How do you plan groceries/meal plan for the week?

OldHobo

alondrakayy wrote: »

I simply walk by every isle at the store and grab what I feel like eating for that week. I want to get smarter about it though and maybe save a few $$$.

So I want to see how everyone else does it!

I really admire people who can make a menu for a week and stick to it. I'm not one of them and, if I'm honest with myself, I don't want to be. I like staring into the fridge, pondering what to make.

I keep staples on hand. Most come from the produce, meat & fish, and dairy departments. There a couple-few dozen staples in the center aisles but they're limited and I stick to the list on those. Haven't just walked up and down aisles in a very long time. There are aisles in the store I use most often over the last few years that I've never walked down.

A lot of the time, dinner is determined by what's in the fridge that needs to be used up. Like beans or a home-made stock, or sauce.

sgt1372

I buy in bulk and stock up and, except for fresh fruit and veggies, have enough food in the frig/freezer and pantry to last me for months. So, I usually just eat/cook what I want each day with what's on hand.

I start w/logging breakfast and then plan lunch and dinner as necessary to meet my cal/macro goals by pre-logging those meals based on what I feel like eating/cooking

If I want to eat/cook something but find that I don't have all the ingredients on hand to cook it, I put the ingredients that I need on my grocery list and delay cooking that dish until I buy what I need to make it.

I usually hit the supermarket or grocery store 1x a week to buy fruit and veggies. Usually know exactly what I need/want and spend very little time wandering the aisles. I only wander thru the meat/poultry/seafood depts to look for bulk deals there.

ritzvin

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

We have many staples that we always have on hand and those are replaced as needed. Non-staples are chosen by what's on sale or freshest that week. We don't plan meals ahead very often, but we keep a well stocked pantry...

pretty much this here too. I buy what I'm running low on. If low on meat, then its whatever I'm in the mood for/what's on sale.

cwolfman13

We make a shopping list every Saturday...most items on that list are staple items that we can use in a variety of recipes...we pretty much go through the pantry, fridge, and freezer and determine what staple items we are out of or running low on and add them to the list.

Beyond that, we go through what recipes we're going to make during the week and figure out if there are any ingredients that we need that may not be staple items and we add those to the list. Usually while we're shopping we will come across something that sounds good that wasn't on the list...like last weekend we were shopping and came across a package of vacuum packed beets that were already roasted and peeled...we love beets, so we through them in the cart.

We usually shop on Sunday morning.

mcglothinm

It kind of depends on how busy I am. If I have a lot of time to sit down and plan then I will. I usually start on Friday night and finish it up Saturday morning. I tend to plan ahead for at least a week. I've tried doing two weeks at a time before, but it doesn't work for me because I always run out of produce before then. First I look through the fridge on what's in there, and get rid of anything that is going bad. Check the freezer and see what meat is available. I almost always stock up on meat when it is on sale, so I forget what's in there pretty easily. Then I look at my schedule for the week and figure out which nights I'm going to be home long enough to cook, or what can be thrown in quickly on nights where I get home late. Then I figure out what I want to make for the week and make a list of what ingredients I need at the store. I can also clip coupons before I go, if I start early.

If I am pressed for time I do most of my planning at the store. I hit up the produce and meat departments first and figure out what is on sale, then I plan out what I am going to make while at the store and get what I think I need. These days, I tend to use this process the most, but I dislike it because I end up guessing on if I have the things I need or not, and then I end up with multiple similar products that don't get used right away. I also don't always find the coupons I could've used and don't save as much money this way either.

ahoy_m8

OP, you don't mention how many are eating in your household. More people means more food (and if they are teenagers, more uncertainty), but it also can mean more help. I don't shop without a list. Candidly, I rather dislike shopping and a list helps me get it done fast. Wandering the aisles and making it up on the fly makes me crazy!

Pantry items: There's a running list in the kitchen that everyone contributes to. If you use the last of something (butter, laundry detergent, whatever), you better put it on the list or I will get after you when we run out.

