My ward is having a financial fireside in a few weeks and I'm helping with a segment on menu planning/saving money at the grocery store. I have a few ideas but I know you all have more.What questions would you have about menu planning/grocery shopping?
How do you plan a menu? (Especially if you have little kids, I don't have a lot of advice on that)
What tips can you share about saving money on food, clothing, any household item?
Thanks for your help!
11 comments:
OK, I am occasionally capable of doing this and here is how:
I made a list of all the things I regularly cook divided into categories (casseroles, breakfasts, soups etc.). This helps me choose my weekly menu.
Then I make a weekly menu for the week including a leftover’s night and any nights we will be gone or out to dinner. My friend has a fun blog where she posts her weekly menus and others post as well (thisweekfordinner.com). It is good for ideas and for a sense of responsibility to stick to your menu.
Once I have my menu I go shopping for any needed ingredients that I don’t have on hand. This way I only buy things that I am actually going to use so that things don’t rot in my fridge. I like to make a lot and then my husband and I can use the leftovers for lunches and for leftover night. In theory I would make my menu Sunday night and then go shopping Monday morning while the kids are in preschool.
I find that the hardest thing about cooking is deciding what to cook. Menu planning is a great way to avoid nightly stress.
As for the kid aspect I find that my children are exceptionally picky. However, they are much happier with their breakfast and lunch selections. After many meetings with dietitians and nutritionists I have determined that it is OK if my kids don’t eat the dinner I make. I put a little on their plate and give them the opportunity to taste it but they get enough to eat through the rest of the day that if they won’t eat their dinner they do just fine. Even Collin who I thought must be starving because he eats so little is actually getting all the calories he needs! What I have realized is that it is best to offer healthy food and don’t worry about clean plates.
Not to give input on a fireside I will be attending or anything, but one small way for saving money on little kids is to make your own baby food. It sounds so hippie when you say it like that, but all I mean is buying a food mill for $10 and putting the stuff your family eats for dinner through it. Does that make sense? Some people go crazy with the blender and the food processor and the ice cube trays, but really, you can just do it as you go.
Oh man! I love this topic. There are so many great ways to save money especially with food, but I would have to say the best way I have found lately is to do the "ad match" at Wal-mart and.. if you are really ambitious.. use coupons on the items you are ad matching. Wal-mart will match any price from any other grocery store so before I go shopping I go through all the ads and make a list of all the things on sale that I could buy. Then I decide what I could make for meals with those items and finish my list. Usually I end up ad matching at least half of what is in my cart. It is nice because you get all the deals at every store but only have to make one stop (there are a few exceptions like they won't do the "buy one get one free" or the ones that are a certain % off).
Anyways- the cost of food is just getting so expensive that it is scary! Any way to save is a big help.
Also, I would recommend a farmers market for produce or even planting a garden. And it is usually cheaper to plan to make a little more at each meal so that you have leftovers for lunch the next day instead of eating out or preparing another meal.
Good luck!
I am sure you will do great!
p.s. this lady I know has published a cook book called "cook for a day, eat for a month" and it is really amazing! I will have to look at it and see if there are any other tips to share.
Oh.. one more thing.. for the kids. I know kids won't always eat everything we make so if there is something I make that Brynlie really likes I will freeze the leftovers in small servings in the freezer. Then on nights when we are eating something she doesn't like I just have pop one of those in the microwave!
Allie isn't big enough to eat real food yet... but I do have one suggestion for grocery shopping: I recommend ALWAYS making a list and then forcing yourself to stick to the list. If I don't bring a list, I end up buying tons of junk food and hardly any food for good meals.
This is a great class idea, Camille. I hope you don't mind me sharing a few things.
Like your friends have said - make a menu and check to see what ingredients you have and what you need. Here in Utah we have caselot sales a couple times of year where we are able to buy things by the case that we use a lot (soups, fruits, sauces, etc). We set aside money every month to do that. One of the best things is to have canned and other storable items always on hand so you don't pay full price when you want to make that meal. Trying not to buy things unless they are on sale is another great way to save.
