Monthly Menu Planning, Part 1

Monthly Menu Planning 

 

I have had a few friends asking me lately how I plan my monthly menus and shop and save $ on groceries, etc.  I want to share this with you girls in hope that it is helpful.  This is one way to do it.  There are lots of other great ideas out there. 

You should know that my husband gets paid monthly, on the 25th of the month.  So, I do my menus to go from the 25th of this month, to the 24th of the next. 

You will need: 

1.  Some paper and a pen

2.  Favorite cookbooks, or magazines

(or just have your pintrest board open and ready!)

3.  Your calendar
 

Step One: Inventory

Admittedly, I almost always skip this step.  But, I just did it for this next month and realized that this is the most money-saving part of the whole process!  It only took me about 5 minutes, too.  What have I been thinking?!

By way of example, here is what we have in the house at the end of this month:

 Pantry: (Yes, I just let you look in my pantry)
oats
barley
brown sugar
white icing
cocoa
chocolate almond bark
cheddar soup
diced tomato
2 can kidney beans
1 can spaghetti sauce
bread crumbs
instant rice
tricolor rotini
mac n cheese
ramen
tortilla chips
rice
potatoes

fridge:
a variety of shredded cheese
8 oz cream cheese
lunch meat
eggs

 

freezer:

dove

pheasant

chicken (2lb)

1 bell pepper

beans and rice (freezer meal from last month)

turkey, cooked and sliced

2 pork chops

half a bag of hash browns

1 lb sausage

frozen peas (1 1/2 bags)

I didn't write down every little thing.  There are boxes of cereal, baking ingredients, maple syrup, etc.  I just wrote down the things I thought would make major ingredients in a meal.  I'm sure with practice, we'll all become more efficient at making this list.  This time around, it really took me less than 10 minutes.  How often do you get this much $$$ in return for 10 minutes of your time?