Grocery Planning Without Menus

Menu Free Grocery Planning

I tried planning menus in an effort to shop more frugally. It didn’t work. I tried planning my grocery list around the weekly ads. That didn’t work either. Here’s what works for me:

I use an 8 1/2 x 11 tablet with a stiff back so that I can easily write things down as I go through the freezer and cabinets to see what I have to work with. My list this month looks something like this:

Things to use up: carrots, zuccini, mozerrella cheese, milk, pie shells, sweet potatoes, Fiber One cereal
Quick meals: sandwiches, chicken tenders, oodles of noodles, bundinos, smoothies
Treats & snacks: ice cream, baked goods in freezer, pudding, cake mix, popcorn
Meat: meatballs-4, chicken breasts-4, pork roast-4, ribs-2, fajitas-2, turkey ham-8, chicken nuggets-lots (no hamburger)
Frozen vegs: large variety
Fruit for smoothies: strawberries, blueberries
Other fruit: watermelon, bananas
Cheese: variety, 2 weeks or more
Bread: hamburger and hot dog rolls, wheat-1, white-1
Other: canned tomatoes
Side dishes: pasta dishes-4, flavored rice-4, spaghetti-4, pasta-4, brown rice-4, barley-lots
Breakfast: smoothies, yogurt-4, waffles-2, bagels-2, plenty: pancakes, cream of wheat

The numbers next to items tell me how many meals I can expect to make out of that item.

As I look over my list, I can see that we have plenty of food to last two weeks or more. Rather than written menus, I have ideas forming. I should make muffins with all that Fiber One cereal next time we have a cooler day. I can use the pie shells, squash, cheese, and tomatoes for some creative dish, but I will be the only one that eats it. Lunches are covered with sandwich items and leftovers. I’ll need bread, fruit, and breakfast items later in the month. I would like to have more quick meal items for busy days and some things the kids can make by themselves. If I buy hamburger, I can cook it and freeze it in smaller packages and that will cover many quick meals and round things out nicely. I can pick that up at Costco when I purchase cleaning supplies for the church.

Next, I check the white board on the refrigerator and see that we are low on butter, margarine, and sweetner. We are out of oatmeal and yeast and the kids want macaroni and cheese.

Now I can look at the sales flyer and purchase only the things I need to fill in the holes. Pizza Rolls are on sale, I have coupons, and the kids can make them by themselves. There are cereals on sale, so I’ll see what coupon matches I can come up with. That’s all I see, so I won’t need to do much shopping this week. I will stock up on loss-leaders if there’s a good sale on something we use regularly.