One of my 2013 New Year’s Resolutions was to start meal planning instead of winging it each day.  I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time now, especially with the constant buzz on the Hellobee boards about weekly meals and $100 grocery lists.  Seriously… impressed!  I’m so late to the game on this, but better late than never!

Also, with a second baby on the way and a decreased salary from being on maternity leave, I really felt the urgency to reign in our budget.  YNAB helped jumpstart a renewed commitment to our budgeting this year, but I wanted to take it even further by cutting costs wherever possible.

The single biggest waste in our budget was the FOOD category.  So many little meals out added up to a huge chunk of change at the end of the month!  Plus, we were going grocery shopping multiple times a week, casually picking up non-necessities (e.g. chips, ice cream, junk!) without a second thought.  Talk about a time waste, not to mention how much that $5-10 here and there really starts to add up!

In just this one month of meal planning, our food costs have decreased dramatically (as in, we shaved ~25% off our food category), and we’re not even being overly aggressive about it!  No more, “What should we eat for dinner tonight?”  I actually look forward to sitting down and planning my meals out for the following week now – it only takes up about 10-15 minutes of my time too!  Not nearly as daunting or overwhelming as I thought it would be.

For those who don’t meal plan but want to get started, this was my approach:

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1.  Do a brain dump and list out all the meals you regularly eat.
I focused only on dinners and only on meals I already knew how to make.  I didn’t want to completely overwhelm myself with planning all 3 meals.  We typically eat the same things for breakfast and lunch every day anyway.

2. Write down the meals you want to make that week.
I do my meal planning on Friday nights and do my shopping over the weekend.  I hung a whiteboard up in my kitchen and wrote the meals there for the whole family to see.  When deciding what meals to make, I also think about what ingredients we already have in the house (Oh, I have leftover ground pork from the lettuce wraps I made last week… let’s make some Sloppy Joe’s with them this week!).  I usually try to have one or two nights where we can just eat leftovers, and I also reserve a night for eating out so I don’t have to cook every day.

3. Create a grocery list based off your meal plan.
I separate the ingredients by category (produce, dairy, meat, carbs, canned foods, condiments) to make my shopping trips more efficient.  I also keep an ongoing list on my fridge and add to it throughout the week whenever we’re running low on something (usually staples like eggs, milk, bread).

4.  Shop!
I found that ever since I started meal planning, I’ve rarely had to go to the market more than once a week.  Like everything else in my life, it’s been SO NICE to have a plan in place and execute on it!

Do you meal plan and what’s your approach?  Do you plan weekly, bi-weekly, monthly?  Any other tips you can pass along to this newbie?

Hellobee Series: Mrs. High Heels part 13 of 14

1. The Cautious Temperament by Mrs. High Heels
2. The Case for a Doula by Mrs. High Heels
3. Confessions of an (Ex) Cloth-Diapering Mom by Mrs. High Heels
4. How the High Heelers Budget by Mrs. High Heels
5. College Funding with 529 Plans by Mrs. High Heels
6. 20 Questions to ask when Interviewing a Preschool by Mrs. High Heels
7. Korean-Chinese Postpartum Rituals by Mrs. High Heels
8. The Vaccination Debate by Mrs. High Heels
9. Mrs. High Heels' Sleep Training Story by Mrs. Bee
10. Our Peanut Butter Scare by Mrs. High Heels
11. Our Birth Plan for an Unmedicated Hospital Birth by Mrs. High Heels
12. You Need a Budget!! by Mrs. High Heels
13. Our Meal Planning Process by Mrs. High Heels
14. Pumping at Work by Mrs. High Heels