How Do You Menu Plan And Grocery Shop?

**staceyy** · 06-22-2007, 02:53 PM

Because dh is out of town the majority of the time and its just me at home, I do not menu plan ahead. I have an ongoing grocery list that I add to when I think of something we need or have run out of. Some things on my list are specific but others like meats and vegetables are not.

I go grocery shopping about once a month. I shop with a list, clip coupons and take a look at the sale flyers. I shop more than one store and I also order each month from places like Chesapeake Bay Seafood House, Kansas City Steaks and Omaha steaks, always buying their specials. I average $250 a month for groceries,toiletries,paper products and drugstore items; down from the $400 that I used to spend due to practicing frugality. I buy mostly name brand items. We now eat better but spend a lot less. I get lots of freebies from various sources and I cook and bake from scratch, and make a lot of my own products. I'm somewhat of a foodie having attended culinary school, but I'm a foodie on a budget, so I have to be very creative. I do not buy organic (too expensive) though I'm beginning to learn vegetable gardening.

When I get to the store, I shop from my list but am flexible with such things as bread, meats and vegetables preferring to buy whats on sale.I stockpile sale items. I like good whole grain breads, cheaper cuts of meats from the grocery store since I buy the higher quality meats from mailorder sources. I prefer fresh and frozen vegetables.

I like to make large quantities of waffles, pancakes, muffins, cupcakes and cookes and freeze them. I also like to make enough for at least two meals when making things like stews, chili, spaghetti and casseroles. The mailorder seafood and meats I order come individually wrapped which makes it easy to take out one or two steaks or hamburgers at a time,these are my quick meals.

I usually decide what to eat that morning. Because I cook and bake most things from scratch, I find that I always have to have things prepped and snacks and desserts made ahead of time, as there are no Twinkies or Doritos in the cupboard to grab when we're hungry.

**Radish4ever** · 06-22-2007, 03:24 PM

I am a lot like you! I only LOOSELY menu plan. I have been REALLY shopping with coupons and stockpiling the REALLY good deals! We base our meals from what was on sale! For example, I got the great lunch meat deal this week and the free bread... so it'll be sandwiches for lunch for a few weeks! lol

We also get a box or two from Angel Food Ministries every month, so that helps too. I find that I can't just PLAN what we'll be eating in advance or we just won't stick to it and I'll end up wasting time and getting frustrated! We always have plenty of staples to pretty much be able to have a big choice on what to eat each night.

We also eat a lot of leftovers and DH takes his lunch to work every day!

We are way down on our grocery spending and I couldn't be happier!

I've been trying to shop loss leaders as much as possible, too....... We eat bananas a lot because they're ALWAYS cheap! Right now we're also eating a lot of grapes because they're .99/lb these days.

I will only eat meat that was either part of a meal deal (buy the meat, get a ton of stuff free) or that was drastically marked down or a loss leader.

We're tightwads!

**staceyy** · 06-22-2007, 03:45 PM

Jenn, isn't it great that although the economy is doing poorly, we are able to reduce our food expenses and eat even better due to frugal living?

**Radish4ever** · 06-22-2007, 05:09 PM

It is so awesome! My friends and family think I'm nuts, but you really have to make sure you're not taken advantage of in today's crazy world of groceries. lol

It helps that we're not brand specific to anything except Dove soap. lol DH insists!

**Its_Donna** · 06-22-2007, 05:31 PM

I'm on the other end of the spectrum....I shop twice a month and plan a menu every week. The menu is placed on my fridge and there isn't much deviation. This has been such a time saver, money saver and stress reliever for me. Some weeks I work 6 days (if I do a Product Demo on Saturday) and with this sort of organizing it just takes the headache out of it for me.

I use coupons religiously although I can often get the store brand cheaper than a name brand with a coupon so I am very careful and price compare. No one goes with me to grocery shop because it usually takes me about 3 hrs.

I have also become a CVS addict; I love those ECB!

We do eat better now that we are living the Simple Frugal Life. I cook more from scratch now and the family loves the taste. They also like the idea of having a dessert after dinner whether it be jello, pudding, fruit, fruit breads, muffins, etc.

**dcompton** · 06-22-2007, 06:28 PM

I've given up menu planning since it never worked for me. I'm cooking for one too, and what I cook usually lasts for days -- in fact, I plan for it to. I cook for the week, more or less, on one of my days off. I am lucky to be one of the people that can eat the same things for days on end and not mind.

I don't plan around loss leaders, but buy them. Produce I use fresh, of course, but any meat I buy goes in the freezer. When I cook, I "shop" in the freezer, and use whatever is there from earlier sales.

**Dancing Lotus** · 06-22-2007, 07:27 PM

I plan 100% around loss leaders. I save every coupon I can get my hands on and wait until its onsale. Then depending on how good the price is I buy it up like crazy. I dont menue plan but should. When I did it saved me so much time. Im going to get back to it. The best way for me is to buy whats on sale and then comeup with any way I can think of to cook it. This week the deal was fish so I made three different styles of fish. IF you dont cook it the same way every time you wont get bored.

**kittykatstrong** · 06-22-2007, 09:18 PM

I have to have some sort of plan for the week or I will tend to eat out more.

Katy

**Neeley** · 06-22-2007, 11:30 PM

We do not do a menu anymore. It was more of a pain in the bottom than it was worth for us. There are certain staples we always buy and keep on hand.

We know that every week we will have certain main entree items and certain side items. We will always have shrimp, salmon, talapia, boneless/skinless chicken breasts and pork chops on hand for main entrees. We will also always have side items like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, zuchinni, potatoes, corn and peas.

We always keep quick and easy things like frozen pizzas and pasta for nights when noone really wants to cook. We have pretty busy schedules and full, home cooked meals are just not in the picture for us everynight. Sometimes spaghetti or pizza just has to do.

We fill in the other days with whatever strikes our fancy at the grocery store. We do all of the shopping as a group so we are able to discuss whether something looks good or not.

**BeyondFrugal** · 06-23-2007, 01:38 AM

I used to plan menus. Here's what I used to do.
I had sheets of papers. One had a list of veggy recipes, one of carb recipes, one of meat dishes.

On another paper I made seven lines, one for each day of the week. Then I pick and chose from my list. Each day got one meat, on carb, and two veggies.

Easy meals were planned for grocery store day.

Of course meals had to be worked around my other tasks(cleaning, outdoor stuff, etc). It took a lot of rearranging on paper. I probably spent two hours, on average, working on the menu for one week.

I did planning for about two years, and cooked seven days a week (We eat out exactly 3 times a year) and I think I finally programmed my brain to just do it without paper. I haven't planned a menu in over a year now.
-Elaine

**MarshHen** · 06-25-2007, 10:19 AM

I do a weekly menu based on the sale paper for our local Piggly Wiggly that comes in the mail on Mondays. They offer alot of buy one get one free deals on meats and other staples. I also run down the road a piece and buy paper products, canned goods, cleaning supplies, H&B supplies, etc., from Dollar General and Fred's. They have good sales as well. It's cheaper for me to drive 20 miles round trip to shop what we consider local, than to drive 50 miles round trip to the stores in Brunswick.

**GMA21** · 06-28-2007, 01:00 PM

I check the adds and go through my coupons to see what I need/have. The majority of what I buy I get on sale and save with my club card {this is my favorite & cheapest store} but since I have them delivered I can't use coupons so when dad gets paid we go to another store close to here and get what they have on sale that we need as well as use my coupons to get everythig else.