Easy Meal Planning Tips to Save Money on Groceries

The grocery category is a budget area that tends to increase easily over time, and it requires constant focus. To help you stay within your budget, meal planning is an essential activity. It is also a task that is not really that fun to do, but we all have to do it! So, here are some of my favorite tips that I try to keep in mind whenever we are planning our meals for the week.

Try My Meal Planning and Frugal Grocery Shopping Tips!

1. First, plan meals that will use any fresh produce and meat remaining in your fridge so that it doesn’t go to waste. Then, plan meals for the rest of the week.
2. Take a look at your pantry and see what you can use that is already on hand. (Hopefully, most of these items you bought were on sale.)
3. Look at the local flyers and see what’s on sale this week. Plan a meal using one of these items or stockpile them for later.
4. Consider having a meal prep day or doubling a meal so that you can freeze one, especially if items are on sale that week. I like these aluminum pans for freezing things like lasagnas and enchiladas.
5. Consider one day being a leftover night so that food doesn’t go to waste and to give yourself an easy night of cooking.
6. Plan to use frozen vegetables or frozen meals near the end of the week. This helps reduce food waste. Then if your plans change (e.g. you decide to eat out), the food is available for next week’s meal plan. Pasta is always a good one for the end of the week as well.
7. Pick a favorite meal and associate it with a day. We like taco Tuesdays. We like to switch it up between turkey, chicken, beef, or meatless, but it’s always tacos in our house. When I was growing up it was Spaghetti Mondays.
8. Keep it simple. If you are going to use new recipes, I like to rotate in no more than one new recipe a week. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself—the first time you make something new it always takes a little longer.
9. Buy a three-ring binder and clear sleeves. Print the recipes and place them into a sleeve. When you are meal planning and cooking it’s helpful. Also if you don’t like a new recipe just throw it away! 
10. Cook larger dinners and then put them into glass, lunch-sized containers to easily pop into the microwave for lunches. For more variety, you can store it in the freezer too.
11. Keep staples on hand. There are many services that can help you keep stocked and save money, such as Amazon and Thrive Market.

Don’t forget these tips the next time you shop for groceries!

Now, you are ready to go grocery shopping. Or, even better yet, do a free grocery pick-up to keep you from buying items you don’t need!

I hope you find these tips helpful. What are your favorite meal planning tips? Leave a comment below!

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