The meal train....

for those people that need a visual, I came up with a meal train.   I'm not the best of I,lustrators, so you will have to use your imagination.    If you start with the engine, it's the brains if the train.   It's the part where you plan and organize.   Once you are done, you are done with the exception of adjusting it for price adjustments.   ( i.e. Beef quadrupling in cost ) , 

The next car on the train is shopping.   It's a long one.  There are many facets to shopping,   It's not just asking into a store and buying anything your eyes touch that looks good.   It would be a nice experience, but probably wasteful and not very economical.   There are so many facets that it's hard to know where to start .  

• Picking your stores ( yesterday) and you buy your  groceries where? 
• Planning your trip and start to meal plan. 
• Strategies to get out with only your list in your cart.   
• Knowing and avoiding the retailers tricks.   
• Coupons , favado and Ibotta 
• What's good for you?    Is this Hoarding?     Is this wasteful?    Cut the negativity hype.   

Yesterday we covered you buy your groceries where and analyzing the ads to pick the best price for the week on what you need.   

Now, planning your trip.  This probably will repeat some things from yesterday. Before you know what to buy, you need to look at what you have.   I made a form for meal planning.   its one page.   

To the left there is two columns.   One for what you have, what you,need to eat soon, and one for what you,need to fill in.   The other side has seven boxes for meals and one box with my matrix.  Having a matrix makes shirt work of planning a meal.   This shouldn't take most of a day.  Ours is 2 chicken or pork, 2 vegetarian, 2 beef, and 1 fish.   This is only an outline to help.   

Start with what you have to fill in the blanks.   Taking a quick inventory is a good start so that you don't overbuy.   Organize the fridge so that the same type of things are in the same place.    Minimize the amount of salad dressings etc you keep on there to make room if you need to.    The goal is to be able to look at a glance and see what is not there.    

This makes it easy to make a list of what you need.  Not over buying perishables helps keep the budget down and not waste.   I always keep celery,and carrots because they last a long time and are a good go to if you are out of other things.   Apples are another good staple.    

Fill out the have column, start the meal boxes.    Some people prefer to meal plan by category too. 

Like-- a soup, a pizza night, a taco or Tex mex night. Breakfast for dinner.   Sunday dinner, leftovers, 

And a quick pick.   

Making a list and sticking to it is the best way to stay on the track. Having a meal plan is the next.  

 Not knowing the answer to what's for dinner question is a sure way to derail your train.    It too easy for the take  out gremlins to intervene.  LOL.   I keep pizzas I get on sale for that day when no one feels like cooking.    I add our topping we have chopped on the freezer and some more cheese to a cheap pizza and salad is on the fridge and dinner appears on the table.   

Knowing what you need is the first step.  Now, if you don't have an ad for all the stores on your area, check favado.   It's not always 100 percent accurate, but it will tell you if there is a coupon for the ite, you are wanting and where it is.  Often it is a click away and you can print it.   Also check Ibotta of you have already picked your stores.   Sometimes there is an Ibotta for milk and other staples and if the price is the same, you can score more.   It's the only way you can "coupon" for perishables most of the time.    

Pick your stores, plan your trip to save gas.   

Bring a coupon book of you have it, your coupons, the ads, and a small calculator.   

Next: strategies to get out of the store with just what's on your list and retailers dirty little secrets if there is time.   

Thanks, Jane