Streamline Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping

The name of the game is efficiency, I have to be efficient. I have two little girls, work full time, blog part time and do everything in between. Being efficient and on a schedule is easier than being casual and carefree. One of the tasks I prepare for is grocery shopping and meal planning. Today I’m sharing how to streamline meal planning and grocery shopping to save time and money!

Have you been to the grocery store lately? First of all, it’s time consuming and second, it’s insanely expensive. Sometimes strawberries are $7! That is insane! The price of groceries has gone up considerably and the prices aren’t coming down anytime soon. In order to save money (if I even can) and be efficient I take my time each month to meal plan. It’s not my favorite task, but it sets the base for efficient weeks and my attempt to save money. I also have a few other tips to get through the grocery store without spending $500! Here is how I’m doing it.

Streamline Meal Planning

Plan out your meals and stick to it. You can plan a week at a time or a month, whatever you want, but you have to stick to it. I personally plan a month at a time. It takes a bigger chunk of time up front, but I’d rather put the time in at the start of the month then multiple times a month. I use a paper calendar and transfer it to a whiteboard so the whole family can see it. You can download my monthly meal template here.

 

Meal Schedule

I keep it simple and plan the same protein weekly. I try to have a chicken, meat, fish and pasta option each week. To make it even easier I plan all chicken on Monday’s, beef on Tuesday’s, pasta on Wednesday and seafood on Thursday. Friday’s are either “find it, make it, eat it” or pizza nights.  Saturday’s we eat out or order in and Sunday I cook a longer, slower meal because we have the time. Crockpots and grilling out are big on this night.

Write an Intentional List

After I plan all my meals I go through each recipe and make my list. After the recipes are covered I take inventory of the staples, like milk, eggs and anything in the pantry. I then try to think of a couple things for lunch. I bring my lunch to the office everyday (you can find my go to’s in this post here) and eat leftovers when working from home. I’ve created an intentional grocery list template that will have you love making a list.  You can download it here.

Bulk Grocery Shop

One I have that intentional list I head to the grocery store and shop for two weeks at a time.  \Seems like a lot, but it is a time saver. Going to the store every other week is way better than going once a week. It takes an hour no matter what, so saving that hour every other week is so nice. Now there are items that aren’t going to stay fresh for two whole weeks. So if I think an item can’t make it two weeks I put it on a side list and get those items the following week. I can easily run to Target or Whole Foods during the week.

Shop at Aldi

I’ve been an Aldi shopper for years now and can say that majority of the food is the same as the brand name. I have my favorite Aldi staples, which you can see in this post here.  However you can’t get everything at Aldi and there are somethings I just skip because they aren’t good.