I grew up the oldest of 9 children. My mom and dad got a divorce during my early teen years, and we all lived with my mother after the separation. As a result we really learned the value and importance of menu planning. We were always on a tight budget when it came to food and we learned early on how to make a dollar stretch when it came to food. We never went hungry, and with 5 brothers we still had more than enough to eat. A big part of that was how mu mother planned our meals and how she prepared them consistently. Keep in mind that we always had to make each meal fresh; freezer cooking just wasn't an option with our large family. So, we relied a lot on what we had on hand and what was on sale.
Te best way to save money on your groceries when you are using coupons or even when you aren't is to plan your menus for all three meals of the day as well as any snacks you might have. This planning helps you to have a little more self control when it comes to eating out because you never have to really think about "what's for dinner?" You have the meals planned and you know what you are going to make because you thought about it and planned for it ahead of time.
I think the most popular way to menu plan is to plan the entire meals for the week, write down a calendar schedule for that week, and then do the shopping for those menus each week. That is a great way to plan ahead and stick to a menu. Another thing you might do in addition to just planning is to plan those meals around what is on sale that week, by looking at the ads that week or by going to GrocerySmarts.com to see the sales and coupons to use.
I've never been able to stick to a menu plan like that, I'm too spontaneous in my nature to stick to a schedule so closely.
A lot of other people are too, so another way to plan your weekly meals is to make a list of 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches and 7 dinners. You then shop each week for those meals. When you've made one of the meals you cross it off your list so you know you've already used the ingredients to make that meal. This is a great way to plan but still have flexibility in your cooking schedule.
What my family and I do is a bit different still. Since we are using coupons to get the very best prices on food items and also stocking up our food storage as well, menu "planning" doesn't really work for our family very well. We still have a menu plan of sorts but it is a bit different. First of all, when we plan out meals we plan them anywhere from 4 days to 2 weeks at a time. We make a list that consists of breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees, then sides for each meal as well a list of snacks and desserts. We look at our storage room (that is growing all the time) and first write down all the ingredients that we have that really need to just be used, say for example we have pasta and potatoes that are a little older that need to be used so we can either consume it before it goes bad or use it to rotate out the old to make room for new. We then write down other ingredients that we have a lot of, maybe tuna and peas. Once we have a nice list of things that need using, it may look something like this:
Pasta
Potatoes
Corn Chips
Tuna
Peas
Canned Corn
We look at that list and (this is my favorite part) I get creative. I see if there is anything I can make out of all of those ingredients. Combining as many ingredients as I can into one dish. In the example list above, I have pasta, tuna and peas. I can make a yummy tuna salad out of those three ingredients; so I'll put tuna salad down on my menu list. I'll make as many different dishes out of those that I can while also using other things I have in my storage room to complete a meal or dish. I can make baked potatoes for one meal, and I know I have chili on hand as well, so those corn chips will be great for hay stacks.
I keep my shopping list for menu planning as small as possible. Buying only the absolute needs to finish the menu I have in order use the things I already have in my house. By doing the planning around my storage I save a lot more money and also don't have to plan my shopping around what we will eat. I plan the eating around the shopping. (hopefully that makes a bit of sense)
Then when it comes time to make a meal, I simply look at my list. It's dinner time so I look at the dinner entrees, the potatoes need used sooner than the pasta, so I'll make baked potatoes. Then I look at the sides on the list and see what I feel like making with the potatoes, we'll have canned corn for the side and some rolls I'll make from scratch. I then I cross those off of my list so I know I've used it.
In addition to making these lists of dishes and meals, This works great for us because if there is a week I just don't have time to plan, I can always just go to my storage room, look at what I have, let my creative juices flow and whip up something very different, unique and tasty for dinner without having to stress about what we are going to do for dinner.
For me, this is by far the best way to plan and cook meals. We will also have one or two meals throughout the week that are designated "left-over" meals where we eat whatever leftovers are in the fridge. My mom still has a lot of people living under her roof and they get a lot of leftovers. They keep the leftovers in their fridge for one week, from Sunday till Saturday night and then eat the leftovers for dinner. Whatever isn't eaten at that point is then thrown away before it has a chance to go bad in the fridge. (with that many people in one house though, there is not ever very much to throw away afterwards) I like this system and have adopted it into our house as well.
Hopefully my ramblings made some sense and you can either take it and use it yourself or you got an idea while reading this and came up with your own system that will work for your family! I'd love to hear how you plan for your family meals. Feel free to share!
Also look at: Menu Planning - Continued