Meal Planning

In an effort to support my “decrease debt” goal, I am working very hard to manage our grocery budget. Just like most everyone else, our good budget has a tendency to get out of control. And just like everyone else, I realize that the more diligent I am with meal planning, meal preparing, and creating grocery lists, the more likely I am to stay within budget.

Going forward, I want to try to stay within our $500 (plus $70 for a produce box delivered to our house every other week) grocery budget.

This past weekend we traveled to Mariposa for a relaxing weekend with friends. I brought along about 5-7 cookbooks, a calendar, and some paper. I got down to work and meal planned for the rest of January and February.  When I got home, I went grocery shopping for all that we needed for the rest of January (minus our weekly perishables) and a lot of the meat needed for February’s meal planning.

When I meal plan, my life is so much easier. Every day, dinner time rolls around, and every day, I wonder we are going to have. When I meal plan, that isn’t the case. I just have to look at my calendar and see what to take out of the freezer or what to prepare: easy-peasy.

Our grocery trips, since meal planning, have stayed within budget, so far.

                Winco: $100.87

                Costco: $105.45

                Safeway: $14.48 (specifically for my mom)

                Savemart: $10.97 (specifically for my mom)

Our total so far is $231.77.

We received a produce box this week so we shouldn’t need too much more before our next budgeting period.

I’m hoping to meal plan for every month this year in an effort to keep our grocery budget, and my stress level, down.