Planning Weekly Meals on a Budget

Do you like Avocados?  I just priced one yesterday and was shocked to see $2.79 for one – last week it was 99 cents!  With the cost of everything, including groceries, a thought occurred to me, a column on how to plan your weekly meals might be useful to the readers. 

First, it begins with creating a budget and this can be a bit challenging.  Obviously, we all must eat.  So, what is a realistic weekly budget for a family of four.  I would suggest by first maintaining a good record of what you are currently spending.  This can be done simply by dedicating one credit card for all your grocery charges.  What we do is look for a card that has the best cash back program.  Today, it’s our Discover card.  This card changes their rewards quarterly. 

It just so happens, this quarter – April to June, their cash back is 5%.  After that period, we will go back to the PNC card, which has 2% cash back for groceries.  By keeping all your grocery charges on one card, you can establish what you are currently spending.  With this data, you can start to prepare a weekly menu.  This should start with what you currently have in your cupboards and fridge.   Retailers are clever in getting customers to buy more than they need.  Sometimes, it’s to the benefit of the consumer, buying for a family of four, but what if your family is five or say, only two as in our case.  We often end up with veggies that spoils in our fridge. 

That’s why it’s important to start your menu planning around what you already have on hand.  Next, it might be useful to create some weekly routine.  Ours are made up of Thursday as pasta night, Friday, some kind of fish, and we always try to mix Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and traditional American such as meat loaf.  Once the weekly menu is made, we post it on our fridge, which serves as a guideline for the week.  Often times, changes are made due to weather, for example – a beautiful sunny day with warm temperature, we may decide to grill out some burgers instead of the meat loaf, originally planned.  Attached below are two examples of our weekly menu.  

Now to the costs.  Here again, planning ahead plays a huge part in sticking to the budget.  First, take advantage of all the weekly specials and have some ideas on what a good price is.  For example, what do you pay for butter, jar of pasta sauce, canned veggies and Cambell’s condensed soup.  Each of these items can have a huge difference in prices.  Also, look for the store brands on commodity items like butter.  Can you tell the difference between Food Club butter and the more famous Land o Lakes.  Mid’s pasta sauce often go on sale so we sock up. 

Also, Barilla pasta, sometimes 99 cents but I think those days are past.  We also stock up on Cambell’s condensed cream of mushroom soup when they go on sale for 99 cents.  We often make what the kids use to call “pork and gray sauce”.  And let’s not forget the weekly take out specials like Marco’s Pizza, that has Tuesday BOGO.  We buy this about once a month.  For $20, one gets two large pizzas, one for the night and a second to store in the freezer.  Pizza in the freezer always come in handy for some unexpected evening event.  KFC also has a Tuesday specials; also, Acme has specials every day of the week for $10 to $12 to feed a family of four.  

I believe one can easily feed a family of four very nicely for $100 per week by planning ahead and shopping wisely.    I personally looked back to our April Discover statement.  We spent a total of $318.43 for just the two of us.  Just as an example, the pork in gray sauce, mentioned above could be made for less than $8 for two.  This week, Acme had boneless center cut pork chops for $2.99 per pound.  Can of cream of mushroom coup is $1.29.  Add a small can of mushrooms for $1.59 and served with a can of green beans, last week special at 79 cents – comes to $6.70.  We usually serve this over bed of steamed rice but one can serve it with your favorite starch – pasta, mashed potatoes, etc.  

I also realize most families have hectic schedules, leaving little time to prepare an evening g meal.  There are many “Heat and Eat” options to address those options.  All grocers have them so take advantage of them.  Bottomline, it’s all in the planning.  An ounce of good planning can result in $$’s of savings.  Bon Appetite!

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The author and his wife taught a Japanese cooking class at the Zona Spray Cooking School in Hudson. He also served as the food and restaurant writer for Akron Life & Leisure magazine.