Meal planning and shopping

One of the first steps to taking advantage of bulk food purchases and saving money is to plan your meals. Simply showing up at a supermarket or warehouse store without a plan leads to lots of money spent but not necessarily the equivalent in planned meals for the family. This leads to overspending, not only due to buying food which does not result in actual meals but because extra supermarket trips become necessary in order to make up for missing ingredients.

Heading to the store with a list in hand, however, and the knowledge that you will come out of that trip with a certain number of meals can be efficient and gratifying. Here are some ideas.

Step 1: Take inventory of your current supply. What do you have already? Write it all down on one sheet of paper.

Step 2: On a second sheet of paper, write down all of the meals you could make with the food that you have. Don't settle for things you could partially make if only you had such and such ingredients. Get creative and make a plan to utilize what you already have so that you can use your food effectively. Think of different ways you can use everyday foods. Rolled oats can be turned into muffins or bread for a bag lunch; eggs can be turned into quiche with whatever leftover veggies are in the house. If you have a random ingredient that you suspect can be a base for a main dish, do an internet search for recipes involving that ingredient and see if you can find something simple or adaptable based on what you already have.

Step 3: Take a blank calendar sheet and begin writing those meals down in the squares. Or, you can simply keep a list on your refrigerator of the meals available in your home and cross them off as you make them. In a future blog, I will write more about bulk and freezer cooking so you can spend less time preparing food each day.

Step 4: Make a plan for new meals and plan purchases around them. If you are able to come up with 20 meals from what you already have in the house, you have at least 10 days (and probably more) of lunches and dinners planned out. That leaves 20 days for the remainder of the month to plan for if you want a full month's worth of meals, but naturally, you can pick whatever length of time you wish. The point is to plan. Make a list of ingredients you still need to buy in order to make those meals. Also, try to think of meals that can utilize some of the same ingredients in different ways. That way, you can take advantage of larger sizes and the associated lower prices.

Step 5: Go shopping with your list. Also, get a shopping plan in place if you need one. If there are certain ingredients you need to buy fresh, either plan to have those meals sooner rather than later or make a note on the meal list of what you need to purchase at the time when you get ready to prepare that meal. One way to overspend on food is to visit the supermarket repeatedly while trying to brush up on just those few extra ingredients that you need for something. If you follow these methods, you will be doing more shopping up front but far less during the course of the month. Be willing to visit multiple stores in your initial shopping excursion to take advantage of lower prices.

Enjoy the results. I think you'll appreciate them.