Meal Planning

How many other mums out there write up meal plans for the week? It’s quite a process in our household, and though it works for us…I wonder if I’m making it more complicated than it needs to be! My main reason for meal planning is to avoid food wastage and also to avoid the dragging out of making the meal decisions each night. For instance, I found I was buying mushrooms every week, in case we decided to have Bolognese, then was throwing them out when we didn’t…

Every Tuesday I sit down with the Woolworths & Coles catalogues that start the following day, as well as a piece of scrap paper and my meal planning whiteboard (I bought it from Kmart, I love it!). I start by flicking through the catalogues and working out where most of the everyday items on my shopping list are going to be cheaper. So in this example, let’s say I’ve chosen Woolies for the big weekly shop because their meat is cheaper this week, but I want muesli bars & yoghurt from Coles as they’re half price. I’ll then plan a quick stop into Coles during the week sometime that’s convenient to pick up those few items.

I then make a list of meat on sale on the scrap paper, knowing I need 5 or 6 lots of meat. I schedule 1 to 2 nights a week meat-free, as it saves on the shopping bill and also I feel it’s nice to have a lighter meal on a Friday night when everybody is tired and just wants toasted sandwiches or similar.

When it comes to working out what night to eat what meat, I found it easier to have scheduled days (which sometimes get mixed up if we don’t feel like having that particular meal that night because it’s too hot for casserole or a range of reasons really)! For example, Sunday nights we usually do a roast of some description with either veg or salad. Mondays are mince nights, where we do a mince dish such as Bolognese, Mexican meals, shepherd’s pie….etc. Tuesday & Thursday are generally meat & salad, so steak or sausages or chops, and Wednesdays are chicken meals such as chicken salad & quinoa, schnitzels, fried/ baked chicken, stroganoff etc. Friday is classed as easy dinner and Saturday is usually leftovers.

I also base our meals around whether hubby’s at work the next day and needs leftovers for lunch. More often than not he is; which means I’ll need to work out what he can take with steak other than salad if that’s what we’re having for dinner!

So then, when I have my list of meat on special, I work out what meal to make from those choices, fill in the Meal Planning Whiteboard and write the rest of my shopping list based on what other ingredients I’ll need for said meals! So all in all it takes me around an hour to meal plan and do up my shopping list, but I probably save that time during the week when I don’t have to run to the shops at the last minute for a forgotten ingredient, and avoiding arguments over what we feel like for dinner (all the I-don’t-minds and frustrated sighs…)!

I’m not sure how other people do their shopping and meal plans…and I’m sure there are many different methods that all work! I thought I’d share my process for others to take bits and pieces from that will work for their families! 🙂 Feel free to share your ideas and thoughts below: us mums need all the info we can get!