Menu planning, can it save you money?

Yes, I believe that if you menu plan it can save you money AND time. This is the first of my 3-part blog on how I feed my family of four on $200-$300 per month. I know that several people have asked me how that is possible?! In the next month I will be sharing my menu, grocery list, and even my actual receipts, ideas and tips on how I accomplish this. Let me say that it requires a lot of self-discipline (something I don’t have much of) and determination. I also think that you have to be a little bit desperate!

I want to warn everyone that this is NOT EASY!! As a family we decided to do this so that we could achieve our goal of being Debt Free! We have been doing this for 1 ½ years so we can get through Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps. If you aren’t familiar with Dave Ramsey be sure to check out his Financial Peace Plan at http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/ . Now that we are Debt Free, we have continued so that we can get through Baby Step # 3, which is “3 to 6 Months Expenses in Savings”. For our family the goal is $10,000! Our original goal was to have Baby Step #3 completed by the end of 2010. We may not be able to accomplish that as we have had a couple of set backs. One of them was a $3000.00+ dentist bill for my two root canals and crowns. Yikes! But, we are forging ahead!

How DO you do that?!

When we started budgeting, our food budget was $150.00 per month and that included toilet paper, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. YES, it was HARD! This month I have $280.00 to spend and it feels like a ‘cake walk’. It requires discipline (determination) to do this. Most of our food is made from scratch because that IS the cheapest way to do it. I buy flour, sugar, oil, eggs, bread, and milk in larger quantities, mostly from Costco. 

Here are some examples of food for a typical day:

Breakfast - homemade waffles that are frozen and then put in the toaster, topped with peanut butter and chocolate chips or toast with peanut butter and jam.

Lunch - either a PB& J sandwich or lunch meat, cheese and crackers (homemade version of Lunchables), apple sauce and chips complete the meal.

Dinner – below is a picture of my dinner menu for the month. We sometimes “trade” meals, have tacos tonight and meatloaf on Saturday.

To start, I look at the school lunch menu to determine how many cold lunches I will need to make, then I make my dinner menu (with my family’s help), then I check to see what is in my pantry/freezer already, and lastly I make my grocery list. Don’t get me wrong this took 3-6 months to get down, but it is pretty easy, just takes a little planning in advance.

TIP: Do NOT go to the grocery store without a list and stick as close to it as possible. One “impulse” item is okay, but no more than that, unless you have extra money!!

Use last month’s receipts to estimate how much the items on your list will cost. I already know that I only have $280 to spend, so I adjust my list and menu to fit that $ amount.

TIP: Take cash with you when you shop, it will keep you from overspending.

Next week I will talk more in depth about how to create your dinner menu. Start this week by creating a list of main dishes your family likes or things they would like you to make. That will get you ready to create your menu, put as many dishes on the list as you would like, but make sure there are at least 20.

This may sound like a lot of work, but I found that I didn’t dread the afternoon question of “What’s for dinner?” because I already knew! It also kept me from making unnecessary trips to the grocery store during the month AND it saved me money!

As always, questions are welcome and appreciated. I will do my best to answer them!! Good luck!

I encourage everyone to take Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University!! It will change the way you think about money AND if you choose, it will change your life!!!

http://www.daveramsey.com/