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04-11-2021, 04:07 PM | #1 |
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Once a Month Meal Planning
Has anyone ever tried this? One of my favorite bloggers does once a month planning and shopping (goes back mid-month for milk, eggs, and produce). I’m trying to wrap my head around shopping for an entire month and wondered if anyone here has tried it? I’ve done 2 weeks at a time, but never an entire month. Only having to enter stores one time a month sounds appealing.
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04-11-2021, 04:09 PM | #2 |
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
I'd like to know more about this.
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04-11-2021, 04:15 PM | #3 |
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
I would like to, but we don't have enough refrigerator/freezer space to only shop once a month.
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04-11-2021, 04:17 PM | #4 | |
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
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Same. We couldn't really manage two weeks' worth when that was recommended at the beginning of the pandemic.
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04-11-2021, 07:08 PM | #5 |
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
I plan my meals a month at a time now. I don't shop just once a month, though. I go to one store a week, but I rotate stores. Certain things we buy from certain stores, like coconut milk and frozen favorites from Trader Joe's, bulk items from the warehouse store, etc. I just buy all the things unique to that store once a month along with the weekly milk and produce and fresh meat if needed. Then a regular grocery store to stockpile sale items every other week (usually online order) along with the milk, produce, and fresh meat if needed for that week. Although, we only have one fresh meat per week. We buy 1/2 a cow and I use either frozen chicken breast and frozen tenderloins (tjs are the best tenderloins, and one bag is the perfect size for our meals).anyway, it is still a weeks worth of milk and produce and breads at a time.
We do have a freezer for our beef, and a garage refrigerator, but the garage is just for extra cheeses and my mother in laws stuff. People are always offloading refrigerators for next to nothing and it doesn't have to be a nice one just for drinks. It is so much easier that way. I would be happy to share more later. I seriously cook at home almost every night now, whereas we used to have to resort to takeout because even though I had planned for the week, if something was missing or my timing was off, I was sunk. Plus, bf and lunch are easier, too.
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Last edited by RealLifeMama; 04-11-2021 at 07:14 PM. |
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04-11-2021, 10:16 PM | #6 |
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
I have 9 weeks worth of meals in Google calendar and they are all on repeat. I had a basic theme for each day and tried to come up with 9 meals for each theme.
When I plan groceries, I just look at the week and see what's on there. I do change it up but it's a good starting point. I have plenty of space to shop once a month but I don't need to so I don't. And we use a lot of produce so I need to go at least weekly. I use grocery pickup so I'm not actually going to the store and shopping myself. Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk
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04-12-2021, 12:14 AM | #7 | ||
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
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I’d love to hear more about store rotation and weekly lists! ---------- Post added at 02:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:10 AM ---------- Quote:
I have a lot of space for once a month, I’ve just never tackled it. I loathe shopping, so I’m drawn to the idea of fewer trips to the store and fewer impulse buys. I’m trying to rein in our grocery budget too. |
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04-12-2021, 06:34 AM | #8 | |
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
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I have done similar thing in the past I need to set this up again. Bi would set up two or three week rotation with Inna season. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
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04-12-2021, 08:37 AM | #9 | ||
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
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Sunday - fancy ish Monday - home cooking/traditional Tues - taco/Mexican Wed - sandwiches Thurs - pasta Fri - seafood/soup Sat - Asian Fri and Sat are most often the ones scrapped for grilling or bbq or leftovers because they are the least favorite (taking everyone's opinion into consideration) Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk ---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:31 AM ---------- Quote:
Seasonal for us is basically winter and the rest of the year! In winter I'll do more soups/stews but the rest of the year it'll be tacos/salads/sandwiches. I don't cook much in the heat of summer anyway. The key to the Google menu is that its purpose is for when I'm feeling totally brain dead about food for the week, I can go there and see a selection of meals we like. I can do them all or pick and choose or adjust. It's not set in stone at all. I started it by simply recording what we ate for several months. Then I tweaked it to fit my themes and made sure it was 9 weeks of unique recipes. Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk
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04-12-2021, 12:01 PM | #10 | |
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
