This week we finally saw a decrease in our grocery spending resulting from our monthly menu planning experiment. Our total was $51! That’s about $9 less than what we typically spend.
Because we bought many items earlier in the month, our list was pretty short this week. We also didn’t need to get any meat for this week’s meals, because we already had it. Even though we weren’t spending more than normal in the beginning of the month, our advance planning helped us spend less this week.
This is only one week, so I don’t have enough information to know for sure if monthly menu planning will be cheaper in the long run, but I’m certainly feeling encouraged enough to try it again in January. Most importantly, it made menu planning and grocery shopping a lot less stressful on the weekends. For that reason alone, I liked it.
Here’s this week’s menu plan (my final full week before our holiday vacation!):
Saturday: Chicken wraps and oven fries
Sunday: Steak fajitas
Monday: Dinner party with friends — we’re bringing chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
Tuesday: Bacon wrapped chicken (We’re using Monterey jack instead of blue cheese and omitting the pecans to reduce the cost of this recipe.)
Wednesday: Chicken noodle soup
Thursday: Broccoli chicken stir fry
Friday: Black bean quesadillas
Looking over this menu, it actually looks a lot more expensive than my typical menu plans. That’s why I’m so excited that we spent less than normal this week. Without monthly menu planning, this menu would have cost a lot more.
I hope you had a successful week at the grocery store!
Visit OrgJunkie for more menu plans.
If you wanted, you could try a financial and eating experiment for just 1 or 2 weeks and go vegetarian. Even if you’re not cut out to be a vegetarian, it might be an interesting experience. Plus, it would save money. And it would also give you good karma regarding animal issues, which you seem to care about based on your postings about your dog and animal shelters. Brands vary a lot, but there are very, very realistic vegetarian meat substitutes available that are also healthier than meat. For example, I like Smart Dogs hot dogs, Morning Farms (that name might be slightly off) frozen sausage patties and sausage links, Boca burgers, and there are even fake chicken strips, ground beef, etc. Not sure if there’s one close to you, but Trader Joes has great prices on this stuff.
I’ve experimented with more vegetarian meal planning in the past, and it’s healthier and definitely less expensive. We typically don’t eat this much meat, but we’re trying to clear out our freezer stash before we go out of town.
However, I don’t believe processed foods are the answer if you’re looking to save money by eating vegetarian. Vegetarian alternative processed foods like Boca burgers may be healthier than red meat, but they’re very pricey. Also, processed foods just aren’t as healthy as fresh produce and lean meats. If I were going to save money by eating vegetarian, I would eat more fresh produce and beans and skip the processed foods.