Saturday, July 5, 2008

Meal Planning

I would like to start meal planning. I know that if I plan meals and write out a grocery list according to those planned meals, we would likely save some money and answer the nightly question, "what's for dinner?"

Photo by secret.genius

Grocery shopping may also be more of a pleasure if I have a list and know what to buy before I go into the store. It’s not that grocery shopping is an uncomfortable experience, but it often goes something like this:

DJ: "Do we have chicken?"
Me: "Yep, we have plenty. Do we need mayo?"
DJ: "I can’t remember, we better get some."
Of course, when we come home we discover that we have plenty of mayo.

I have an idea of what to do, but I don’t know where to start. Do you do meal planning? Do you know of a great blog about meal planning that I should read? Have you posted a blog about meal planning? How about any useful (free) sites on the topic?

I look forward to your comments…

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been tackling this project also. You might want to take a look at allrecipes.com where you can save recipes and generate shopping lists.
I've been experimenting with a few software options for meal planning and recipe organizations also. I've downloaded demos for "Living Cookbook" and "Big Oven". So far, I'm liking Big Oven -- but at the end of 30 days I'll have to fork over $30 to license it.

There are also some services you can subscribe to that will send you plans and recipes -- although usually not for free.

Amy said...

I just checked on one of my favorite blogger's page and found that she just posted on this topic: http://simplemom.net/how-to-menu-plan/

LobotoME said...

i've posted a few posts about this - www.LobotoMEblog.blogspot.com

J :)

Heidi Naturally said...

Cool site!

Yes, meal planning is one of my passions. It saves me lots of time and stress.

I've written a couple of ebooks on the topic. My free ebook "Time Saving Kitchen Tips" is available at http://www.hjresources.com/freeck and my Smart Cooking manual is at http://www.hjresources.com/cookbook.

The key for me is making out my menu at the same time I make my grocery list on the same sheet of paper. I like choosing from a list of meals that I can post on the refrigerator. Hope that helps.

Heidi

letterstoelijah said...

Hi there.. I'm new to your blog :) Create an "always have to have in stock" list. Then check that list before you go shopping. We have a small white board on our fridge. When we get low on something (we will run out with in 2 shops) we add it to the list (this is great for the kids to do to!)
If something on your "always have it have in stock" list goes on sale - then buy enough that you can afford or store.

Feel free to visit my blog... this past month I've been really inspired to become frugal!

Dana