New Shopping Plan... 30 Day Menu. Will It Work?  

I have never done it with a whole month before. My problem is that whatever is on the list for the night never sounds good. I always want to switch the days around. Good luck with your quest. Let us know how it goes.

I do this all the time. The best thing to do is get rid of alot of your old meat and stuff out of the deepfreezer. Yes you maybe wasting some things sort of speak but after a certain amount of time you get the nice freezer burn and other fun stuff. When I say clean out the deepfreezer I mean the whole thing. When you go to the supermarket. Look in flyers and make your list of the things you are getting. Best things to do is buy in bulk. Yes you will be paying more for some things but you get more bang for your buck. When looking in the flyers keep in mind the stuff that you need. You might even change your mind on some things. You never know. Buy your meat in bulk as well. You can pick up some really good deals if you look things over and watch for prices etc.

Creative Recipe Planning, always helps to control costs-- Professional do it, so it will work for you! :)

Here's something that will help :)

http://www.cookingbynumbers.com

That's too rigid for a guy like me who buys a lot of fresh meats and veggies.

Buying like that means I am buying too much frozen and canned stuff.

It also doesn't give you very much flexability to change your mind either. I wing it alot and I also am not fixed on my dinner choices until often the morning of the meal. I will often substitute vegatables and starches (potato and rice) all at the last moment.

Less trips to the store would help you save money at the grocery store. Sorry making a 30 meal chart wouldn't help me for a month. The problem I see is this one. What happens if you have a limited amount of time for a week? This could happen at the end of the month causing a fast trip to the store removing a large amount of savings. Also for me time is money, so I would add in the time to do this chart.

I have started doing a week and 1/2 of ideas for meals using what is in the house and then buying items to make it a healthy meal. Also I like to cook some meals in advance, so I need to pick foods that still taste great after being in the microwave, as not all food is good reheated in my opinion.

In the future, I'm going to start doing two weeks of meal ideas and then visit the store only 2 times a month. I'm getting closer to this goal. I know less trips to the store would save me more money, as no added items to the cart by other family members.

The only way this will work for me is to grow more different vegetables. My husband won't eat the same meal twice and that includes vegetables.

i don't think you should shop for a 30day menu. meat are not good if kept for that long. i've tried it before but the vegetables get dried or loose freshness. the meat smells bad too. maybe you should try to shop for at least for 7 day menu. so that your ingredients will always be fresh. for costing, i think it cost me almost the same. i got a saving but just a little.

Depending on what you have planned, it should work.

You can buy meat and dry/canned goods in bulk and divide them. Just freeze or re-package in meal sized packages.

I usually only do my menu a week at a time. It seems to have helped some. At least it's cut down on the trips to the store.

I tried it before when I was living in Canada. I tend to spend 20 CAD on weekly groceries and for someone living alone, it was quite high! To budget my expenses, I made a weekly menu for myself and carried along a shopping list for things to buy. Instead of just grabbing whatever I feel like eating, I only get items which are on the list. It helped a lot. Not only did I save money (grocery bill went to down to 12-15 CAD), I also saved on shopping time. From my experience, the reason why I end up paying a lot in the checkout counter is because of the snacks I buy. Cookies, chocolate, and candies are not that expensive compared to fish and poultry but it adds up.

I havent tried for a month before. But i do a weekly menu. I try to buy one large serving of a particular cut of meat, ie. chicken or roast etc. Then i come up with at least 3 meals for that meat. That has saved me money and time.

I have never planned out 30 meals for 30 days. I do go grocery shopping once a month and then go back once or twice to pick up things like more salad items and milk.

I found that if I shop in the middle of the week I can get the best deals and the freshest things. I then put as much as I can into the freezer so that I can use it later in the month and it doesn't spoil.