Manage My Budget

Planning a weekly menu has saved you both time and money. However, not all weeks run as smoothly as we would like. That stop after work to check on your insurance bill took a lot longer than expected. Now you’re running behind picking the kids up from school, and come to find out you need to stop at the hardware store because your little one needs a paint brush to complete the project that you didn’t think was due until next week.

If you had gotten home on time, as planned, you would have started the Chicken Parmesan, as planned, and had dinner ready at 6:00 p.m., as planned. Well, the plan has been derailed, and now you don’t even have enough time to swing through the grocery store and pick up something quick for dinner. So, it’s the drive-thru tonight. Not exactly frugal or nutritious. Your carefully structured menu is just a vague, happy memory.

Your best-laid plans are an ideal. Certainly, you hope that nothing interferes with these plans, but something always does. Planning for a disruption isn’t something we very often do successfully. The Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” may be your solution to this problem. When the inevitable happens and your menu plan is messed up, you need to have a back-up plan prepared and ready to put into play.

Creating a back-up plan for meal-time isn’t as difficult as you might think. Start by using some of your favorite “go to” recipes, you know the ones… they’re always quick, easy, and delicious. That way, when you end up running late and there just isn’t enough time to get the chicken in the oven, you’ve got an alternate route to take, and we’re not talking about the route through the fast food place! We all want our families to eat a good, hot dinner; a dinner that’s nutritious as well as quick and easy. By using the recipes you’ve routinely turned to in the past, you can create a type of index of recipes that you can grab and go. We’re going to help you create that back-up meal plan in 3 steps.

FIRST STEP: Sort through your best quick and easy recipes that use the fewest ingredients. Choose the recipes that are also nutritious so you won’t be slipping too far from your ideal menu plan. Narrow your choices down to seven so you can make it at least a week just in case. Do you have a selection of recipes in front of you that your family always asks you to make? Okay, then you’re on the right track. Copy these seven recipes each on some index cards.

SECOND STEP: Pick a cupboard or pantry door in your kitchen, and attach some peel-and-stick bulletin board cork squares inside and pin your recipes to the cork board. If you don’t want to attach cork board inside your cupboards, tape an envelope to the back of a cupboard door and place your recipe cards inside the envelope. Your favorite go-to recipes are now all set when you need to use your back-up plan. Another advantage to having these recipes ready, is you can now call on your family to start some of the prep work if they can just grab the recipe card and begin.

THIRD STEP: A grocery list that is specifically made for your new back-up recipe plan is essential for this method to work. This is a list that you keep in your purse or car. You will create this by first writing your seven recipes down, then list the ingredients needed next to each recipe title. Be sure to simplify the list by eliminating the items that you have on hand all the time, like salt, pepper, butter, etc. When you pick the list out of your purse, you’ll choose your recipe, then go quickly through the grocery store picking out just the ingredients you need. When you get home, just pull your recipe out of the envelope, and dinner will be ready in no time. You won’t have to stop and think when you start down the grocery store aisles. The decisions have already been made, courtesy of your back-up plan.

A back-up menu plan may seem, at first, to be a little extreme. After all, you’ve already got your menu planned for the week. But, as we all know best laid plans often go awry. This will take a bit of organizing in the beginning, but it is worth the effort. You’ll appreciate your own back-up menu plan when you can’t think what to do for dinner now that you’re menu plan has gone off course. Your fabulous meal that was planned for tonight may have to wait until tomorrow, but at least your family won’t have to eat soggy pizza or greasy hamburgers.

So, who needs a back-up plan? We all do. Won’t it be great to look at your watch when you’re running behind for dinner and think, “oops… Plan B” instead of “EEEEK! Now What”? You’ll enjoy your drive home, you’ll enjoy your time with the family, and you’ll enjoy your own favorite meals… even if they are Plan B!

Routinely Eating Out At Restaurants Is Wasting Money when you’re trying to watch every penny. Plan meals at home for a week or more at a time, stick to your plan, and you’ll soon have extra money in your wallet. This is just one of the many Frugal Spending Ideas And Tips that can help save your budget.

Watching the nightly news isn’t the only place you can learn about the economic down-turn. I just look at the balance in our checking account. When day-to-day life revolves around counting pennies, you have to look at every single function of your household to figure out where to cut costs. The grocery store is probably the easiest and fastest way to trim your budget. Ordinarily, I plan a week’s menu, draw up my list, and hit the grocery store. But, “ordinary” wouldn’t describe our financial situation now. So, now I have taken another tactic. What would happen if I shopped the sales and forced myself to cook only what I could buy at a reduced price?

When you walk into the grocery store, you’ll notice a remarkable thing. You can’t turn down any aisle without walking into a “Buy-One-Get-One-Free” sign, a “Price Cut” sign, or a “Reduced Items” sign. I started to think, what if I only chose items on sale? Could I make dinner with just those ingredients?

This creative cooking may take some getting used to, especially if you are a person who normally sticks to recipes. But, you know what sorts of foods your family will eat, and what they won’t, so you already have a guideline. When you decide to give this a try, be sure to plan on shopping at the grocery store on a weekend. It may be busier, but there’s a reason for that. The biggest sales occur on the weekends. You’ll find that the same item you looked at on Wednesday or Thursday may be half the price on Saturday.

You will need a little strategy when you walk into the grocery store. Plan to shop the exterior aisles of the store first as that’s where most stores display the “main ingredients”; vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, cheese, and dairy. Fill your cart first with these items, only the ones you find on sale, and you will see your meals start to develop. Don’t worry… you’ll find plenty of specials in all these sections of any grocery store.

Time to take a spin through the other aisles, the ones in the middle. Don’t ponder too much about what exactly to pick out; just let those little “prices cut” signs guide you. If your family likes black beans, and they’re on sale, grab some, and move on. As you fill your cart, you will notice that, with very little thought, your menu is being formed. With the pantry items at home, you will certainly be able to plan dinner.

We need to discuss coupons. Are you a coupon clipper? That’s a great way to take advantage of every sale possible. One warning though; only use coupons on things that you are actually going to use. If you buy a food item and leave it sitting in your cupboard gathering dust, it really isn’t saving you money. Paper and cleaning products, however, are another story. If you are agreeable to trying new products, then by all means, clip and buy. In other words, if your family is not “married” to a certain bath soap, why not save a few cents on the brand that offers a coupon?

This is an opportunity to get your kids involved sorting your groceries using the food pyramid. You’ve got some protein, vegetables, fruit, dairy, and grains spread out in front of you. Once you sort all your grocery items into groups, you can start pulling food from each group and creating meals right then and there! Select some pantry items like pasta and rice and you are well on your way to a full menu plan. Wasn’t that smart of you?

Shopping several times a month using a “sales items only” strategy will begin to pay off very quickly. Watch your grocery bill shrink while you create unique menus that have your family asking why you never thought of this meal before. You may even find out that you can really cook! I challenge you to give this strategy a chance and see if you can’t trim your grocery budget and cook creatively in the process.

If you’re ready to get started, here are some great tips on saving on food and some grocery budget guidelines for your family. By implementing a few of these tips, you can start saving money this week.

categories: save money on groceries,meal planning around sales,frugal meal plan,frugal menu plan,grocery budget,saving money,cooking,recipes,food,budgeting,homemaking,family