Simplified Meal Planning On A Budget
Do you need simplified meal planning on a budget? If so, you have come to the right place. Meal planning doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming. With a few tips and tricks, you can simplify your meal planning and lower your budget.
Simplified Meal Planning On A Budget: Simplify Your Meals
An easy way to simplify your life is to simplify your meals. While most of us enjoy lavish meals, we don’t enjoy the time or money that goes into making those lavish meals. I lean towards meals that take 30 minutes or less to make. I don’t use fancy ingredients that I will probably never use again. Our meals usually consist of a meat, side, and a vegetable or two. Sometimes we have bread depending on the meal and fruit is for desert or snack. If you don’t eat meat, substitute it for something else.
Simplified Meal Planning On A Budget: Inventory Pantry & Freezer
One of the most important tips to meal planning on a budget is to shop your pantry and freezer before you go to the grocery store. In order to do that, you have to know what is in there. Take an inventory of your pantry and freezer. While you are in there, throw out any expired items that you find. This may require some decluttering and organizing so that you know where things are as well as be able to see what you have at a glance. Here are my favorite storage containers from dollar tree. Plastic Canisters with Green Twist on Lids, 3 qt. | Dollar Tree
Your inventory list should be categorized by type of food so that you can plan your meals easier. For example, my inventory categories look like this:
Meat Sides Vegs Baking Other
Chicken Rice Green Beans Cake Mix Bread
Pork Chops Potatoes Corn Sugar Ketchup
Fish Grits Black Beans Flour Mustard
Simplified Meal Planning On A Budget: Shop Your Pantry
After you have taken an inventory of your pantry and freezer, let’s go shopping in those two places to see how many complete meals that you can make with the items that you already have on hand. Try to get creative. Next make a list of the meals that just need one or two things to complete that meal and make note of those items to get at the store. Shopping your pantry before you go to the grocery store is a Big money saver because you will use up what you already have, and you won’t buy something from the store that you already have at home.
Simplified Meal Planning On A Budget: Use Up The Leftovers
Don’t forget to take note of all of the things that are in the refrigerator. You want to eat the leftovers and the fruits and veggies that will go bad soon. So much food goes to waste in the refrigerator because it gets stuck in the back or its hiding in the crisper and we forget that it is there. You can plan one night each week to eat the leftovers in the fridge. In fact, many dishes taste better when they marinate in the fridge until the next day like soup or chili.
Simplified Meal Planning On A Budget: Let The Meal Planning Begin
Now that you have a list of all of the meals that you can make from your pantry, freezer, and fridge; get your calendar out so that you can see what your schedule looks like for the week. You can use your calendar to write your meal plan on or you can just use a piece of paper to put on the fridge.
There are also so many different meal plan sheets that you can buy on amazon. This one has the grocery list and the menu for the week on the same page which is great. It’s also magnetic. Magnetic Meal Planning Pad for Fridge 52 Undated Tear-off Sheets | 6×9 Inch Meal Planning Notepad | Notebook for Meal Planner and Grocery List with Magnet | Weekly Meal Planner for kitchen with Tear Off Shopping List (amazon.com)
Now, start plugging in your meals for the week. If your kids have practice on Wednesday nights, you can have hot dogs or home made pizza. It might even become leftover night. Don’t forget about leftovers for lunch. It’s better than any take out and it’s better on the budget too.
Taking just few minutes each week to update the inventory in your pantry, freezer, and refrigerator combined with meal planning will save you so much time and money you won’t believe it. It will also relive the stress of trying to figure out what is for dinner at 5:00. If you would like more ways to simplify your life, this might be helpful. Simple Living: 7 Steps To Start Living Your Best Life.
