All kinds of veggies – and fruit – can go into your salad. 2 Cups Mixed Greens with 1 Cup of Other Veggies, Chopped, Dressed with Aged Balsamic Vinegarįor your salads, break out of the lettuce-and-tomato box.Warm the tortilla between slightly moistened paper towels in the microwave for about 1 minute, then top with veggies and salsa fold If desired, add a little nonfat milk or soymilk and a packet of sugar substitute (a good choice is Splenda).ġ steamed 6-inch corn tortilla with fresh or grilled vegetables (such as onions, green bell peppers, and tomatoes) and no-added-salt salsa. Plus, hot cereal has more “staying power.” It tends to fill you up better – and longer – than dried cereal. That one simple change to your daily diet could help you drop about 10 pounds in one year. Oatmeal with Fresh or Frozen (No Sugar Added) Fruitīy switching from a bowl of cold, dried cereal to one of hot whole-grain cereal and fruit, you’d take in approximately 100 fewer calories each day.
Free meal planning download#
Make sure you download my free meal planning worksheet so that you can stay organized. Meal planning doesn’t have to be hard and it doesn’t have to break the bank. Make a separate list for each store to help you stay on track. You may even find out that it is cheaper if you stop at two different stores to buy all of your groceries. Try to avoid making impulse purchases and spending money on ingredients that you don’t need. The key to meal planning on a budget is sticking to this list at the grocery store. Make a list of all the items you need from the recipes you picked. Now it's time to plan your shopping trip. Now that you know what is on sale at your local store, is there a way to get it even cheaper? Look for coupons and discounts to see if you can cut your expenses even more.Ĭlip coupons or see if your store loyalty card has bonus coupons you can apply to your groceries. This will make it simple to see what you can cook with the ingredients you have on hand and what is on sale. You can use this really cool site called SuperCook that lets you put in the ingredients you have to come up with recipe options. Once you have your inventory list you can then look to see what is on sale at the grocery store to come up with your meals for the week. You don’t want to sit down and just choose meals that you want to cook that week because this is how you will end up spending more money.
In order to save money on meal planning, you need to plan ahead and purchase ingredients that are on sale at your local grocery store. I like to plan the leftovers for nights when I know we are super busy and I won’t have a lot of time. One thing I like to do is look at our schedule for the week and see when we have which activities for the boys. Not only will this cut down on cost, but it will also cut down on prep time. When you are planning out your meals for the week, think about making a little more to have leftovers the next night. This will also help you to come up with recipes that use the ingredients that are already in your refrigerator or pantry. You don’t want to waste money purchasing items you already have, and making an inventory list will help you create recipes where you don’t have to go buy a lot of the ingredients. When you are ready to plan your meals for the week take a few minutes to see what food and ingredients you already have in your pantry. Tips for Meal Planning on a Budget: #1 - Take stock This might mean planning one or two meals until you get the hang of it. When you are first getting started, try to keep it simple. Its one of the reasons why I made this weekly meal planner printable I needed to get on track.
Once I realized my mistake I made it my goal to do better next time and actually save money. Meal planning is supposed to help save you money NOT make you spend more like I did.
Instead, I needed to look at what was on sale and what ingredients I already had on hand. When I first tried meal planning I made the mistake of just randomly picking some meals that I wanted to make for dinner for the week without taking anything else into consideration.Īll I did was end up spending MORE money at the grocery store.
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