Breakfasts, lunches, snacks: Everyone has their own regulars (rotation of 3-4 things) for breakfast & lunch (only one kid makes her lunch for school). I stock what is requested. If it's not on the list, it doesn't get purchased.

Dinners: I do plan these for the week based on how who is expected each night. With teenagers, things change, so I stay flexible and can easily swap the meals planned on different nights, but having a basic plan from which to improvise ensures we have enough to feed everyone (including unexpected friends now and then).

It also helps to cook meats in quantities that can be used for several subsequent meals. E.g. we smoke a chicken every week. Chicken leftovers can make literally dozens of other dishes. Very versatile and cost effective. If chicken breasts are on sale, I buy a bunch -- enough to eat a couple dishes that week and freeze some for emergencies. Pounding them to an even thickness and wrapping individually helps them defrost & cook evenly. Pulled pork shoulder, pork loin, beef -- they all can be used in a huge variety of ways to avoid leftover monotony. Sea food is the only thing I cook in the quantity we plan to eat that night.

I group text the family on Thursday for their best guess on who will be eating what nights and plan what people like for the nights they will be there. I check sales online (especially meat), plan Thursday and shop Friday. That gives me the most flexibility on weekends when we need it the most. It also means we're doing more cooking on the weekend & using time-saving leftovers during the week.

Sitting with a cup of coffee and making a plan (and list based on the plan) is worth the few minutes it takes once a week. Good luck, OP!

koslowkj

For context, I'm a grad student cooking for two.

Toward the end of every week, I look at the ads to see what is on sale. I try to plan meals around that. If there's a particularly good deal, I buy extra and freeze it. I have a weekly list of meals that gets put on the fridge so I see it every day. Personally, I hate cooking small meals, so I always plan a few days a week for leftovers. I typically shop at Kroger - their app lets you make a list and organize it by aisle, so I can actively avoid areas of the store I don't need anything from (like bags of chips or cookies).

Hope there's something useful for you in there!

inertiastrength

Sunday me and my bf mealprep for the week and we both eat the exact same thing for lunch every day because we really don't mind. I make 2.7kg ground beef into a thick ragu, we boil potatoes and package that up for about 25$/week lunches. Dinners I do whatever because I just got an Instant Pot and everything is super fast anyhow haha

SPeffer1

I use the plantoeat.com website. I check to see what I have in the house, search for recipes including those foods, and plan the week using their database. Then it makes a shopping list for me, and I typically stick to that.

paganhippie

I don't buy my groceries (live with my parents) so I tend to have to try and convince them to buy healthy things like fruits and veggies when they go shopping and then I usually plan my entire day's meals the night before. I'm slowly getting them to buy healthier options so my choice of food expands.

Generally speaking, planning a week (or two if that's easier) in advanced is the best way to go and then only buying the foods you need, except for certain staples like milk, eggs, etc that you know you will eat and last longer than a week.

maybe1pe

I keep a spreadsheet/list of the meals that we like and the last time we made them and the recipes we want to try. This helps me with variety, I don't like eating the same dinners all the time but I don't mind eating the same thing at work everyday. I found without the list I was always making the same 6 things just because I wasn't remembering all of the other items we enjoyed. So the list has helped tremendously and we are always adding to it as we try to dishes and recipes.

I tend to sit down and decide the meals we will eat for 2 weeks at a time. A lot of times I'll already have everything we need and just need to grab some chicken or pork or something. Usually we will eat 2-3 different meals and then leftovers the other days.

I stock up on frozen veg when they go on sale because I'm on a tight budget.

I eat the same things for lunch every day because I like them so I buy them in bulk for a month at a time (it's cheaper because I've done a cost analysis on it... nerdy, I know) and I let my SO tell me what she would like for lunch all week and then I'll make that for her to take each day.

The hardest part for me is always planning lunches on the weekends for some reason, but I'm getting better at those.

