Do you plan your meals in advance and keep it within a budget?

Your family must not eat as much! I am a stay at home mom, though, and I pack my husband's lunch everyday, so pretty much all of our meals are from what I include in the grocery budget. And I guess I actually include dog and cat food in the grocery budget, too, since I buy them at the same time as our food. Anyway, we spend around $150 when I go grocery shopping at the end, or the very beginning of the month, whichever I have time for. I shop again in the middle of the month, and spend around $75-100 that time. Then of course there is also the random tripos that my husband makes to the commissary for things like bread and milk. When I make out my grocery list, I have a rough idea of what we will be having for the next two weeks. I don't decide what we will eat each specific day until the night before. But at any given time, I usually have enough stuff in my house to last us about a month, and I choose from there. We usually discuss the next day's dinner over dinner each night. I also decide then what my son and I will have lunch the following day, and check with my husband to see if he wants leftovers, a sandwich, or something else. I hate waiting until the last minute to decide what to cook.

I spend about $400 a month on groceries for a family of 4, but if you look in the pantry and the 2 refrigerators, and the deep freeze you will see that I could probably not shop for a few weeks and not run out of things to cook. It was more, but my soon to be 8 month old is not eating baby food anymore. She eats what we eat.

Hi there, what's been up to there lately? Well, actually it is not my job anymore of budgeting the meals and all that in the house, as it's my mom's assigned job to her for the whole family. But i am the bread winner of the family so i am giving the money money for budget and other stuffs in the house. My mom really knows how to budget and she really plans the meals within a week and so she really have a good strategy. Have a nice day ahead and happy posting and happy earning here in Mylot. Godspeed, Kiko

The is such a great thing to do and you must save so much. I do it off and on and I find if I plan ahead - my life is easier and it costs so much less.

This is one area, I wish I had more discipline in. I normally wait until the last minute. Once I planned meals for two weeks at a time (that's 10 main meals I plan for). I stay at home as well and for lunch we have leftovers and my husband usually takes the same thing for lunch also. That two weeks I had meals planned, was the best two weeks ever. I wasn't pulling my hair out trying to figure out what to have. And sometimes I have to run to the store for one or two ingredients, that's really annoying. And more expensive. The grocery store is only about 5 or 6 blocks away, but you have to load up the kids, who are getting cranky because they're hungry. Life is better when you have a plan that can be flexible. I just have a hard time sitting down and doing it!

i never plan in advance,and i never count the bills i spend on food. but now,i know i should do it from now on,thanks for sharing.

Hi Magnet, That is very good. How do you manage to spend $150/month for a family of four for food? We are only family of 3 but we spend around $200/month for food. What is your secret?