frugal underground

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You should always have a plan when you are going to spend money. Consider just three areas where we regularly save by planning.

Groceries. Planning the meals to cover a week or two weeks will help you stick to a budget. Instead of buying food on impulse, you can plan each meal ahead and get the necessary ingredients. You should also make sure that you check the levels of household cleaners and toiletries. Avoiding an extra trip to the store will bring down the chances of an impulse purchase.

Entertainment. Everyone likes to get out and have fun. If you really need to get out once in a while, plan an inexpensive night out. Set the amount you will spend and stick to it. If you use cash only, you will be more inclined to stick to budget.

Major purchases. You can save a fortune if you explore your options. When looking for a car, furniture or major appliances, there is much room for error. Think about quality. It might not be the best choice to buy the cheapest thing out there, because it may not last as long. Check the consumer ratings on the brands you are considering. You don’t have to pay top dollar, but cheap isn’t the way to go with certain things.

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Consider this my little gift to you. This morning I created a meal plan form that fits my family’s preferences, and if you have similar preferences, I hope it will work for you.

Download my 2-week Meal Plan form

Here’s what makes this form distinctive:

1. It has 14 spaces. We shop every other week, and I only plan one meal per day (breakfasts and lunches are pretty much the same set of options each day). When there are multiple meals that need to be planned, I just stuff them both in one box. But if you regularly plan two meals a day, you can use it as a 7-day plan.
2. On the fly shopping list: it’s much easier to remember those “looks like we’re out of…” items when they’re written down, and it’s easiest to write them down when there’s a clear place to do it (we post ours on the fridge). I grab the current meal plan to plan the next one and the shopping list, so it’s very handy to have all of the weird, non-meal-specific stuff listed out.

Download my 2-week Meal Plan form

Let me know if you’re able to use this or have any suggestions for improvement!

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Menu Plan Monday has rolled around once more, and I have a plan. I was originally expecting to not shop this week, but last week’s shopping trip found the store completely out of the lettuce I wanted, and my husband—very sweetly and completely unaware of my plan—used my apples for an apple pie. So if I’m going to stick with the plan for Friday dinner and Saturday potluck, I’ll be going back in to get those items.
Monday: Pizza

Tuesday: Spaghetti

Wednesday: Sandwiches

Thursday: Mac & cheese

Friday: Haystacks

Saturday potluck: Apple Lasagna, Buttery Bread Machine Rolls, some brownies (from a box)

Saturday dinner: Creamed eggs on biscuits

Sunday: Leftovers

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It’s Menu Plan Monday!

Because I’ll be out of town Thursday through Sunday, and because my husband is perfectly happy eating Spicy Black Bean Burger sandwiches (I stocked up!), the meal plan is a bit bare.

Monday: Burritos

Tuesday: Lasagna

Wednesday: Penne with Rustic Lentil Sauce (we ended up not making it last week)

…

Sunday: Tuna Noodle Casserole

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Getting in at the tail end of the day… If you’d like to participate in this meme, check out Menu Plan Monday. Here’s my plan for the week:

Monday: Subway sandwiches (unusually eating out!)

Tuesday: Gardenburgers

Wednesday: Gardenburgers after biking
Thursday: Penne with Rustic Lentil Sauce

Friday: Haystacks

Saturday: Pizza

Sunday: Tuna noodle casserole

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I recently stumbled across Menu Plan Monday and have decided to (attempt to) participate in it on a regular basis. I’m always extolling the virtues of meal planning, but I’d say I actually get around to it only every couple of weeks. It only works if you do it, so this is me, doing it.

Dinners for the week

Monday: Sandwiches

Tuesday: Haystacks (build-your-own taco salad, basically)

Wednesday: Maybe going out to dinner, but if not, spaghetti + broccoli + garlic bread

Thursday: Pizza (and I need to bake cookies for church thing Friday night)

Friday: Baked potatoes + broccoli + garlic bread

Friday night pre-potluck cooking: Suddenly Salad, rolls, brownies, spaghetti, mashed potatoes

Saturday: Quesadillas + popcorn

Sunday: Tuna noodle casserole + (you guessed it!) broccoli

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I was making a pasta salad yesterday and decided to go all out… I bought sun-dried red bell peppers.  (I know, I’m really living large here!)  The salad was quite tasty, and the peppers were a delicious touch, so this morning I was thinking about the logistic of the peppers.

I have a dehydrator that doesn’t get used as much as it could, and while I imagine it wouldn’t be exactly the same as sun-drying, it seems like it would be a passable imitation.  “Think how much money I’ll save by doing it myself!” I thought gleefully.  Until I actually double-checked my receipt, that is!

Turns out that for me (at this time of year, at the store where I do most of my shopping), buying the sun-dried peppers is less expensive than buying fresh bell peppers and dehydrating them myself (not to mention the extra labor involved!).  The sun-dried peppers were $1.50 for what appears to be about two peppers; the fresh were the same cost per pepper!  Later in the season I expect that the fresh peppers will drop to about $.88 each, but it’s still cheaper to buy them already dried.

Just goes to show that the pricebook can reveal even the surprising deals!

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I’ve posted before on the benefits of meal planning and I hope that you’ve found the value in it. Here’s a simple, quick tool to help the process along: a list of your family’s favorite meals. Yeah, it’s kind of obvious and I felt silly for not coming up with it earlier, but a comprehensive list of favorites can really take the pressure off.

You don’t have to agonize over what to make, where to find a good new recipe (and where to find the time to find it!), and what to do with the leftovers when the family isn’t wild about it. Sure, it’s fun to try new things from time to time, but most families would rather stick with maybe fifteen or twenty “tried-and-true” favorites than constantly be trying “experiments.”

It’s super easy to implement this tip. Just take a piece of notebook paper (or a blank file in your word processor) and start writing down the family’s most requested meals. If you are stuck, go ask your spouse and the kids. My husband was more than glad to register his vote for “normal things” (his words) like spaghetti and tuna sandwiches.

Then just put the list somewhere you can see it when you’re meal planning and also easily add to it. For me, that’s right here. I figure if I try one new dinner meal in a week and pull the rest from the list, that will keep the family happy and still let me experiment. My list is still evolving, and will be for some time, but hopefully you can use this advice to save time as well as money.

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Obviously, one way to keep costs down when you’re dieting is to avoid buying special dieting foods. They’re almost always priced higher, and sometimes the convenience might be worth it to you, but with a little consideration, you can get better quality, lower cost food that will help you in your dieting adventure. This (somewhat long) post will talk a little bit about how.
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Meal plans are your friends. What is a meal plan? I guess the definition of “meal planning” is simply investing a little time in advance (listing out the food you’ll use in a given time period) to save time and money later.

In particular, you’ll save time by not wondering what to make for dinner each evening (while standing in front of an uninspiring open refrigerator); you’ll save time when you shop because you’ll know exactly what you need; you’ll save money by buying only what you need and not wasting money on things that go bad before you use them. Now that we’re all singing the praises of meal plans, let’s get down to nuts and bolts.
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