I'm talking about grocery shopping people.
I have a little problem with grocery shopping. My problem is that I go to the grocery store EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
I'm very very interested in meal planning and absolutely LOVE the idea...in concept.
When in comes to actually DOING it, I fail miserably.
For example, I've been here for 4 weeks now...to the day, and I have done a BIG grocery shop, ie. spent $200 and stocked my pantry with essentials, exactly once.
I have things like tomato sauce and corn that I stocked up on, but no matter how hard I try I end up at the grocery store once a day to pick up the little odds and ends...ok the majority of the ingredients because stocking up to me is 2 cans of tomato sauce and thus I'm always out of that too!
I want to break this terrible habit of mine.
But my NYC/Sydney mentality of having no car and thus no way to carry more groceries than I can carry has not left me.
Enter what I hope to be the solution - MEAL PLANNING.
If you know what you're cooking for the week you can theoretically buy everything all at once, right?
Who out there does meal planning? Does it work? Do you stick to your plan? Any tips?
I HAVE TO meal plan b/c we live WAY out in the country, so if I forget something, I have to hope that it's something that Hubs could stop and get b/c we live 20 miles away from anything besides a gas station! I only shop once a week.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely works for me. I love to read MoneySavingMom.com. Her best tip is to just plan 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 7 dinners. Don't get so hung up in what your going to exactly eat which day. I save money by using what we have on hand instead of just picking out 21 recipes that sound good.
I cook simple meals like Shepherd's Pie, Hamburgers, Chicken Spaghetti, Chicken Fried Steak, Omellettes/Scrambles, etc.
I hate meal planning, more power to those who can. I eat on a whim and when I try to meal plan, food gets wasted because without fail, the things I purchased won't sound good the whole week. I say, shop once a day, get things fresh, get what you want in the moment! I say, Hurray for whim meals!
ReplyDeleteI don't really meal plan, I just buy whatever is on sale, and make sure we have meat and veggies. since you can always have a meal of meat and veggies.
ReplyDeleteI think I go to the grocery store about 3 times a week, and they are also small trips. It's basically for whatever I have coupons for!