Save Money By Planning Your Meals

I was reading Diane’s blog entry on planning meals tonight, I’m a bit behind on my reading. It made me realize something weird, I haven’t thrown any uncooked or bad food away in 2010.

I know that may sound strange but in the last few months of 2009 I couldn’t tell you how many pounds of lean beef, fruits, veggies, cottage cheese, or bread that I threw away. Hundreds of dollars of groceries purchased with every intent on cooking and eating but life happened and they ended up as landfill. As Diane mentions, we took the easy way out and picked up fast food or ate out.

The primarily difference this year is the planning I’m doing at the start of each week. That planning has really let me run the week on autopilot. I don’t ever have to worry about what I’m eating for dinner or lunch. I know I’ve already made a healthy decision and can just follow the plan.

I usually sit down with my wife on Saturday afternoon and create a shopping list in the Groceries application (iPhone / iPod Touch) and plan out the weeks meals. We usually browse a few cookbooks picking some staple foods like Taco Pasta Salad or Hot Stuff Chili from Eating for LIFE. We also like cook new things so we throw in something new every week, even if it’s only a single meal. We then take a simple sticky and throw a Sun – Sat grid on it and write down each meal we’re planning for each day. Once we’re done we throw the sticky up on the fridge or our cabinet for the week as a quick reminder of what our plan is.

In case you’re wondering, Groceries is a simple and easy to use application that lets you quickly construct grocery & shopping lists for different stores. It has a huge built in database of popular foods and you can quickly add your own as well. You can even go so far as changing how your store is laid out (produce, deli, breads, meats, etc) to optimize your shopping visit. After you create a list and use it you can either delete it or reuse it which makes it really convenient if you shop for the same couple things every week.

Here’s a screenshot of Groceries from my visit to our new Michael’s Fresh Market this past weekend.

I had just started shopping and was working my way through the list. The user interface is very well done, easy to understand, and pleasing to the eye.

Anyhow, a few other things that go along with the cooking that are helping me to save money and stay on tract with food:

• Cooking meals that have more than 4 servings and freezing the rest. A recipe like the Hot Stuff Chili makes 8 servings, 4 of which we usually freeze for the following week.
• Plan the snacks ahead of time, planning isn’t just for the big meals. I make a few batches of protein pancakes every few weeks and freeze them. The goal is autopilot on all 6 meals if you can.
• Simple snacks are fine to. There’s nothing wrong with a few figs and walnuts as a snack. They take less than 20 seconds to prepare and they taste great.
• Let the schedule be flexible on when you consume the meals. If you plan on cooking one night but something happens that’s ok. Just eat something you prepared ahead of time and cook tomorrow.
• Have a few healthy staples at the ready for other times where you didn’t make something but only have like 5 minutes. Wheat bread, tuna packets, light mayo, pickles, and some pickle juice makes a quick and satisfying meal.
• Don’t be afraid to make use of supplements. I don’t want to start any whole food wars, but I’ve had great success using Protein Powder and Myoplex. I’ve even been trying out Full Strength as a Myoplex replacement the past few weeks. In the end it’s about convenience, health, and nutritional density which make these great tools in your fat fighting arsenal.

You can save a ton of money and nutritionally run on autopilot each week by planning your meals at the start of the week. Our lives are so busy that it’s hard to even get our workouts in let along a nutritious meal. Do yourself a favor and start planning your next week today.

“Many times the difference between failure and success is doing something nearly right … or doing it exactly right.”

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