Without a doubt, the number one budget challenge I hear from clients is their food spending. Getting a grip on this important category is a vital part of your everyday budgeting.
Growing up as one of four siblings, my parents didn’t have a lot of money to go around. That meant we rarely ever went out to eat. In fact, we often ate the same meals, on the same days—every week! The regularity of the meals was so deeply ingrained in my mind, to this day, I can still recite what we ate each day of the week. Monday was Meatloaf, Tuesday brought Shake ‘n Bake BBQ chicken, and Wednesday was for Leftovers. Thursday meant Hamburgers, Friday we all shared a Libby Hill Seafood Platter, Saturday was Spaghetti, and Sunday we had Chipped beef. While our regular meals may have been boring, we never went hungry.
Kids (and adults) don’t want the same boring meals, but the convenience of eating out on a regular basis definitely increases expenses. As a Mom, I know it’s important for my family to have balanced meals. When my boys were little, the first rule of dinner was that they didn’t have to eat all the food on their plate, but they did have to try a bite of everything. One evening, Kevin sat down and looked at his plate. He said, “This looks like bat barf!” While he was just quoting an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, he was promptly sent to his room with no dinner. That was the second rule: You don’t have to like my dinners, but you cannot criticize it without tasting it.
It’s no secret that making meals your family will eat instead of picking up drive thru or meals delivered will save you money. Here are the five steps I recommend to get started making your dinners a success.
Step 1: Inventory Your Food
How many times do you go to the grocery store and buy lots of food that you ‘think’ you will eat? What often happens is that we end up with a pantry full of boxes and cans and a refrigerator with spoiled pork chops and wilted cilantro. This is definitely a budget buster.
Take everything out of your pantry and set it on the counter so you can see it all. As you sort, be sure the items are in date, otherwise, throw them out. Also, if you see food that you know you won’t eat and is still in date, consider donating it to your local food pantry.
Follow the same process for your freezer and refrigerator by taking everything out, then sorting. Knowing what you have will help you save money and budget better when you start planning your meals.
If you can’t do a big inventory, at least take a few minutes to scan what you have before heading to the store.
Step 2: Choose Your Recipes
Putting together a decent meal doesn’t have to involve hours in the kitchen or the purchase of fancy ingredients that you’ll probably only use once. Start by asking your family to list their favorite dinner meals. We created a binder with our favorites. I put a label on the binder that I thought said Everyday Meals, but I misspelled it, so now we call them Veryday Meals.
Some of my favorite recipes are freezer meals. If you can find several easy recipes with similar ingredients, you can save money by buying in bulk and save time by preparing them all at the same time. This is a great way to get together with your friends, too. Have everyone choose one recipe and bring enough ingredients for everyone. Choose the house with the biggest kitchen, or the best party space, then get together. Besides having fun and saving money, everyone will leave with different meals.
Check out Pinterest for inspiration for easy meals, one dish dinners, crock pot chow, and freezer fare.
Step 3: Create a Monthly Food Plan
How many times have you left work, taken the kids to and from their activities, only to get home and realize that you don’t have anything prepared for dinner.
In less than 10 minutes, you can map out a month worth of dinner meals! Here’s the template for the Monthly Menu Planner that I use.
Fill in the dates for the month:
Check your meal planning calendar against your regular calendar, and write in any planned activities. You will want super simple meals on these evenings.
Categorize each column:
Working down the column for each day of the week, give each column a main dish category. Here’s how it works in my house: Monday night is a hamburger/beef meal. Tuesday is a chicken meal. Wednesday is vegetarian. Thursday is a pork dinner and Friday is seafood. I leave the weekends open since they are so unpredictable, but you can schedule them with anything you want.
List a dinner for each night:
Use your family’s easy, go-to recipes during the week. Continue working down each column. For example, you might have Meatloaf, Manwich, Beef Tips, and Tacos on the Monday nights since these are all beef meals.
Add variety:
Change things up to make the categories work for you. Consider having ‘breakfast for dinner’ one night a month. Add in leftover night. Make a pasta night. Be sure to note any evenings where you are pressed for time because of schedules.
Working down each column of your calendar allows you to come up with easy meals while giving you variety during the month, preventing you from serving spaghetti six times in two weeks.
What do I do for other meals? Breakfast and lunch usually involve staple items, so I just check for milk, eggs, bread, and salad items so I know we have something on hand.
Step 4: Grocery Shop Weekly
By knowing the meals for the week, you can prepare a shopping list BEFORE you head to the grocery store. Having a list is proven to help you spend less money than if you went shopping with wide eyes and an empty stomach.
Shopping on a regular weekly basis helps you focus on only the food you need, helps avoid waste, and makes the most of your food budget. You can shop the sale items to stretch your budget further.
I created a grocery shopping template based on the store layout so I can categorize my food by departments. This way, I don’t have to backtrack through the whole store. It’s definitely a time saver.
Based on your Inventory and Menu of dinners for the week, you now know which recipes to use and what you need to purchase. Let’s say you already have dried Pinto Beans in the pantry and Ham Steaks in the freezer. Great! You have much of what you need for two meals, so your weekly food budget is already ahead.
Grab our Weekly Shopping List to keep your cart focused!
Step 5: Prep Daily
When it comes to cooking at home, preparation is the name of the game. A good place to start is by preparing anything you can ahead of when you’re actually going to cook. I like to use Sunday afternoons to do this when I can. That means if the weekly meal plan involves chopping vegetables, or combining ingredients, I often do the work all at one time. This cuts down on the time I actually spend cooking in the evening.
Cooking is also a great time to involve the family. Teach your kids how to set the table, pour drinks, stir the pots, and clean the dishes. Once you begin taking the time to plan your meals, menu and shopping, you will find that you spend less time at the store and more time with your family. And there’s no doubt, you will be thankful for both.
Take Control of Your Food Budget
Taking control of your grocery spending is a powerful step in building a solid foundation for your Financial Tower. By putting these five steps into practice, you can create a SMARTER budget that works for your family’s real life—without feeling restricted. If you need a little extra guidance getting your daily cash flow in order, visite our budgeting resources and tools. You’ve got this!
Pamela J. Horack, CFP® of Pathfinder Planning LLC provides personal financial planning advice and investment management for a simple fee to young adults and working families in North and South Carolina through group classes, one-on-one planning, and ongoing advice.