Saving Money and Time with Menu Planning

Menu planning can be an invaluable time and money saver - two things all single parents need more of, it seems. Through assessing dietary and cupboard needs, local grocery store sales items and recipes that your family loves, you can ensure that everyone is healthier and happier without breaking the bank.

Questions to ponder:

1. What does each of your family members like to eat?

2. What would you like them to eat more of?

3. How many meals you need to plan for and who will be eating them?

4. What do you already have in stock?

5. What's on sale?

6. How often will you be shopping?

7. When will you be cooking and enjoying these meals?

What does each family member like to eat?

Kids can be the hardest to plan for, since their tastes come and go, they tend to balk at healthier stuff and pickiness goes hand in hand with toddlers and adolescents. Really think about what your kids would like to eat the most and figure out a healthy, inexpensive way to incorporate these items into your meals.

An example of this could be your teenage son's love of fast food. One night a week, you could serve hamburgers cooked on a grill and French fries baked in the oven, with a salad on the side and fruit sorbet for dessert.

Other potential meal obstacles include special diet concerns such as in the case of diabetes in your family, following religious beliefs' dietary restrictions and vegetarianism. Educate yourself on how to prepare meals in accordance with these issues and you'll have just as easy a time as with other, non-augmented diets.

What would you like them to eat more of?

I'm sure most parents would like their kids to eat more fruits and vegetables. Some smaller children especially have a hard time with heavy protein sources, like meats and poultry. Getting adequate dairy can be a source of fighting for some families, too. Plan to find ways to meet the dietary expectations without struggles during meal time and you'll have more luck using the foods you've purchased instead of them going to waste.

This can mean bargaining or even in the case of smaller children, providing consequences like no dessert without eating vegetables. Sometimes, it can be as simple as adding a dip or sauce to make foods more appealing.

How many meals do you need to plan for and who will be eating them?

If you're away from the house for most of the day, having breakfast and lunch meetings, you might not need to buy much more than breakfast and brown-bag lunch items for your kids in addition to dinner fare. If you're a stay at home mom to toddlers, you'll need three meals a day plus two snacks for each toddler and probably yourself, too.

Look into dietary requirements for each family member, based on ages, stages and activity levels - plan accordingly for your individual routines.

This is a good time to start a list. Write down each day and the meals you'll need to make. What ingredients do you need for this list? Write that down.

What do you already have in stock?

If you've planned ahead at all, you've probably got a stash of items that go with everything and are used frequently - pasta, rice, milk, spices, etc. Write down what you'll need from your list, after deducting the items you've already got sitting around. Obviously, if you've always got pasta and tomato sauce in the cupboard, you might only need ground meat, lettuce, dressing and some French bread to make a huge pasta dinner that will leave you with some leftovers, too - which can be used for lunch the next day!

What's on sale?

If you are on a strict budget, it helps to make your meal list after looking through the local stores' flyers. This way you can plan your meals entirely upon what you can afford. Either way, take a look through those pages, because knowing what is available at discount can be an asset in comparison to traveling up and down each aisle, with impulse purchases jumping out at you.

How often will you be shopping?

You've probably heard it before: never shop when you're hungry. This can lead to a cart full of impulse buys - things that look good but might add together to a whole bunch of snacks and no meals at all. Additionally, a lot of people find that shopping for most of the week at one time cuts down on unneeded spending, since they only return to the store for perishables or emergency items.

Buy everything that you'll need that will last the week. Also, look for those items you'd stock up that I've mentioned before such as starch foods and paper products that might be on sale. The time to buy is when the item is cheapest, as you don't quite need it yet. Otherwise, you might end up running out at the last moment for toilet paper and having to settle for twice the sale price, for half of the paper!

When you do return the to store, really go with a short, specific list and visit only the necessary sections. You won't be tempted to overspend, this way.

When will you be cooking and enjoying these meals?

If you can afford the time, effort and your kids don't require constant supervision or entertaining, by you, by all means, cook dinner right before dinnertime.

But like with all tasks, you'll find yourself most productive if you start cooking and don't finish until you're done for the week, instead of the daily preparation, cleaning and cooking that can cause even the most motivated single parent to turn up their nose and crave restaurant dining.

Families with very small children that are all at home and active at the same time find that cooking big batches of one staple, such as stew or pasta sauce, and freezing what is possible for later helps them save the effort and money later on down the road.

Another idea is to cook for the next day or for later on when you're kids are sleeping, such as cooking dinner when your child is taking an afternoon nap.

Meal planning doesn't have to be boring or bland. It just means planning further than a few hours ahead and maybe saving yourself sometime and money. Couldn't we all use some more time and money?