How many times have to arrived home from a long day of work and no one (especially you) wants to cook dinner?  Or, maybe you would be willing to cook but the chicken is still in the freezer.  Do you eat cereal or order pizza?  Likewise how many times have you gone to the grocery store and ended up with more groceries than you needed?  Or, arrived home only to realize you forgot an important ingredient because it wasn’t on your list?  A simple solution to these dilemmas is to make a weekly menu.  It may sound silly, but it can save you money, time, and frustration.

Step one: Pick one time during your week when you can sit down and create a menu for the following week.  For instance, if you like to shop on Sunday, sit down with your family the day before.

Step two: Write down the days on a piece of paper and then note if there is something special happening that would effect dinner time (see below).  Once you know what the week will look like discuss what everyone would like for dinner (and lunches if you take your own) in the week to come.  This lets everyone have a say in what foods sound good. The menu can be simple like below or it can be more detailed.

Menu April 20th-26th
Monday: Stir-fry
Tuesday: Lasagna with steamed broccoli and side salad
Wednesday: (Mom working late) Chicken salad
Thursday: Salmon with asparagus and brown rice
Friday: (Eve’s basketball game) Eat out
Saturday: Quesadillas
Sunday: New recipe we’ve been wanting to try

Step 3: Once you have agreed upon the menu, you can easily make a grocery list of the ingredients needed for each meal.  Of course breakfast, lunch, and snack items will need to be added as well.  If you like certain drinks or condiments make sure you have enough for the week.

Grocery list:
Stir fry veggies
3lb chicken
Brown rice
lasagna noodles
red sauce
mozzarella cheese
etc…

Step four: Stick to your list!!  When you are at the grocery store, only buy what is on your list.  People tend to spend money on impulse buys that they don’t need.  However, if you decided to buy pineapple for a snack and the grapes are cheaper, substitute!  If you buy too much it will just go to waste.

Spending the time to prepare before going to the grocery store will save you money and keep you from wasting food.  Having a menu will allow everyone to help prepare dinner.  If the whole family knows Mom will be working late on Wednesday night then someone else can take responsibility for getting dinner started.  Having a plan for the week will also keep you from spending a lot of money eating out. 

Try it this week… let me know how it works for you!