Hi guys, hope everyone’s weekend is winding down nicely. I can’t even tell you how happy I am that I took tomorrow off. It makes such a big difference in my Sunday night mood, let me tell you!
Anyways, last week several of you responded that you would like some inspiration for meal planning, food prep, and grocery shopping, so here you go! Not sure if this will be a consistent Sunday night post, but we’ll see.
F&F Meal Plan: Week of 4/14
Whenever Tim & I meal plan, I literally just take a piece of scrap paper and outline the week ahead by day, then divide into two rows, one for lunch and one for dinner. First I fill in any plans I know I have to eat out during the week, then I just fill in the rest based on what ingredients are on sale at the store and what ingredients I have around the house. I also will look through recipes I’ve bookmarked during the week or feel in the mood for, or what I think could last a couple of days to save on money. Here’s what this week’s plan is looking like:
We normally will meal plan through Friday and Saturday, but this week we have some birthday plans for Tim’s 28th, so we aren’t including them this week. Based off of the meal plan, I then go through what ingredients are needed for each meal. I will make sure to check if we already have them, so I don’t duplicate and buy anything for no reason. Then I’ll only write down what we need.
And yes, I divide my list into section of the grocery store:
Total spent this week: $79.42. This includes an extra week’s worth of Chobani (on sale for $1 at Target this week so we stocked up), more chicken than we actually need so we’ll freeze the rest, and some extra ingredients for Tim’s birthday dessert. We also still need to get crab for Tim’s Irish themed birthday dinner on Thursday (better to buy day of), so this week’s total bill is definitely a bit higher than normal. We usually try to spend around $70-75 weekly, split between the two of us. I think that’s pretty good, but I bet we could make our bill even lower if we spent more time couponing. Any tips?
Finally, we do some meal prep for the week:
This week’s meal prep included:
- Cottage cheese + strawberries + slivered almonds for breakfasts
- Snacks: Celery sticks, strawberries, carrots (leftover from last week), unsalted cashews, grapes
- Ingredients prepped already to make a roasted sweet potato salad (inspired by Elizabeth’s recipe, thank you!). Will prep the sweet potatoes tomorrow night
- Prepped quinoa to have on hand (will mix with the sweet potato salad and have some leftover)
- Banana almond quinoa bites (leftover from Friday)
- Turkey meatballs & spaghetti squash
- 4 hard-boiled eggs
- Unpictured: Protein cookies because they are in the oven, and I don’t feel like waiting to post this.
Do you meal plan and make a list for grocery shopping, or are you more go with the flow when it comes to your weekly meals?
Hope you guys find this helpful – let me know!
I’m off to relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we’re heading into Cleveland Circle to watch the runners for the Boston Marathon. I’m excited!
I have been meal planning for three or so years now and I recommend it to everyone! I save money, save on wasted food (things that go bad, etc)…it’s just the way to go. I do pretty much the same things you do, especially taking into account recipes I’ve pinned, what’s on sale, and what I have on hand. One tip: I do my meal plan in Google calendar since I also use it for work and social events. That way I can easily see where I do not need to plan a meal if something is already going on. Plus…when I’m making my meal plan, I can put the items I need to buy in the “Tasks” pane (within the calendar). When I go to the store, I can pull the Tasks list up on my cellphone! It is such a time saver!!
I have been meal planning for three or so years now and I recommend it to everyone! I save money, save on wasted food (things that go bad, etc)…it’s just the way to go. I do pretty much the same things you do, especially taking into account recipes I’ve pinned, what’s on sale, and what I have on hand. One tip: I do my meal plan in Google calendar since I also use it for work and social events. That way I can easily see where I do not need to plan a meal if something is already going on. Plus…when I’m making my meal plan, I can put the items I need to buy in the “Tasks” pane (within the calendar). When I go to the store, I can pull the Tasks list up on my cellphone! It is such a time saver!!
I do a loose meal plan. Really, what I do is plan out ONE meal (since I am really only cooking for myself) and shop for that. And then I will get some staple items that I can use when throwing stuff together later in the week.