Conquer Your Food Budget – A Free Guide to Meal Planning

In order to make big changes in our lives, we have to be willing to make lots of small changes because, in the end, it is the small changes that can really add up and help us reach our financial goals. I think we all know the saying, “a penny saved is a penny earned”. Just imagine how many pennies you can save by adding more frugal habits into your life. Today I’m going to discuss how my husband and I meal plan for our family. Meal planning is an important task for us so that we are staying on budget and avoiding wasting food. Sometimes we get frustrated as our food budget increases, so we have to really watch it.

Before starting to plan our meals, it helps to know how much money we have budgeted to spend on groceries. The food total in our budget includes all groceries, restaurants, fast food, coffee, convenience stores, and any other food purchases. If you don’t have it broken down by each of these, now is a good time to figure that out.

How much should I be budgeting for food?

For many people, it is hard to figure out what is considered a normal amount to spend on food per month. One tool that you may find helpful is the USDA site, which provides a monthly Cost of Food Report. This is when you will need to take out a calculator and get ready to do some quick math! In this report, you will be able to look at the estimated cost for a single individual or a breakdown for your family based on the age of the individuals. This is a really handy tool that allows you to see what a “thrifty” or a “liberal” food budget might be like.

For example, I budget $720/month for my family of five. We have averaged this for the past six months based on my mint.com trends report. But, is this normal? How do I know? When I calculated for my family using the USDA April 2020 report, I was happy to see the “thrifty” amount averages for my family were $168.30/week and $729.30/month. Wow, that’s really close to my budgeted $720! This makes me feel really good.

For me, it’s easiest to meal plan on a weekly basis. We grocery shop over the weekends, so we are in the habit of meal planning on either Thursday or Friday. But, you can do whatever works for you! The most important thing is that you are actually planning your meals so that you are prepared for the week.

How to Meal Plan

Step 1 – Count the number of meals you need for the week.

First, decide how many meals you will be cooking in the upcoming week. Look at your calendar and see what is going on for the week. Will you be eating out at all? Do you have any busy nights that require quick meals? How much will you be cooking this week? This is a really important step so that you meal plan for the necessary number of meals and avoid wasting any food and your precious money.

Step 2 – Plan your meals.

Now that you know how many meals to plan, you can start deciding what to make for each one. I have found that the best way to meal plan is to use a magnetic. weekly meal planner notepad so that I can keep it posted on my fridge (they come with a magnet on the back). One of these notepads will last an entire year, so it’s well worth the money to help keep you organized, and it looks pretty too. As a bonus, they also have a place for keeping a list as well.

There is an art to choosing your meals and planning out your week. We always start off by looking in our fridge and pantry, and by checking out the weekly ad circulars from our favorite stores.

We also have our favorite recipe books that we keep on hand. If you are looking to get started with cooking more at home, 100 Days of Real Food has a few wonderful cookbooks. I enjoy both of these books! I recently purchased Forks Over Knives and am learning to cook without meat in many more meals.

Step 3 – Make your grocery list.

This is most likely the easiest thing to do in the process. Now all you need to do is list all of the items that you need to purchase on your grocery trip(s). Many of these items you should have stockpiled in your pantry, but don’t forget to restock those staples as well. 

Here are some ways you can make your list:

• Use the list section on your meal planner notepad. These work great.
• Use a grocery shopping app like Cozi. This awesome app allows you to have a list on hand at all times, which is really nice for unexpected runs to the store as well. It works great for my husband and me. We both have the app on our phones and update it during the week anytime we realize we are short on something. It also has a great calendar, which is actually why we purchased it in the first place.
• If you do grocery pickup, you can just add it to the cart as you go. We are currently using Walmart+ for free grocery deliveries. There is a cost to signing up and there are other benefits too. If you want to sign up for Walmart+ and decide to become a paid member, we’ll both get $20 off a future order by using this link.

Step 4 – Go grocery shopping and be frugal!

Next, you will need to be very strategic when you go grocery shopping. You’ve got this! Don’t be afraid of going to a few stores so that you can find the best deals. You can often find deals by alternating where you shop each week so that you can find the best price for particular items.

Once in the grocery store, make sure you stick to the list and make frugal choices. This can be the hardest part! It can be very easy to get distracted at the store or make impulse purchases.

For some tricks, read my list of frugal grocery shopping tips.

What are your tips for meal planning? How do you tackle grocery shopping and finding great deals?

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