Meal Planning

I plan our meals on a weekly basis- I know many people create meal plans bi-weekly, or even monthly, but I like to plan by the sales. Our store flyers are delivered on Thursday, so I usually use that as my planning day. I sit down with my cup of coffee, meal planner, coupons, the flyers, and my cell phone (have I mentioned how much I love my allrecipes dinner spinner ap?!) and off I go! I'm a frugal shopper, so I really enjoy this time.

I start planning with the most expensive items, usually the meat, and jot down what is on sale. Then I decide what to make with each item. Sometimes the flyers help me with this as well (for instance, if stew meat, turnip, and carrots are all on sale- it's almost a guarantee that we will have stew at some point that week).

Then I plan side dishes, also usually based on what pastas, vegetables, sauces, etc are on sale, along with what I already have on hand.

I know a lot of people plan all 3 meals and snacks, but I generally only plan dinners and make sure that I have enough breakfasts, lunches, and snacks for the week without planning day by day. I'm a huge "leftovers for lunch" person, especially for myself.

Then I check to see what staples are on sale at stock-up prices (things like canned goods, spices, sauces, paper items, etc). If I have a coupon to match, all the better!

Before I put the flyers away, I always compare the toiletries sales with my coupons as well. I always try to stay ahead in shampoo, conditioner, soap, deoderant, etc so we never pay full price- and I've gotten awesome deals like Dove body wash for .27 cents by matching coupons and sales!