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As far as shopping goes and the different stores, like you mentioned, I always was missing some ingredient, or I felt bad purchasing it at a store I was at when I knew that it was way cheaper or a higher quality ingredient from a certain store. But, going to three different stores in a week was not possible. Certain things are just better from different stores. The warehouse store has the best price of chicken that is good quality, so when I go there, I buy fresh chicken and we eat our fresh chicken meals that week. Trader Joes has the ground turkey we like for the best price, so I go there once a month and we eat ground turkey that week. So, I planning out a month, but I don't plan to have fresh chicken and ground turkey in the same week because I am not going to both stores in the same week. Does that make sense? I think most of us tend to eat the same thing every month, and it really is cheaper to buy in bulk and stock up when items go on sale rather then buy things weekly. I never buy anything from the regular grocery store when it is not on sale, except for milk and certain produce items. It just makes more sense to buy a month's worth or more when things go on sale. For instance, we eat probably eat two packages of smoked sausage a month, and it keeps for a couple of months (check dates) so I will get 3 when they go on sale. The brand of coffee we like goes on sale once every 6 weeks or so, I get 6 weeks worth when it goes on sale. I think most of us probably do that. I order for pickup or go every two weeks, usually while my kids are at a scout meeting, and get all the sale items we buy, plus the week's produce and milk/cream, and anything else small and special I might need for that week's or next's meals. This week, we are having turkey sandwiches for lunch, so I will get deli turkey. I plan to have the turkey sandwiches that week I go to the grocery store. It is expensive, so we only eat it once a month. same with ham or any deli meat. If it is my grocery store week, I might plan something with ham or swiss cheese, like a quiche, but I am not going to plan that week on a warehouse store week because I won't get those ingredients. I guess I just list out my meals, then think about what store I am going to going to, and then plan the meals when I will have those ingredients, rather than the other way around. I could talk about this forever and share as many details as people wanted to read. It seems intuitive now, and I am sure everyone else is like "well, duh, doesn't everyone do this?" but this time last year, even with the pandemic, we were eating out soooo much. In fact, it got so bad, we didn't even want our favorites anymore and it was not a special treat anymore. I spend more at the grocery store now, but we are eating way better, have meals on time, and spend way, way less on takeout. FTR, I tried two week planning/shopping too, and it still didn't work as well as this. I tried the weekly "look at what you have on hand, plan meals accordingly, and shop to fill in the extras' and I know that is generally the same, but for some reason I couldn't wrap my head around it as well. And if the day I had planned to shop didn't materialize, it was take out until I could.
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Last edited by RealLifeMama; 04-12-2021 at 12:47 PM. |
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04-12-2021, 04:47 PM | #11 | |
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
I love the ideas of both themes and rotating stores weekly. We really only do one store (Woodman's) for groceries. We do Sam's once a month or so for stuff.
I bought myself a monthly calendar book (I'm sure it would be easier to do on the computer somehow, but I've always done pen and paper for meals). I first saw this idea from the vlogger "Our Tribe of Many." I don't know her parenting views, but her videos mostly focus on monthly meal planning, "grocery hauls," and cooking. She has (I think) 10 kids and their monthly food/toiletry/paper/diaper budget is $1300, and she shops four stores in one day (lots of pick up orders, though). I figure if she can shop for 12 people on that, surely I can manage half of that for our much smaller household. She also kind of does themes for each day of the week. She plans food right down to snacks , but if I can just get dinners figured out, I'd be thrilled. I had this aspect of my life under control, with only one kid at home, but then my oldest daughter and her two littles moved in. Now it's back to out of control. ---------- Post added at 06:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:45 PM ---------- Quote:
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04-12-2021, 09:03 PM | #12 |
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Re: Once a Month Meal Planning
I shop at costco once a month and stock up on everything spending about half my grocery budget there. I buy everything that we're out of or that I think won't last a whole month.
I shop at the grocery store weekly and pick up all the fresh food and meal ingredients, if any, for the week. This is where I buy milk, eggs, lunchmeat and cheese, bread, etc. I have the biggest upright freezer you can buy at a conventional appliance store and I have a second fridge/freezer in the garage so we have lots of space. I freeze meat and thaw daily. I very rarely use fresh meat unless it happens to be a grocery day. I buy the same snacks, breakfast foods, and lunch foods. I don't buy everything all at once but I don't plan it. I byb based on my preferences. If I want yogurt and granola this week, I get it. If I want bagels and cream cheese, I get that. My kids and dh don't usually request anything. They will eat whatever I buy. We keep nuts, salad fixings, fruit, and cheese and crackers stacked all the time. Also sandwich fixings and chips all the time. I only plan and cook dinner. People in my house are on their own for breakfast and lunch. Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk
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