Some families have weekly meal plans. They know exactly what they'll eat, on which day etc. This makes grocery shopping easy and since what won't be needed will not be bought it saves some cash [because there won't be any wastage ( you can't cook a lot of food when you know the what will be enough for your family)]. I've used the same weekly meal plan for the last two months and it made budgeting for food a lot easier enabling me to calculate the exact amount of money I'd spend on food in one month and how much I'd save if I decided to buy what I needed in bulk Do any of you plan your meals? If you do, would you agree that it does help [one] save some cash?
I don't have a meal plan. I have tried to plan one in the past with varying levels of success. I am good at planning for maybe 3-4 days per week. If I plan for every day it becomes a bit of a chore for me. I do agree that it's a good way to save money if you don't deviate from your plan and shopping list.
I do, but it's pretty boring. I make large batches of food for myself then freeze it in individual meal sizes. I eat a meat dish 3 times a week and a bean dish 4 times a week. Whatever my last batch was for each of those, that's what I have until I finish it and make another one. Lunches are pretty much the same too, I make a week of lunches on Sunday afternoon so I can just grab a container and go.
No, I don't have a meal plan to that extent. I just have a foundation of food that I want to make sure I consume on a regular basis and can be prepared in a wide variance of time and difficulty. One day, I may be willing to put in a little effort and others not so much, but I still want to know that I will get in the amount of protein, fats and fiber that I'm looking for.
We don't really have a weekly meal plan, actually. I agree with most of what you are saying in this thread, but I think it is hard to manage a weekly plan. Meal planning is the way to save money on the food department, so there is really no excuse to not planning. I think this is something families need to do together. Probably that is the reason it's hard to do. We try to look for home delivery services for food staples, even grow our own crop sometimes, like for the chili, tomato and lemon. If our family had more time we'd probably grow what we eat. In addition, I try to reduce the number of meals I have every day. In the past I used to have five meals a day, including two snacks between breakfast and lunch and lunch and supper. We really love to do dinner, dine-ins and takeout foods to share at home as a large family, and it's almost out of the question to cut down on dinner.
You know, I kind of wish that would work for me- my mind loves the idea of it but it just doesn't end up being as successful in practice as it does in theory. I do think it's helpful for budgeting and shopping, though. Sometimes I'll make a kind of rough 'plan' for the week- I'll decide what recipes we'll use, just not what days and in what order. So at least it still helps with the budget and reducing waste and knowing exactly what we want to shop for, it's just not limiting the choices day to day as much.
I do not have any meal plan. It is probably my family is not very demanding for meals. I usually cook from what is in my refrigerator. When I expect there is shortage, I will go to the market for fresh vegetables. I will buy the fresh and cheap ones. It may be too expensive to buy particular food where there are supply shortages. I may have to rely on canned food if I cannot go to the market. It happens rarely.
