It's hard not to recognize the price of groceries at the end of our shopping excursions. We don't have kids yet and so I know how different lifestyles can become when you go from a 2 person household to a 3 or 4 or more-person home.
But something I have found extremely helpful when creating a meal plan is to look at the entire month. What events are going on? When is Date Night scheduled for? Are there any later evening meetings at work? Are people coming over for dinner one evening? What activities are each of your kids involved in? Do these activities occur during or around dinnertime?
There may be certain add-ins during the month, but I make sure our calendar is as up-to-date as possible before I start planning out our dinners.
Dinner is the easier one to plan for us. We don't mind a leftover or 2 during the week and find it makes the mid-week dinner prep easier for both of us, when all we have to do is reheat and eat for dinner. I will plan about 3-4 meals/week leaving leftovers for the remainder of the week.
Breakfast planning is really just a restock of supplies/groceries. Eggs, milk, oats, fruit, yogurt, breakfast meat etc. These are things we typically always have on hand in the fridge and pantry. I will occasionally bake a casserole for ease, but sometimes it's just a smoothie or heated up oatmeal.
Lunch is my trickiest meal. Chris and I are both away 2-3 days a week with work, so a to-go option is preferred. However I'm personally not a fan of the quick and easy microwave meals. I like to know what's in my lunch and to have control of the ingredients that are going into it. I have a few favorites I've shared here on the blog Cowboy Pasta Salad, Quinoa Bowls, and my No-Noodle Chicken Soup. Either way I'm still probably only committing to making 1-2 lunches for the 2 of us during the week.
Snacks are another difficult one for me to plan/purchase. On the one hand I don't want a ton of junk available to snack on and on the other hand I hate going grocery shopping, staying within our budget and then sitting at home staring at our ingredients, wondering if I could bake or whip up a decent snack with peanut butter, oats and chia seeds. I do like having fresh fruit, cheese sticks, snacking meats and yogurt stocked. Otherwise you could make a decent granola power-ball with the peanut butter, oats and chia seeds ;)
Currently I'm budgeting $200/week for groceries for this family of 2. Sometimes we're able to stay well below that budget it just depends on how hungry we are when shopping but also it's dependent on if we need to replenish our toiletries stock. I then plan out $100 for eating out. This usually goes towards our date night(s) out.
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