The Meal Planning System that saves us TIME & MONEY ✨

[@JennyLamble]

I use exactly this system - the meal planning sheet and grocery list, only planning dinners, buying regular lunch/breakfast items, making notes at the bottom for special baking projects and pre planning meals for future weeks. I also found this system from The Minimal Mom and have been using it for over a year. It has worked so well for me and I’ve raved about it to others and now a few girlfriends have started using it. It helps to really contain the chaos that can be meal planning. I usually do 2 large shops each month, with a few top-ups, averaging $800-900/mo (USD). We have a large garden that offsets quite a bit of produce purchasing for several months. I try very hard to practice ‘Fridge Zero’ where we bring the fridge and freezer down to as empty as reasonably possible (we still have plenty of condiments, jam, butter, a few frozen items, etc). Bringing the fridge to near empty allows me to very easily wipe down the fridge before each shop and it has helped us reduce foods from going to waste and use up things that I might otherwise not be motivated to use. I look forward to your videos. Thank you! And I loved the idea of paring down my cookbooks to only the essential recipes that I use, because most of my cookbooks are collecting dust.

[@maryannker2998]

Jennifer we sound like kindred spirits!!! haha. 💗💗💗 Thanks so much for sharing this info :) I desperately wish that I enjoyed gardening so I could have a veggie garden - sounds like a dream!! Thanks again for sharing Jenny ✨

[@jennburk]

I love hearing your process! Your cash system seems to work really well for you. I find what works well for us is using "click and collect" grocery pickup - a huge pro for me is that I can make decisions about groceries as I meal plan at home, and can see my cart $ total as I add or take away items, so I can really stay on budget without the temptation of impulse purchases. I know I can't pick my produce, but most of the time they do a good job and the money and time saved is more important to me. ☺️ We are also in Ontario and spend about $900/month, similar family size.

[@maryannker2998]

This is wonderful Jennifer! Pretty much every week I am tempted to switch to online ordering LOL. I used to carry a calculator when I was at the store and I feel like online ordering is a similar idea - but way handier! haha. Love hearing your ideas. Thank you so much for watching and following along ❤❤❤❤

[@TiffGilleland1]

Such a great video! So glad this came up on my feed. I've been meal planning week at a time for years but with grocery prices going up and up here in Australia it's a challenge. My husband and I have dietary requirements that make our shop a bit more expensive - we can't have as many potatoes, rice, bread etc and have to have a lot more fresh fruit and veg which is not cheap here. We spend about $1,000 a month (in Canadian dollars) - $770 USD and we have 3 adults in the house (that includes cleaning products, drugstore items etc). Not sure I could handle the stress of going back to cash though, like the idea of bi-weekly shopping.

[@maryannker2998]

Thanks so much for sharing !! I always wonder about prices in other countries. Dietary requirements definitely add an extra layer! Your budget sounds fantastic 👏. Thanks so much for following along 💗

[@seasonsofwonder]

Our meal planning systems are ao similar. I also plan only for dinners. I did learn ways to improve. Those leftover days sound wonderful. ...qYour little ones are so precious! 💗☺️

[@maryannker2998]

Awe thank you so much!! And thank you for watching !! Happy Monday 💗💗💗

[@karlapaonessa3263]

Could you (or have you already) share your standard breakfast and lunch? I have zero ideas.

[@maryannker2998]

ooo I love that idea! I can definitely share that. I just added that to my list of videos to make :) Thanks for the suggestion!! ❤

[@mammawm2691]

I also meal plan in a similar fashion. I only plan dinners and I use a sheet I found on Google that has one week of meals on the left and boxes of categories (Dairy, Fresh Veggies, Frozen, Meats, Misc) on the right. I started off doing one week at a time. I wrote down the 5 meals and the boxes of categories is my shopping list. I have an extensive pantry so I don't need to list spices, pastas etc that I know I normally have on hand. I tally how many lbs of meat I need, how many onions etc for the two weeks and create my pick up order. I now have seven weeks written out of meals that my family will eat, along with the grocery lists. I have these labeled week #1- week #7. I have them clipped to my fridge by week # with the recipes behind each menu. I also do grocery pick up for two weeks with a fill-in with the fresh items the second week. By doing it this way it saves me a lot of time trying to come up with a new menu every week. It's already done for me and since I have seven weeks, nothing except big time favorites are repeated. I've used this system for about 2 years now and we haven't been bored with it yet. My family knows which week were on because they look at which menu is on the top, right side of the fridge. They're in rows and we rotate them counter clockwise each week. I don't know how to put a photo with my comment or I would! I'm trying to find a way to make this into a binder/booklet so the side of my fridge doesn't look so cluttered.

[@maryannker2998]

This is AMAZING!!! So planned out and detailed. I love this idea. I’ve been thinking about starting to plan monthly. I think that might be my next step. Thanks so much for sharing all these details - so so helpful!!! 💗✨👏