Monthly Meal Planning--Step 3: The List
Welcome back for Step 3 in the Monthly Meal Planning Series! Here are the first three posts:
So far, we have covered why meal planning is beneficial, I've told you all my recipe secrets and how I organize them, and then in Step 2, I showed you how I create my menu. Now comes the fun part--shopping! Creating a master grocery list for your month of meals is the ultimate meal planner test. Ready? Let's go!
I make my grocery list in a Google doc (I'm all about those, can you tell?), that way I don't have to start from scratch each month. So I pull up my grocery list document and add to or delete things as I go through the menu. It's very simple, and not very exciting.
One thing that really helps me stay organized while making the list and then while shopping, is to organize the list in categories. Here they are:
Produce
Grains
Dairy
Meat
Frozen
Household
Other (things like spices, canned goods, etc)
After I go through the menu and add things that I need for making those certain meals, I go through my pantry and add items I might have missed (flour, sugar, olive oil, stuff like that!). I also kind of do a walk through around the house checking cupboards and closets for other things we might be out of (toilet paper, toothpaste, dryer sheets, etc). I've kept track of how much we need of each item to last us a whole month. For instance, I know that we will about four loaves of bread for all of my husband's lunches, and we just keep them in the deep freezer!
The actual grocery shopping trip that I do once a month is quite the task, but I love it! I start off at Aldi (if you have never shopped at Aldi, you are missing out!), after that I go to Sam's, and then I run to Target if there's anything I couldn't find at Aldi or Sam's! I usually take a cooler with me and my stash of reusable grocery bags! Josh and I like to go together because it's just more fun that way! :)
My husband and I have a Sam's Club membership, as I said, which has made SUCH a difference in our grocery budget. It has also cut down on those quick trips to the store throughout the money where you go in for one thing and end up spending $50! We buy non-perishables such as:
Health and Beauty products
Medicine
Bathroom products
Paper products
Soaps and detergents
Spices and oils
Cereal
Chips
Oats and nuts
and I'm sure a lot of other things
We also buy a lot of produce from Sam's that I use in our "green drink bags" (a smoothie I make every day full of fruits and vegetables). So I get:
Apples
Bananas
Spinach
Kale
Carrots
Grapes
Pineapple
Strawberries
This seems like a lot of work, but really--it's one day out of the month! I know that some people who shop weekly and even daily, and that seems like so much more work! And I don't know about you, but for me, if I go into a store, chances are I'm going to buy something!!! It saves us money each month to do grocery shopping this way!
As always I would absolutely LOVE to hear from you! Let me know if you try any of this out and how it's going! Comment here on the blog or tag me on Instagram (graceandpeacelettering) or Facebook (Grace & Peace Hand Lettering). You can also use my hashtag #graceandpeaceblog on Instagram! I'd love to hear from you!
grace & peace,
Mairin
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