I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's celebration and a delightful Christmas with loved ones.
As part of my love for meal planning, organizing, and cleaning out stuff. In January I like to do a major freezer, fridge, and cupboard clear out. My goal is to use as much as I have on hand and spend as little as possible on groceries.
Our normal grocery budget is $300 a month, I'd like to cut that in half for January. It always feels great to do this especially after December, since it's filled with so much splurging. I start by looking through everything and make a list of all the items I have on hand then plan my month. {I do this too for my regular months, but in those months I'm fine with not using stuff if it's not going to waste and will leave it for another month. Where in January, using up everything is the goal.}
January's meal plan
1: Fridge leftovers from New Year's
2: Fridge leftovers from New Year's
3: Cereal (S)
4: Grilled cheese (S) and hash brown patties (S)
5: Buffalo chicken pizza (S) and green salad
6: Bean and cheese burritos (S)
7: Leftovers (S)
8: Date Night
9: Saturday
10: Sloppy Joe's (S), corn (S), and hash brown patties (S)
11: Baked chicken (P chicken breasts), mash potatoes (S), and biscuits (S)
12: Biscuit french toast (using leftover biscuits), blueberries (S), and bacon (P)
13: Pot stickers (S) and rice (S)
14: BLT's (using leftover bacon) (P tomatoes)
15: Date Night
16: Saturday
17: Pork chops (S) with pineapple fried rice (S)
18: Birthday dinner with family
19: Birthday dinner with hubby
20: Leftovers from birthday dinners
21: Leftovers from birthday dinners
22: Homemade chicken tortilla soup (S) and salad
23: Saturday
24: Burgers (S) with roasted red peppers (S), green beans (S), pasta salad (S)
25: Veggie rice bowls (P fresh veggies)
26: Chicken BBQ quesadillas (S) (use leftover roasted red peppers)
27: Homemade chicken noodle soup (S) and salad
28: Leftovers
29: Date Night
30: Saturday
31: Mini cheese pizzas (S)
- S = Stocked, I have on hand all items needed to make the item or it's already made and in the freezer
- P = Purchase
- I typically cut up fresh fruit and/or raw veggies each night as well
- Saturdays I leave open, then if anything gets switched up during the week whatever I had planned for that night we can have on Saturday. When I first started meal planning I would plan for each night, so many times something would get switched or we both just wanted mac and cheese or cereal for dinner, so then I started only planning for six nights and it worked out way better.
- As with any meal plan it's always subject to change, but planning the month out doesn't take me much longer than planning a week out AND it cuts my grocery shopping down by more than half! I'll get all non-perishable staples for the whole month the first week, then do a quick fresh items trip the remaining weeks.
- Staples {not listed above} on my weekly/monthly list are {as needed}: Milk, eggs, peanut butter, jelly, sandwich bread, carrots, broccoli, apples, fresh spinach, bananas, yogurt, seasonal fruit, seasonal vegetable, coffee, cheddar cheese block, oatmeal, cereal, tortillas, tortilla chips, ramen, and peanuts. These items we pretty much always have in house, so for example, if there isn't something leftover on a leftover night we can make something using items from this list. Or if we really don't have something for the Saturday night, then we make something from this list.
I'll do a follow up post and let you know how everything went! Try it out, let me know how it goes! Pretty much always a good idea to not waste, clear out, and save money.
To a joyful year filled with less stuff!
xoxojolleen
{you are beautiful and wonderfully made}
