A weekly menu... why?

I try to plan my menus weekly. It helps keep me on budget, it saves me time all week not having to worry about what to make for dinner and overall lets me stress out about other things besides what we're going to eat. I almost always make enough for leftovers to either freeze and have as another meal, or to have for lunch the next day, so if it seems like I make a lot of food it's because I sometimes do. I can also get my grocery shopping done much faster, and with less wandering, if I plan my menu, make my list and get in and out of the store. I don't spend nearly the amount of money on snacks and junk as I did before.

For my menu inspiration I generally ask (or nag, whatever) Gary and Justin for what sounds good to them, I look at recipe websites, my cookbooks and family recipes, and my weekly Kroger ad. I also plan around what coupons I have. For a stretch I was obsessed with coupons. You'd really be surprised how much money you can save (and how many things you can get for free) when you clip coupons. Although I've let my coupon clipping fall to the wayside lately, when I can get myself organized and back on track I'll start up again. I really miss having a drawer full of Pillsbury rolls and biscuits at my disposal.

I've also learned along the way to buy meat when it's on sale. If chicken or roast is on sale, I'll grab an extra package. Same goes with meat that is marked down because it's getting close to the sell by date. As long as you can use or freeze it right away, it can save you a lot of money. Buying meat like this comes in handy on the weeks when the sales aren't so great. If I find a great recipe for a chicken dish and it's not on sale that week, I can just pull some out of my freezer stash.

Sometimes things happen. I do occasionally stray from my menu. That's where having a deep freezer comes in handy. I'll reuse my fresh ingredients in another dish, or move my menu back by a day and we're good to go. I did learn my lesson a few years ago. Gary and I hadn't lived in Texas that long and we were fond of shopping at Costco (this was also before kids and I realized that buying in bulk from Costco isn't always cheaper). We weren't really used to having so much space in general, much less an entire freezer full of room. So over time we built up quite the stockpile of frozen meat, veggies, and ready to heat meals. Then it happened. Our first hurricane. Ike came barreling through southeast Texas and although we escaped without damage to us our our house, we lost power. Let me tell you how sad I was when we realized that we were going to lose everything in our freezer. All total we lost somewhere around $500 worth of food. I learned my lesson though, and I don't keep our freezer nearly as stocked as I used to.

So anyway, those are the virtues of planning a weekly menu. My virtues, anyway. Hopefully someone else can benefit from my information. =)