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I am not a fan of cooking. I think its a blessing in disguise because I am pretty sure if I loved cooking and baking all the time, I would be the size of a house. I have a few recipes that I make well and I enjoy making. There is a key to cooking I think, you have to really enjoy it. In our quest to Get Organized with a 31 Day Challenge we will be tackling the kitchen, fridge organization and keeping your pantry stocked.
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Menu Planning can be done on any given day but around here, the retail flyers are delivered on Thursdays and specials start on Friday. I try and pick up groceries on Friday or my hubby does on Saturday. Planning meals by taking the weekly specials into account can help you save time and money. Here are a few tips on how to successfully Meal Plan for a week:
- Review Weekly grocery store flyers to see what is on special. Getting items that will compliment what you already have in storage (because you may have bought items in bulk to save more money) is always a good way of ensuring your pantry is being used up. Review flyers on-line with comparative shopping apps like Flipp. This has become my new best friend when I grocery shop.
- Keep track of retail stores that price match items. This helps you save time and money. If you can get most of your groceries at one retailer that is better than driving around town trying to find all the ‘great deals’. Wasting money on gas just makes those deals void. Check with the different retailers about their matching policy. Here in London, Metro does not price match at all (I left about $60 worth of groceries at the till one day when I found that out). Food Basics does price match but only against the big retailers (not pharmacies & smaller chain stores that have more than just groceries i.e. Giant Tiger). Some retailers will not accept mobile apps. you need to have the flyer in hand. The only one that was really liberal was Walmart.
- Review your recipes. Maybe you want to try something new, maybe you want to stick to the old favourites. I tend to love recipes by Jamie Oliver so I am inclined to go to his YouTube channel and search recipes there. Another go to resources are the Looney Spoons series of cookbooks. I have many a recipe dog eared because my family has rarely turned one of their recipes down. Thigh’s the Limit is a big family favourite and you can make it in a crock-pot.
- If you want to make things even easier for yourself, make Sunday a cooking day. Maybe you want to prep a few meals and have them ready for the next couple of days. If you ever watch Rachel Ray’s show Week In A Day she makes/preps 5 meals for the upcoming week in one day. All are pretty easy meals and many of the ingredients are chopped up so you can use them in various dishes.
- If you get stuck you can always search on Google for Menu Planning Monday. It is a blog hop that was started by Laura over at OrgJunkie. It has grown a lot since I first found it years ago but you can get some great ideas for family tested/Kid friendly recipes. If you go over to her website you will see 110 different bloggers add their plans for meals. This is such a great way to get meal ideas. One of our family favourites is a taco meatloaf that I found while searching that blog hop. I’ll have to make that for you all sometime in 2015. So delicious.
- One of the keys to successful meal planning is that you do vary meals so making good use of your pantry, your freezer and sometimes re-purposing left overs can make your family meals more organized and stress free. Make sure to consider how you make ‘fright night’ easy. Fright night is that one night that you are super busy and you need something quick and easy to make. Or you can just make sure your kids can warm up the leftovers. Tske the chore out of cooking. Get into s habit of planning your meals snd you will save time and MONEY. Make sure to keep following along with #GO_DPRO Organizing Month!
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I never really meal plan currently, we’re always eating the same thing. Boring I know, but it’s working and the kids don’t complain.
I’ve been wanting to devote a day on the weekend to batch cooking. I think Sunday afternoons would make a great day!
These are great tips for planning a weeks worth of meals. It is nice when you can prep for the whole week because it just make things easier. I need to organize and start shopping every week instead of for the month because I always go back to the store for something. Thanks for sharing.
These are great meal planning tips, I usually choose a night once a week after work and dedicate it to cooking for a week. I would cook a big pot of chilly and have that for the whole week and just choose different sides or have something light.
These are some great tips for planning! I typically don’t really plan meals in advance. I love the way I can be excited for the week’s meals.
This is such a great idea, I always like trying something new; sometimes it’s in the heat of the moment or just a great recipe I saw online! 😀
These are all such great tips!!! I just started using the Walmart price match and have actually saved a few dollars over the past month or so lol
Great guide! I have never heard of the Flipp app before, but believe me, I will be looking it up now!
This app looks great. I think it could really help me out.
This looks like a great app for planning meals. It’s so hard sometimes especially when life gets hectic. These are some great tips!
I began meal planning this year to save money. I wish there were more coupons in the UK, our food is ridiculously priced.
Over the past few months I’ve started planning ahead for meals and I love it so far! I have an app for coupons at my local grocery’s and everything <3
I don’t menu plan at all because I never know what I will be in the mood to eat in advance, but those tips sound helpful for people who do.
These are all great tips for meal planning. One of the things I make sure to do is always have chicken, salmon, and cooked hamburger meat on hand- with those, you can make almost any quick meal if you just add pasta!
These are great tips for meal planning. I really need to start doing it because it’d make things so much easier when it comes to meal times and healthy eating.
Just to let you know others price match from the app as well ie Target and No Frills and many are switching their policies, all it means is you have to do is click on clipping and show the date. You might want to check out the price matching post I did this week. It lists all the policies I could find online.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve become a fan of FLIPP!