How to Meal Plan and Save Money On Groceries

Groceries are so hard to navigate right now. It seems like every time I go to the store the price has increased again on the staples that I get. Just a few short years ago, I could buy a pound of burger for only $2 and now that same pound of burger at the same store is $4.79.

I completely get that this category is one of, if not THE hardest budget item to stick to! One of the things that I have found that helps me stick to my grocery budget is a meal plan.

Meal plans can get completely thrown out the window, (as a mom of 3, this unfortunately happens sometimes!) but it can help you figure out what you want to have for the upcoming week (or weeks) and go on from there.

I will go over how to meal plan as well as some do's and don't's below! Keep in mind, I am not perfect, no one is! However, this has helped me plan for meals throughout the week and it also solves the "what's for dinner?" question that I always get!

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How do I make a meal plan?

Making a meal plan can be daunting. Do you want to follow a specific diet, are you purchasing for just you, a family, you and your spouse? Determine that and adjust your budget according to what you think you will need. If it's just you and your spouse, maybe $50 a week will work for you. You can try to live on $100 a week like me and my family of 5 do, but it's going to take a lot of planning!

Whatever your budget is, set that weekly if you want, or by the month and you will need to buy accordingly.

Plan for the upcoming week

This is so important! Look at your calendar, do you have any days that you're away from the house in the evening? Or do you have early mornings where you need to be somewhere and may not have the opportunity to eat breakfast or make your lunch for the day?

I can't tell you how many times we blew our grocery budget due to lack of planning for the upcoming week. Then guess what we would do, we would end up wasting some of our fresh produce so then we doubled our amount that we were wasting!

Not good for the budget, let me tell you.

Choose your recipes

What do you want to eat this week? I recommend planning around what's already in your house! Maybe you have some canned beans that have been in your pantry for a while, or a roast sitting in your freezer. Make a plan around that. Or you can read this article here to see the easy recipes that I make and that my family loves.

My husband and I have tried going Keto so many times in the past that we have an abundance of coconut oil and almond flour. I've been trying to use these as I can but if you've ever tried coconut oil, you know that it has a very distinctive taste and can throw off a dish! So if you have things like that, I completely understand not being able to use them up, but maybe work in some desserts for the week or something so you can use some of those perishable items.

Make your Grocery List

Now that you have your meals planned out for the week, it's time to make your meal plan. I recommend using this meal planner here. It has everything you need to plan out your meals, as well as a freezer and pantry list to keep track of those items! Bonus, it is an instant PDF download so once you get it, you can print it off and start using it right away!

Get your Grocery Meal Planner now! 🛒

Go shopping!

Now you get to go shopping. If you want to stick to your budget, pick a store that you know is on the cheaper side. Not all grocery stores are made the same! I usually shop at Walmart or Winco and then we go to Costco for the bulk items that we need.

How can I stick to my meal plan?

Sticking to your meal plan is going to take everyone that's involved! Whether that's just you, or your family. I'm so easily derailed because I'm the primary planner of the family and sometimes it's just too much. So if my husband says "how about pizza?" or let's just do this other thing tonight instead, I will almost 100% of the time say yes. 😂

Talk about not having any determination to stick to the meal plan!

This doesn't happen a lot though, I would say once a month, so I think we're still winning. 🎖️

Plan easy meals for the really rough weeks. You can look here for a couple of really easy meals that my family and I make on a monthly basis.

Sticking to your meal plan when it gets tough

When you have a plan for the week, and something comes along that could possibly derail that plan, it's frustrating, right? That's why it is so important to look at your calendar and plan around anything that is scheduled already.

My other go-to is making sure we have things that are easy, like bread to make sandwiches, eggs, noodles, etc. One of the meals I make my family takes me less than 20 minutes to make and I just always make sure that we have all the ingredients on hand.

Use your leftovers

Leftovers can get a bad rap sometimes. I know a lot of people that HATE leftovers. Personally, I love them! Pasta especially is better the next day!

A lot of times people think of leftovers as the exact same thing the next day, but you could always repurpose your leftovers into a casserole or something else. Google is perfect to plug these ingredients into and find new recipes! Or let's say you had steak one night, and we all know that reheated steak is just not great, so repurpose it into fajitas, or an amazing steak salad.

Think outside the box and you can definitely find new recipes that you will love!

Batch Cooking

You can take advantage of making one big meal then freeze some of it for a later meal. I accidentally made too much pot pie filling not too long ago, so I froze half of it and made another pot pie the other day. It was awesome because I didn't have to do anything other than thaw out the filling.

Stick to low cost ingredients

Try to incorporate some lower cost ingredients and have those as staples in your house. Noodles, rice, beans, etc all can be used to stretch a meal. You can also stretch it by including more vegetables and loading up on these in your meals. Bonus, it's healthier, too!

Avoid single use ingredients

I bought some sweet Thai chili sauce for one recipe a while back and I still haven't gotten rid of that thing! So this is what I mean by avoiding single use ingredients. I am sure I could have found more recipes to use that in, but I didn't, so now it's taking up space in my fridge.

Lastly, meal planning is a powerful tool for saving money on groceries while ensuring you eat healthy and delicious meals. By planning around sales, batch cooking, using leftovers, and sticking to affordable staples, you can cut costs significantly.

Incorporating seasonal produce, reducing meat consumption, and cooking from scratch further helps you stretch your budget. With a bit of creativity and organization, meal planning allows you to maximize what you already have, avoid waste, and make smart purchases—all of which contribute to consistent savings and a more efficient kitchen!