a huge consideration when going about this project.
I plan on going to Sam’s Club to buy enough meat for two weeks and freeze a majority of it. I can already tell that if I stick to this plan, our wallets are going to be happier, because typically buying in bulk saves you money. Sure the first shopping day of the month will cost a lot more and be more stressful, but in the long run if it saves us an extra $50+ I’m all for it! Below is my first week meal plan. First row is Breakfast, second is lunch, and third is dinner.
Below is our second week planned out. (Notice the breakfast and lunch rows stay the same. That’s because I’ll prepare whatever we’re in the mood for that morning, so as long as I have enough ingredients, I’m not too worried if we want to switch it up. And the “Ashlyn Ain’t Cooking” days can switch too. Sometimes we crave Chick-fil-A on Friday instead of Saturday.)
The hardest part is writing everything down and figuring out how much I’m going to need of each ingredient so that I’ll have enough to feed Kevin and I for two weeks.
What did I do? I figured out what I’m making for the next two weeks, found the recipe ingredients on Pinterest, and wrote them down. I added everything up and programmed it all into my “Out of Milk” app, and voila! I’m ready to go!
Wish me luck! I’ll update you tomorrow about how my shopping trip adventure played out.
(Follow me on Twitter to see how every dinner turns out and If you’d like to know the recipe for something, either message me or follow my Pinterest board called “Dinner For Two.“)
