Having a meal plan reduces the likelihood me having food waste in case you won't consume the leftovers. Additionally, it factors in the ingredients in such a way that you know which ones as e in deficit to prevent unwanted purchases and enables one to buy alternative cheaper items to reduce on expenditure. Do you usually have a meal plan?
I do not really do this all that formally, but I would say that I do it in a de facto manner by how I shop. If you plan ahead and know what you can spend you avoid those impulse buys.
A good meal plan to save money is simply find out how many meals you are willing to eat through out the day. Most people only need two meals to get through the day and maybe a small snack for breakfast. I would also try to find coupons for food items and go off that to save money.
I never plan out work or eating. It's something that goes by habit. It's sort of like how in school when there are no assigned seats - students will sit in the same places anyway. Impulse eating and shopping sprees can be troublesome. In that case, simply not having a lot of money on you will solve it.
I have always been using a meal plan when I was living alone during the first two years of campus. I was able to shop wisely for food, save more and there was absolutely no wastage of food. We never use it at home and there is a big difference when one uses a meal plan and when it is not used. I will always be using it to save on costs especially now that everything is expensive and prices never seem to go down.
Honestly, I don't need a meal plan to save on food costs. With my current schedule, it would be difficult to sit down and make weekly plans for meals on a regular basis. Our weekly meals are quite predictable anyway so we basically buy the same food items and ingredients in the same quantity each week. The only exception is when there's a special occasion in which case I would have to buy more than the usual stuff. Nothing gets wasted because food items can be consumed on succeeding days and we don't lack ingredients because we make do with what's on the fridge. We only prepare what we can eat and there's no such thing as leftover in my household.
I like this topic because I believe that we should save on food. The usual issue with meals are the leftover. That’s where the meal plan comes in. Buy only the exact amount of ingredients that you will need in cooking the food, not more and not less. And the kind of food should also be taken into consideration – a mix of meat, fish and vegetables in one week for better health and lesser expenses.
WOW, I had no idea that so many people didn't plan out their meals. My wife and I live on a fixed income and we have to plan out our meals otherwise we might not have enough food to eat. And we only get paid once a month so that's another reason why we need to plan out our meals.
Meal planning is the way to go. especially if we want to save some cash. It is true to say that it minimises the wastage of food since it will be calculated basing on the nuber of people who are available to eat the food.
I never really tried meal planning and I think I will never do this because I'm such a food lover. I never worry about my weight because I have a fast metabolism. Although I know that meal planning saves money, I just can't help but to eat and eat lots of food.
We do not specifically make a meal plan; but when I shop, I know the kinds of foods we will want to eat, and about how much we need for a meal, and I shop accordingly. I also watch for specials, and stock up on food when I find a good sale on it. As an example, cranberries (which I love !) areusually over $1 per can most of the time, but I found them on sale at Kroger for 65 cents a can, so almost half the regular price, and I bought several cans of cranberries. Kroger always has some food that are going out of date soon, and they mark them down; so I watch for sales and then freeze what we can’t use right away. This way, we can pretty much have whatever we feel like eating, and still not spend much money. As a senior person, living on a SS pension, we are on a very limited income and have to be careful what we spend money on all of the time. Things like snacks or soda pop are simply not in the budget except for special treats.
I always have a meat plan. For instance, I eat meat products during the weekends and for the rest of the days I eat vegetarian diet. I always have a simple dishes for break fast and lunch as I need to hurry for work, however, I make variety of dishes for the dinner. By eating venetarian food more, I am able to cut substantial food cost.
Yes of course. When I was living alone, I always bought canned goods. That was a good way to organize and budget my money, since canned goods are cheap and I don't know how to cook.
