The Meal Plan

Meal planning can be a huge road block for some people. Especially super spaz type B, "the thought of being organized gives me hives" people such as myself. It took me a loooooong time to wrap my head around meal planning. Or any kind of planning, really, but this post is specifically about meals. And even then, it's just about supper. I barely meal plan, but I've come to realize that in order to get the most out of my grocery budget, I need to know what I want to feed my family before I get to the grocery store.

I used to "meal plan" in my head while I drove to Superstore. Then, I would grab a bunch of ingredients, fingers crossed I got them all, and head home. By the time I got home, I barely remembered which 4 meals I had planned to make that week, and was still scrambling to piece something together every day. This was not a good system for me. (I doubt that this is a good system for anyone, actually).

I also used to think that meal planning meant going to the store and buying hundreds of dollars worth of groceries and pre-cooking and portioning out a zillion different meals that you could freeze or plop into a slow cooker. This, too, was not a good system for me. Turns out, my freezer is the place where groceries go to die (after being forgotten about for 2 or 3 years). Also, I never use my slow cooker because I didn't decide what was for dinner till about 35 minutes before I needed to serve it... not exactly slow cooker conducive.

For me, an effective meal plan is just a quick glance at what I'm planning to make for supper that week. Best case scenario, it includes all of the ingredients I'm going to need for the meal. Like the grocery list, I have determined that in order for a meal plan to work for me, I need to write it down. So that's exactly what I do.

My meal plans are not fancy or elaborate, and lots of times, they're pretty much only for 1 or 2 days. What they are, though, is a way for me to organize my thoughts and make a plan so I'm not waking up with my kids one morning and contemplating taking them all to McDonalds because, oh shit, we have no suitable breakfast food.

I use a notebook that I have dubbed, "The Grocery Notebook" (I know, I know, so creative). I write all my meal plans and grocery lists in here. It makes me happy to leaf through because I am a giant nerd. I prefer this to a digital list or plan because I can write all over it, and that makes me feel good. If you would prefer to do this digitally, I think that would work just fine. Just not for me.

When I meal plan, I only really plan for suppers. We are creatures of habit, and typically eat the same thing (smoothies, cereal, fried egg sandwiches, peanut butter toast) for breakfast during the week, and lunch is usually leftovers or some form of carb with cheese melted on it for my kids, so I don't spend too much time planning out each day's breakfast and lunch, but I do check my pantry and fridge to make sure I have enough of something suitable for everyone to eat.

For suppers, I write down the meal I'd like to make, and then I write down all the ingredients. I do this for each day of my plan. Sometimes, even if I plan the whole week, I only shop for the first 3 days, if I know the back half of the plan requires something that will rot in my fridge (like cilantro or green onions) if I buy it too early.

Take a look:

Ta daaa!

It's nothing fancy. Today was "use up all the produce in the fridge before it gets soggy" day, so we had soup. Tomorrow, I will go to Superstore and Wednesday I will go to Costco (for the ham. And also for something to do). I don't typically plan for the weekends, because we kind of fly by the seat of our pants on the weekend, usually have leftovers in the fridge, and almost always order pizza.

I try my best to write down all of the ingredients for each meal, and then I highlight the items that I need to add to my grocery list. I either transfer the highlighted items to a new page in my book to make my grocery list or, typically, I already have a list started in the book, somewhere, and I'll add to it. I start a new list after each shopping trip.

Meal planning like this has helped me in the following ways:

1. I actually know what I'm making for supper, so I'm not rooting through my kitchen at 4:30 frantically trying to scrape together enough (defrosted) ingredients to make a decent meal.

2. I know what (and how much) I need to buy at the grocery store, so I'm not cruising the produce section grabbing random fruits and vegetables I think I might potentially use this week, only to throw them away unused a week later.

3. If I do need something from the freezer, I have a written plan to help me remember to take it out the night before, instead of relying on myself to "just remember" which I know I will not do.

4. I can flip back to previous meal plans to see what I've made recently, or, what we haven't had in a while, so that when someone says, "we're have that again?" I can tell them that we haven't, actually, had this meal in months, and also, "would you like to be in charge of meal planning and cooking, then?"

5. If we do have to scrap a day of the plan because we aren't home for supper or whatever, I have a record of what I was planning to make/what ingredients I have, so that I can migrate those groceries onto next week's plan instead of mentally trying to remember what I have in my fridge that needs to be used up first.

6. So much less waste: Less wasted time at the store and in the kitchen, less wasted food in the fridge and pantry, and less wasted energy trying to think of meals to make every day.

When I make my list from the meal plans, I'm only buying what I need, which allows me to make the most of my small grocery budget. I no longer open my fridge and pantry and say, "what am I out of?" but instead ask myself, "what do I need to add, to make the meals I've chosen?" I might be out of canned tomatoes or pasta or whatever, but if they're not in the plan for this week, I don't bother with them. Instead of buying ingredients I think I might use soon, I buy the stuff I know I'm going to use right now.

Are you willing to try it? Reframe your approach to grocery shopping this week, and only buy the items you have a plan to use. Don't stock up on extras you might use later on, and note the difference it makes to your total grocery spend. Let me know how it goes!