Meal plans

I need to do another week of meal plans.    Taking you along with the thought prices might help those that are overwhelmed with the idea.   If you have money to burn, it's not hard to think of what you would like to eat and go buy it.   On a limited budget, it can be a daunting task.  

First, take inventory.    If you have been stocking, you should have a variety of meat in the freezer.  
My meat inventory is up to par  now, but only because I restocked this month- a lot.    The rest of the food is at higher levels because We used rebate money to buy bulk.

One note:  purging a pantry needs to be coupled with some common  sense.   Pull dates are arbitrary dates manufacturers put on food.    We waste , according some accounts , half our food on the United States.  
Probably because people, or their children go in and blindly toss food.    Cade on point,   I have about four Suddenly salads that are right in the edge of they'll date.   Think about it, pasta has a eight year shelf life and the rest of the kit is a packet of herbs.   Herbs  might loose their  potency, but they don't go bad.    Nothing magically goes bad a day after the pull date.   I eat anything within a month.   I can't  tell others what to do-- that's their call.    We are eating salad in the next few weeks.  

So, we have :
The usual fresh veggies and fruit minus the carrots that I froze this week.

1. Radishes, lettuce, grapes, apples. Bananas, cantaloupe, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries.  
2. Frozen veggies.   

We have 

1. Pork roast, chops, cubes 
2. Chicken thighs cooked, chicken breast- raw, amd chicken pieces and stock. 
3. Ground sausage, cooked
4. Ground beef cooked 
5. Meatballs
6. Hambirger patties
7. Hot dogs 
8. Smoked sausage 
9. Beer brats with an end of month pull date ( I do pay attention to those. ) 
10. Cheese , white and yellow 
11. American slices 

Ok, first, we need to start to use up anything that is approaching the pull date or freeze it.   

Take into consideration, any thing that we need to fill in before shopping, and what's a cheap price.    

We are going to get food value from fruit, no matter what we buy , so it only makes sense to buy the fruit in season for the lowest price.   Take into consideration the weather.    You probably don't want chilli on a 80 degree day.  

I usually have a matrix of 

2 vegetarian 

2-3 chicken or pork

1 beef 

1 fish or shellfish

I don't specify which meal gets eaten which day I kess I have to take into consideration our schedule for a particular day.

1. Breakfast for dinner - blueberry pancakes. Yogurt parfaits, bacon.   
2. Cesear salad with shrimp 
3. Sloppy joes , suddenly salad, corn on cob 
4. Pot luck : pasta salad 
5. Tomato soup, toasted cheese 
6. spiced chicken breast ( cooking for two CB) , white bean salad , peppercorn, parm bread 
7. Pork chops on Apple bread dressing with Craisens , green salad ( use leftover bread from last night, cubed) 
8. Buffalo chicken pizza , salad ( use chicken pieces from debonong breast) 

Takes us from Sunday to Sunday.    

I will need 

Bread for cheese sandwiches or sub cheezy biscuits 

Cucumber 

Blue cheese ? 

That's about it.  

Basically, I made a mental note of what to use up amd followed my matrix. 

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the Put Dinner On The Table meal train from a different

 Perspective . The  emphasis is on purchasing good food( shelf- stabll/ freezer staples )at the lowest possible cost and purchasing enough to last you until it goes on sale again -- Keeping a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a regular basis.

 It means that when you shop, rather than purchasing just what you need for a day or a week, you  buy a loss leader protein, produce you will need on sale, a stock item if it's a RBP, and dairy instead.

    This allows you to put well balanced meals on the table consistently  for a four dollar a day budget per person.   You spend more time on the planning and shopping end of the meal train and less on the cooking end by cooking efficiently.    

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on four dollars a day, spending more isn't hard.   You still get more bang for your buck.