Meal plans revisited

I have been looking at many meal plan stratdagies lately.  My plan outcome uses a matrix.   I do it to provide variety and balance in our food consumption.    We don't stick religiously to eating a particular meal on the allotted day.  

What works for us, might not work for your family.    Enter the freezer meal families.   Many start with a theme based matrix.  They take a couple of days and designate a particulaf  well received meal -- pizza, Mexican , and breakfast for dimmer seem to be the most popular.   Then they fill in with. A couple of freezer based meals that use chicken or hamburger as their main protein base.   All are children friendly.  

We don't have a lot of freezer space.   I tend to use the freezer for pizza for a pinch when I'm not home,  vegetables, potatoes, ice cream ( that's a major food group, right? ) and batch cooked, portion controlled portions of meat, and grated cheese back ups.   Adding a freezer meal that takes a few cans of vegetables doesn't make sense to me.    It's really fast to add a few cans im a crockpot and if you are goimg to be rushed in the morning, you can ,are ot the night before , refrigerate and put it on in the crockpot in the morning,  

Chicken breasts coke from frozen to done in the pressure cooker in 8 minutes.  

Whether you have a theme based or a protein based meal plan, having a plan is key to maintaining a small budget.

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- stable/ 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.    

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