Money-saving Meal Planning Tips

Meal planning will save you a lot of things—time, effort and money.  You can up your savings some more by following some tips.  Here is a hodge-podge of frugal tips and tricks you can use when planning your meals.

Build your menu according to what’s left in the ref and pantry.

Before sitting down to write out a menu plan, wander to your pantry and peer inside your ref.  Let the remaining supplies give you inspiration on what to cook for the next week.   Got some pasta in your pantry and some ground meat in your ref?  Buy Italian sauce and you can whip up spaghetti.  When you take already existing foods into consideration, you are essentially shortening your grocery list and ensuring that none of your pantry and refrigerator contents expire or rot.

Base you menu on weekly specials and discounts.

After doing a quick scan of your pantry and refrigerator, another place to scan is the internet.  That is, scan online food ads such as this site for weekly specials or promo discounts.  If you see pork roast on a huge sale, plan on mouth-watering pork roast recipes.  Coupons are also great money-saving and menu building tools.

Be on the lookout for the best deals at the grocery.

Even if you already have a grocery list, you still need to do actual shopping with an open mind, ready to spot even better deals than you have seen online.  Perhaps you have seen online 99-cent fryer, yet at the store, you find an even sweeter deal in the form of a $1.25 a pound boneless chicken breast.  Be vigilant enough to spot and select bigger savings.

Choose seasonal produce.

Fruits and vegetables which are in season are not only at their juiciest and crispiest but at their cheapest as well.  Never let these seasonal produce pass you by. Surely you wouldn’t want to miss out on the freshness, affordability and prime taste of produce which are in season.

Plan on time-saving recipe routines.

There are recipe pairs which can be done one after the other to save on both time and money.  A case in point would be using up leftover burger on a Monday night for spaghetti on Tuesday night.  Grilled veggies on Wednesday dinner could be pot pies on the next one.  This strategy makes cooking easier to remember, less time-consuming and definitely penny-pinching.

Recycle menu plans.

As with most anything, the most difficult part of meal planning is only at the beginning.  It is quite normal to go through that confusing, fumbling stage but as time goes by, you will find yourself getting used to the routine of meal planning.  You can then opt to simply recycle menus on a monthly basis.  By then you will have mastered the recipes and memorized the grocery list so that cooking becomes easy, breezy and light.