Meal planning response

Wow! I got a great response to my question: How do YOU plan for eating for your family? How do YOU do the grocery shopping for your household?

For any who may be checking back to see the responses, I picked out the essential tips that came in each response.

And here they be (in no particular order):

• Use coupons.  A lot or a little, every bit helps.
• Plan a flexible menu.
• Find the stores nearest you that consistently have the lowest prices for what you buy. This may turn out to be a combination of a few stores (For me, that’s Aldi’s and Kroger).
• Educate yourself on the promotional deals your stores offer (see if they double coupons, offer reward points, give you gift cards…)
• Make a list of what you need.
• When you plan a menu and make a list, keep local sales and coupons in mind.
• Shop your pantry, cupboards, fridge, and freezer before you shop with cash. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need or won’t use quickly enough.
• When staples go on sale, stock up (pasta sauce, milk, cereal, paper products…)
• Set a budget for yourself.
• If you can, break that overall grocery budget into subcategories: this much for meat, that much for paper goods/toiletries….
• Shop with cash.
• If you don’t have the money for it, put it back.
• Use a calculator while you shop 1. So you can see your running total and 2. So you can see if you’ve got leftover money you can put towards another item.
• If you’re not already, get comfortable with leftovers.

And just for good measure here are some others I found while browsing the internetsssss:

• When you get the stuff you bought home, store it right so you don’t waste the money spent on it. (I googled this and found lots of sites that tell you the best way to store anything-veggies, fruits, meats, milk…)
• Shop when you’ve got time to spare and you’re not tired. Prevents rushing through and forgetting items that you’ll have to go back to buy.
• Readjust your expectations for dinner. It essentially needs to be nourishing and give an opportunity to sit down and focus on the people you’re eating with. If you can make it special, all the better. But the main goal is to get nourishing food on the table.
• Set up a meal pattern like:

Monday:pasta

Tuesday: soup and salad/sandwich

Wednesday:  stir fry

Thurday: crockpot

Friday:pizza

Saturday: leftovers

Sunday: eat out

All these awesome tips and ideas are going to help us tremendously. 

Thanks so much to all you who responded. 

I'm so glad I asked. And if you still have some tips to share, PLEASE DO! 

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Thanks again, and have a good one ;)