2011 Menu Planning Challenge!

**nuisance26** · 12-20-2010, 11:23 AM

~Join us as we plan our way to grocery savings, less meal time stress and menu variety!
Post your weekly or monthly menus here. You can get great meal ideas from browsing through what everyone posts.
What do you hope to accomplish through menu planning in 2011?~

**McD** · 12-20-2010, 02:02 PM

IN! I keep falling off the wagon and my grocery budget (and waist!) are suffering because of it!

**happymomof4** · 12-20-2010, 03:14 PM

As of Dec 31st dh will be with out a job. He isn't eligible for unemployment until April. So meal planning for me will be a way to save on my grocery budget. Sense it will be very tuff for the next few months.

**jacqueline** · 12-20-2010, 06:48 PM

have never done this before but need to start. menu planning breakfast and lunch will save me money and health problems - both coming from the cafeteria where I work.

**walker24** · 12-20-2010, 06:57 PM

I am so in. I have to stick with it this time. My brother moved in with us and we've added a new baby so time to buckle down for sure.

**qsaver704** · 12-20-2010, 10:50 PM

I am in and hope to try for a monthly menu plan. I am sure it will change from week to week, but do plan on trying to do an entire month at a time and only grocery shopping once (with small pick ups of milk, fruit, etc). I hope this saves money, since I am one to pick up extras when in the store.

I also hope to couple this with the eat of the pantry/freezer challenge to save money and keep items fresh.

We are also having a baby in Feb. I believe I have forgotten how expensive formula is (we will try again to breastfeed, but was unsuccessful last time).

**thefrugaltribe** · 12-20-2010, 11:31 PM

I love doing meal plans.

I do them weekly and shop weekly. I try to get household items on sale and in bulk so I only need to get those monthly, bi-monthly, or 6 monthly like toilet paper and cleaning products etc

I like planning meals that are seasonal so that I can get our veg and fruit as local as possible.

I find it a personal challenge at the moment to keep my shopping below a certain budget while still making attractive, tasty and healthy meals for my family...we were spending $250-$300 a week on shopping! I have gotten this between $150-$200 but I would really like to get it lower. My daughter has allergies so it makes it hard to get ANYTHING with dairy in it cheaply. She also reacts to most things with numbers on the back (she gets a rash on her face and is grumpy) so we have to aim for meals made from scratch which are as preservative/additive/clolour free as possible.

I pick seasonal recipes, plan the weekly menu, do my shopping list and when the weekend comes around I go to farms or markets first, Aldi next, green grocer and butcher next and finally only if I HAVE to the la de da grocery stores.

Look forward to doing our plans in the new year and getting ideas.

**zakity** · 12-21-2010, 12:46 AM

I have meals planned out until May 17th. I have most of the stuff in the house for all those meals except veggies and milk and bread items. I will need to do a bulk stock up on noodles and rice towards Aprilish.

Usually, I do an inventory of my stockpile in January. It is always way cold out in the garage at that time and we freeze while we are doing it. I decided to do it early. It was finished the weekend before last and I spent bits of time here and there last week making the menu plan.

I have about 13 more meals left over, but they are repeats. I sprinkled them in over the rest of May, June, July and August. I am sure that some of the meals in the menu plan won't work out. They always get added to the end of the menu list.

**madjen** · 12-21-2010, 12:57 AM

Count me in! I've got to get back to menu planning. It makes life so much easier all the way around... knowing what's for dinner, grocery shopping, etc.

**qsaver704** · 12-21-2010, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by zakity

I have meals planned out until May 17th. I have most of the stuff in the house for all those meals except veggies and milk and bread items. I will need to do a bulk stock up on noodles and rice towards Aprilish.

Usually, I do an inventory of my stockpile in January. It is always way cold out in the garage at that time and we freeze while we are doing it. I decided to do it early. It was finished the weekend before last and I spent bits of time here and there last week making the menu plan.

I have about 13 more meals left over, but they are repeats. I sprinkled them in over the rest of May, June, July and August. I am sure that some of the meals in the menu plan won't work out. They always get added to the end of the menu list.

Does this mean you have enough different meals to not repeat until May? Man, oh man! Maybe we aren't adventuresome or maybe we are cheap, but I struggled to come up with 30 different meals for my family. I am impressed!

**frugal me** · 12-21-2010, 03:10 PM

I am in and hope to try for a monthly menu plan.
I've always done it for 1 week at a time.
But on Dec. 15th, I made out a menu for the rest of December and went grocery shopping. It cut my grocery bill almost in half.
So, for Jan., I'm going to try doing it for 1 month.

**Mamaw** · 12-21-2010, 05:13 PM

I am in with the goal of making a weekly menu plan and then STICKING to it. ( That is the hard part for me....) I hope to keep my grocery budget under control while still making more home made meals that are healthy and tasty. Plus limit the eating out and fast food addiction that I seem to have

**hotprincesscm** · 12-21-2010, 05:37 PM

I want to join again. I am so bad about doing this. But really need to, to save money and eat more healthy!

**thefrugaltribe** · 12-21-2010, 05:39 PM

Quesion for the long term meal planners...

As I have mentioned my daughter suffers from allergies and requires basically all of her meals made from scratch...we break that occasionally when we need too...like last time I pulled my back out and DP was working doubles...DD needed to east take out!

I was just wondering how much of your shopping is fresh presevative free etc etc? Do you use a lot of pre packaged stuff?

I need a lot of help being able to stockpile for our meals because at the moment we shop week to week and I would love to only have to pick up veg and dairy on a weekly basis.

**mkkl19** · 12-21-2010, 09:22 PM

I'm in! We need to use up some stuff in my deep freezer. I also want to start planning the menu for the entire month instead of week, maybe that way I will lower the grocery bill too.