Planning Meals

[crosses]

I'm trying to get better at planning meals in advance, but I also have heard it is better not to and plan meals around what is on sale at stores. Any opinions on which is better for saving money?

[jaksilee]

I have a book I recently purchased called "Saving Dinner" that plans out a whole weeks worth of recipies for you. I have taken the recipes out of that book and other cookbooks and made my own meal plans. Then I sit down with the list of ingrediants needed and check out the sale flyers to see what is on sale using those ingrediants. that is one easy way to plan meals so you have things on hand and still take advantage of the sale items!

[asrai]

We generally stock up on what's on sale and plan our meals around that.

We generallye at chicken and ground beef so when I find a good sale I buy some and plan meals for that. I'm trying to convert DH to more vegetarian as DD and I usually eat that way when he's at work in the evening.

One recommendation is to make 6 weeks worht of menus and just rotate them. I'm still working on it. Just borrowed saving dinner from the library and am trying out recipes taht sound good.

I work at a grocery store so I see the good deals and what is not so good.

[Bev S]

I need to make up some menus like that. My problem is I have two dd's who are very picky eaters!!! So we seem to eat the same things over and over again. *sigh*

I also have never taken the time to actually write them down. I think that will be a goal of mine tonight. Sit down and write up some menus....

Bev

[Tree0164]

We don't eat to differently week in and weekout. I have about 30-40 different meals that we eat.

I try to do a master meal plan each month as most of the stuff I have in my pantry for canned and boxed goods that I get on a good sale. For the most part chicken goes on sale-for 1.99 every 3-4 weeks so I stocked up then.

[pschale]

I try to plan meals for a week at a time depending on what is on sale and what I have stockpiled. I buy what is on sale. For instance, when flour comes on sale around Thanksgiving or Xmas I will buy enough to last for a year until it comes on sale again. It is usually cheaper around that time of the year than any other time.

[amomof4]

Planning meals can really save a lot of money. First, you don't buy what u don't need. Secondly, u r less likely to go out for dinner because u have beat the "I don't know what to fix for dinner" blues. No more thinking. It's already done 4 u.

[PrincessPerky]

I plan my dinner on Monday morning before I go to the store, I then feel free to throw the plan out the window except where fresh food is concerned. I find it saves me time in the store, and I do it with the sale flyer in hand so if I like something that is on sale I can get it, if I don't it wouldn't get used no matter how cheap. And on a nightly basis, if I am not in the mood for the same food as I was on Monday, no big. As long as I use up all the fresh stuff before it goes bad.

Now I have to ask, how much flour does it take for a whole year? I find myself buying flour at least 10lbs a month, more this month. Where do you put 50 some lbs of flour?

[74me_thrive05]

I make our menus out combining what I have in the pantry/freezer and what's on sale.

>>>Where do you put 50 lbs of flour?<<<<<

You can store it in your freezer - that's what we do and it works out great.

[pschale]

I get 5 gallon buckets from bakeries or fast food places and put my flour, cornmeal, sugar, etc in them. If you put bay leaves in with it they will keep for up to 5 years. I know this because we did it one time. One of the buckets got shoved to the back and we didn't realized it was there until we started cleaning it out to move. It was dated 5 years before and when we opened it up the flour was still just as goood. This will not work with whole grains. They go rancid.

[PrincessPerky]

So what do you have to do with whole wheat flour? So far I have been just keeping it in a container in the cub oard, is that bad?

I don;t have a big freezer so it isn't an option for me.

[pschale]

It isn't bad if you can use it before it goes rancid. I don't bake that much so it would go rancid on me before I could use it. I only buy 5 or 10 pounds of whole wheat at a time.

[DivaJen]

Originally Posted by crosses

I'm trying to get better at planning meals in advance, but I also have heard it is better not to and plan meals around what is on sale at stores. Any opinions on which is better for saving money?

For me, it would be planning and then shopping based on my list. If the meals are planned and I have all of the ingredients, then I'm that much more likely to actually cook at home instead of relying on convenience foods or going out to eat.

The other thing that factors in for us is that we don't buy meat, and that seems to be one of the things that's often mentioned when shopping the sales and freezing stuff.

[kashi]

off topic, but how long does it take whole wheat to go rancid? I have some sitting on my shelf too, and I don't have a big freezer either.

[pschale]

I don't have a firm answer on that. I have had it stay good for a couple of months but I have also had it go bad in a month. Anyone else have an answer?

[akaivyleaf]

I planned meals by the month. I still brought things, in greateer quanitity when they were on sale, so that if chicken wasn't on sale the week I was cooking it, I just went to my deep freezer and pulled it out. I always set limits on the price that I would pay for things. Using chicken as an example, I would only buy it when it was .29c a pound or less. No matter if I was preparing it, when it hit my target price, I would buy the store limit and freze it.