Lets face it. Food is expensive; often even more so when you’re trying to eat naturally. Price is even a large reason many people give for not being able to buy the organic fruits, veggies and other foods they’d like to purchase otherwise. This means we’ve got to make the most of each and every item we buy.
For me, one of the ways I try to do that is meal planning. When I’m on my game, I plan the whole month at the beginning. It doesn’t always happen because sometimes, I just can’t get it together….but when I do it helps save money on the food budget in several different ways.
- Ingredients aren’t wasted or mistakenly unused
- Less trips to the store
- Buying only what we need – no distractions!
- Able to get dry goods in bulk
- Making better use of leftovers and extra ingredients
- I know what’s for dinner each night so feel less likely to come up blank or unprepared, cave, and just have Hubs bring home take out : )
All you need to do is sit down with a blank calendar (there are many possibilities here from paper to online programs), along with some cookbooks and other sources for meal ideas and come up with a plan for the month. Its a nice way to be sure to incorporate some of everyone’s favorites, and, you can even consider side dishes and other options for being sure there’s something for everyone at every meal time.
From there all that’s left is to create grocery lists so that you can pick up all the ingredients you’ll need each week. Then you can easily schedule ingredient prep accordingly too and make cooking even easier!
With this trusty calender full of meals and snacks you’ll get more variety in what the family eats, meals are easier and healthier and, don’t forget that lower grocery bill each week; which can make it more affordable to eat naturally.
Do you ever plan your meals? How do you go about deciding what to eat and creating your meal plan and grocery lists each week? Any other tips to help us all eat naturally for less? Share it all here by leaving a comment and getting the discussion rolling!