Long term food storage that you use is also helpful - rice, wheat, oats, sugar, beans, oil. We have found some great recipes using beans that even my kids really love.
As for kids, we rotate the cooking assignment (I always do it but they help) and when it's their week, they can help plan the menu and choose things that they like so that they'll want to help make it.
I'm sure you will do a great job on your class. I love reading your blog and keeping up with what you are doing! Sherri
Hey there...I popped over from Jana's blog (I'm her sis-in-law)
My advice on menu planning is to mix it up. I used to plan my dinners a month at a time when I was in college and having a variety of different cuisines was nice. I would just sit and look through my cookbooks and pull out old favorites and try new ones. I also made sure to throw in left-over nights.
I think menu-planning is an excellent idea, and I don't know why I don't do it anymore. And I also think it's a great way to save money because you only buy what you need from the store, and not things you *might* or *hope* to use.
As far as kids go, I tend to feel like you shouldn't cook something special for a child if they are picky; I think it just makes the pickiness persist. They should eat what everyone else in the family is eating. And if they don't like it, then they can go without. It's their choice.
Hope that helps some! :)
ummm... I have not a clue...how about look for ads that have mac and cheese on sale because that it just about all tha Pierson will eat!! Ahh. Hey but it was helpful reading others comments. Good luck. Oh if you have time some day do you think you could e mail me a list of books that you have read in your book club. I am thinking of starting one in my branch...(if anyone is intrested and can make it to the library) so a list would really help me out that way we don't end up reading some dirty book or something =) my e mail address is camille_gardea@yahoo.com. It is no rush AT ALL just if you get around to it. PS i love Trevor waving!! What a fun new trick. He is growing so cute and big. Pretty sure he is going to be a line man. =)
Got it! I made a note to order those for you!
Hey Camille!
I just jumped over from Marie's blog... Trevor is so cute! And I loved seeing your pictures of Tucson - we miss it sometimes :)
My only quick tips for the grocery store are:
Make a two week menu so that you can incorporate leftovers, etc. And always include a few easy nights - we do dipper nights (everything can be dipped; fruits, veggies, Ranch, pizza pieces, etc) or breakfast for dinner quite often. Our kids both love that! And I like to have at least one night with soup & bread because I can make huge batches of soups on Saturdays or Sundays and they freeze awesomely (is that a word?) which means fewer dishes and less time during the week for cooking.
Oh, and I've gotten into the habit of taking cash to the grocery store - that way I don't get caught in the Wal-mart trap of seeing loads of things that aren't on our list (or in the monthly budget), because I don't have the money on hand to buy them anyway.
And I've become a bit of a coupon junkie lately - it's kind of a fun game to see how inexpensively I can get certain things. We load up on cereal, especially, because if anyone doesn't like dinner, there's always cereal! (not a sugary one, either)
:)Tanya Johnston
web.mac.com/jfly1
Okay-- here are my two cents:
Saving money on food:
If WalMart does the price matching, I am completely converted to shopping there. I usually have to shop at a couple stores to get the best deals. Go WalMart! Plan ahead for 2 weeks, and try to use the same items. For example: baked potatoes one night, then potato soup on another night (w/recipe that uses leftover baked potatoes). Everyone has touched wonderfully on this subject, so I'll leave it at that. COUPONS PEOPLE! There are lots of free online printable coupons-- here's one link: http://coupons.smartsource.com//index.aspx?Link=5S2ZUA6PWPEPO.
Making baby food is a great way to save $$ and is very easy.
Clothes:
Shop consignment stores. In UT, there's Kid to Kid for children and Plato's Closet for adults. Both wonderful! Garage sales are great, especially if it's a school-sponsored or larger yard sale. Look for clearance items at all stores.
Other household items:
Again, clearance items, coupons, yard sales. For finding deals on baby things, cheapest diaper prices for the week, etc... I check http://babycheapskate.com.
*Check out things like craigslist.org, or other free online classifieds (KSL.com in UT). There's also a place called FreePeats (through babycheapskate.com) that offers great deals in select cities across the USA, and there's a site called www.kijiji.com that does online classifieds by state/city.
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