Menu Planning Monday!

Hey everyone, good morning! Oh, it's the afternoon. Well, that's news to me...I'm sick again (somehow) and Dylan's napping. So, I've been going over the CVS sales (to bring you another belated CVS Sale Sunday) and thinking about what I'm making for the upcoming dinner week.

OK, I'm ALSO watching this show called Judge Alex, and I don't know if it's just me or not, but this guy's a real clown. He's funny and cool and everything, but you can just tell he really thinks he's somethin' else. I digress...

So, I've done the numbers and I'm under $200 this month for food shopping, which is freeeakkkking awesomeeee! I want to keep it that way, so I'll be doing some pantry cooking. Here's my plan for the week (Zero dollars spent this week!)

Monday - Turkey soup made with frozen bones from Thanksgiving (with organic barley)
Tuesday - Frozen scallops with garlic and oil over organic whole wheat spaghetti
Wednesday - Organic whole wheat penne with leftover tomato sauce from Sunday
Thursday - Potato soup made from leftover mashed potatoes, keep your eyes open for this recipe!
Friday - Leftover Turkey Barley Soup
Saturday - Pancake Breakfast for Dinner
Sunday - Frozen Vegetable Stir Fry - the best! I wanted to share this recipe with you, but the last time it just wasn't the best, so I wanted to perfect it before sharing...

So, there you have it! That's my no-shop menu plan. I literally have NOTHING in my fridge right now. Well, I have homemade yogurt, leftover red beans and pasta, prepared steel cut oatmeal, and some eggs. Oh, and leftover sauce! I'll eat all that during the days this week, and then I'll make the above dinners and we'll be good to go!

Menu planning is great for a whole slew of reasons. It's important to have a plan based on sales so that you take advantage of great deals, and only buy what you need. You can save a lot of money food shopping just making sure you're not buying a bunch of extras. Just plan for what you need, go shopping on a full stomach, and you should be good to go.

For example, if you're just shopping around aimlessly, and you see a sale on crackers and think, "oh these would be a good snack" and then you see some apples and are like, "ooh these would be good, too", and then you grab some pretzels, you've got a snack overload!

Before shopping, analyze the sales, and say, "oh, crackers are on sale, I'll buy those to pack in my lunch this week for snacks". I'll also get some apples. That way, you're not buying a bunch of stuff that you may or may not use before it goes bad. You've saved yourself the money on the pretzels...get them next week, maybe they'll be on sale!

Menu planning based on sales is a great way to shop. There's no reason to cook shrimp if they're not on sale! Just get the chicken that's on sale this week, and wait until the shrimp are on sale to cook with them. Or better yet, when shrimp go on sale buy two, cook with one, freeze the other, and then you can cook with sale shrimp twice (maybe for a fast pantry meal of garlic and oil shrimp over spaghetti!).

Lastly, my favorite thing to do is this: During the last week of the month, calculate your grocery cost. Then, try to cook for the last week of the month without buying anything (or only a few things). It's a fun way to keep your grocery bill low. For example, I'm at $192.00 for food this month, so what I'll most likely do, is buy a pound of organic baby greens for salads, and some organic milk for yogurt. This will put me at $205 for the month, which is great!