MikePfirrman

I promise I'm not spamming, but I like to plan my meals weekly as well. While I do the cooking, my wife doesn't do dairy or gluten (so neither do I). I like two sites. My original site I liked is Yummly. Fantastic for getting ideas on new recipes and also looking up recipes with specific food requirements. My new favorite site is copymethat. It's amazing. It's finally a place that I can copy recipes that I like on the internet and integrate them with my own recipe creations. If it's a recipe you like on the internet, with one click (the copymethat button you put on Chrome), it puts the entire recipe (formatted and all) into your database. You can modify as you like.

In addition, one feature I absolutely love about copymethat is that certain people eat like I (or you) do. I create my private and public list and others can "follow" me (or me follow them). We're Flexitarian (it's basically Vegan light). We eat mostly WFPB. I find other WFPB (whole food, plant based) people and follow them, giving me more recipe ideas. I searched for something like Copymethat for years. Something that you could copy recipes of others (and store them in your favorites) along with creating your own recipes in one easy site. The way they do it they give credit to the original recipe author. By doing that, there's no copyright infringement issues.

Yummly is great for an "aggregator" site -- accumulating everything out there, even on blogs, onto one convenient site. Copymethat is fantastic for creating your own recipe book, including custom recipes that you write and following others that eat the same way.

svel713

I mainly go to Kroger. I downloaded their app and went under shopping list to make a full grocery list of everything I buy often, and stuff I buy if on sale.

The prices and weekly ad change on Wednesday. I look at it the night before and make a small list.

On Wed., I check my digital app shopping list. Prices higlighted in yellow are on sale, and some may not be in the add. I may add these to my list.

I go to the coupons tab, sort by Recent, and scroll. I add any remotely interesting coupon to my account.

With my list, I go to the store. I know their yellow markdown stickers are placed on items from 12p-2p at my store daily. Room temp items are in the discount area. Cold are in the meat and deli areas. I check those areas.

There are also closeout stickers posted on Wed. And occasional store specials. These work with coupons. I check them for 50% off cheap stuff.

I also have a weird meat rule. I have to get 30g+ protein per dollar. If a meat or protein powder is dicounted, I do the protein equation. Multiply the amt protein per serving times the amount of servings. Say 14g x 8 servings. That's 112g. Now divide by 30g. This is $3.73. The product must be priced under this to be an "affordable" protein source.

A good example are the 99c 18ct eggs. They are 108g/pack, making them affordable at $3.60 or less. Or 1lb brown lentils which are $1.29 with 114g. They are affordable below $3.80 so they are also super cheap.

I also always keep white rice on hand. Cheap and easy in the rice cooker.

After all this, I double check I have a carb and protein source. I add in any fruit and veg to fill in blanks. Then I see what I can mix from my shopping trip. I've made some weird but amazing recipes from mixing sale + discount stuff.

I also have an excel sheet for all household expenses. I check it vs receipts every 2 days to see how much I've spent. I spent $210 in groceries and $41 in fast food amd Starbucks for 2 people last month. So $125.50/person.

Sorry for the book. I've just put in a lot of work to reduce my grocery bill. I have it down to a science now. I got more tips but I just posted my favorites.

girlinthebox18

I use Mealime. It's not a delivery service, just a meal-planning app. You choose all the individual ingredients you like, list dietary preferences, and it creates a huge list of meals to choose from. Choose the meals you want for the week, and it automatically creates a shopping list for you.

Snowdusk

Make sure I have lots of cheese.
Not sure else what to add here.

mariluny

I look up flyers during the week to see what is in special and think about recipes. I look up new recipes online and recipes I made before that I liked. I make sure to note what I have going on that week to have meals that will go accordingly. If I have something one night and I know I have a limited time to prepare dinner I find something quick to make, if I have a big week at work I won’t try out new recipes because I know i’ll be too tired to cook, etc. Also if I know I have 5 home dinner that week, I’ll prepare only for 4. Plans change and more often than not we end up going out, eating leftovers, etc.
By friday night I make sure to have my list of groceries ready for when I go grocery shopping on Saturday morning.

I like trying new recipes so I find that buying whatever is in season and/or in special is the best both for my wallet and for my taste buds