Happy Friday you guys! The weekend is fast approaching and we are super excited for family time, lounging and maybe some camper cleaning if it ever stops raining over here!
….Aaannnnd that means another week down of meal planning and staying on track with our grocery budget! We have some seriously big plans and some big dreams over here. Each passing week of this year is just another chance for us to get after it! Staying on track with our $100 per week budget is taking some effort but it has been so worth it! Banking all that extra money each month is going right into our savings and towards future camping trips we want to take!
Last weekend we had some friends come over and we were discussing life plans, grocery shopping, saving money and what have you. You know….normal conversations of couples in their 30s (ha! oh how life changes!). We got on the topic of budgeting and how we are using weekly meal planning to stay on track with spending for groceries each week. I quickly explained how I do it and just had the urge to share my method and give them all the tools to make it happen.
That gave me the inspiration to share a little of my method here. Buuuuuttttt, more importantly, I really wanted to share my printables that I have been using every week with you!! This method and downloads are what we use to get our family of 3 to only spend $100 per week or less on groceries!!! Keep in mind, we also shop gluten free for 1 of us. This year is all about sharing for us… so we started with sharing these printables so you can also crush the meal planning game and start saving some serious $ this year!
To all those looking for meal planning inspiration, a simple method to follow,
or just that extra nudge to save yourself some money….I got you! Just follow these simple steps below!
The Method To My Madness and How To Use The Printables
Seriously, this is super simple. I do this every single week for our family. It will take less than 2 hours of your time from start to finish including printing out your papers and getting groceries into your pantry.
- Download and print out the Weekly Meal Planner and Weekly Grocery List.
- I have picked 1 day per week to plan my meals. Each Saturday, I sit with a cup of coffee on the couch and go to town planning for the upcoming week.
- Set your weekly grocery budget and write it in.
- Shop your kitchen! No really, open that pantry, fridge, cabinets and take inventory of what you have.
- Plan your meals around the ingredients you have. If I have leftover bread from the week, I’ll plan Monday night to have french toast with fruit for a meal. ZERO waste and one less thing to shop for.
- To pick meals be realistic- if you typically don’t eat breakfast, don’t plan for it. Don’t buy groceries you will throw out and waste by the end of the week. If you have 30 minutes to cook dinner each night, pick simple, easy meals.
- Use go-to meals for 1 or 2 nights during the week (our go-to is breakfast for dinner because we love it!), utilize Pinterest for ideas with ingredients you have on hand (follow our easy meal board here for some ideas!) , and pick fewer ingredient meals to limit your grocery list.
- Write in each meal on the planner. I added extra space in each box to list out ingredients so you don’t miss anything.
- Use the grocery list on the side of the Weekly Meal Planner printable or organize your grocery list with the Weekly Grocery List printable. Write out any ingredients you need but don’t currently have in hand. TA-DA…you have your grocery list!
- Use an online grocery ordering service like Instacart (click here to get free delivery on your first order!) to order your groceries. Ordering online allows you to see your totals so you actually stick to your weekly budget, not be influenced by yummy looking snacks you don’t need, and saves you time to get some of that laundry done that’s been piling up while someone else shops for you! ; )
- Shop for….or virtually shop for….your groceries that you listed out on the Weekly Grocery List. I spend less than 30 minutes adding all items to my virtual cart and checking out.
- Get your groceries delivered right to your door and put them away.
- Enjoy the fruits of your labor! Your future self and wallet will thank you!
For More About Meal Planning and Using Instacart:
And that’s it you guys! So freakin’ simple! If you are inspired by these printables, check out the other posts on our blog to learn more about using bullet journaling to spark your creative side with meal planning and how our family is using Instacart to crush our financial goals this year!
As always, please feel free to share these printables on Pinterest, with your friends or family, and on social media! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a message below! Let us know how it goes and how much you are killing it each week!
Have a great weekend you guys…and happy meal planning!
