Meal Menu Planning

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Meal Menu Planning

I think one of the keys to quick and easy cooking is organisation. You really need to understand what you have in the pantry that you have to use and what meals you can make out of those items. Over the years I have found the best way to save money and to be organised is to plan out a menu for each weeks dinners. I do this before shopping day so I can make a shopping list and know exactly what I need to buy. I stick the menu on the fridge so everyone in the family has an idea of what meals are coming up. I must admit I do change the days around, for instance if I was planning on steak one night but I feel more like fish then I will exchange days. If you have teenagers in the house this could thwart their plans, if they had planned on going somewhere else for dinner on a night they dont like what you are cooking! LOL

Here is what I do, and some ideas that you could choose to do. I write out the days on some paper and choose what I want to cook for dinner each night. I write it all down and I try to use items I may have left over from last week, we don’t always use up all of the food, so if I have a Chicken in the freezer I will pop it on this weeks menu. That saves me spending more than I need to or it gives us bonus money so that I can splurge on something more expensive this week.

On the next page I write out my shopping list as I go through the pantry, fridge, freezer and cupboards to see what is left there. I always have staples in my pantry like Dried pasta, bottles of pasta sauce, long life milk, Coconut Cream etc etc. Some weeks I don’t buy much at all I just use what I have in the pantry and freezer. That money can be put away towards extras at Christmas or for a special treat.

I shop at Aldi for my main shopping and get the extras at one of the bigger supermarket. WE have found that we have halved the shopping bill since we changed over and we eat really well, the cupboard are always full and we love it this way. Before we started shopping at Aldi we used to come home from grocery shopping stunned and miserable at how little our dollar was buying us.

OK so you have the basics now.