How to Make Meal Planning Easier

Meal planning is something that everyone plans to do. We'd all love to sit down once a week with our grocery list, coupons, weekly ads, and an eye on our pantry to decide what the fam will eat for dinner. But many times that gets overwhelming. Since it's just my husband and myself, we try to stick to a $60 a week cash budget. Here are some things that make meal planning easier for me:

1. Keep the ads in check.
Just because it's on sale, doesn't mean you need it. If you already have enough shampoo, don't go out and buy another just to increase your stockpile when you can put that money (even if it's just a dollar) toward something else.

2. Know what's in your pantry.
It's the one of the worst things to be putting away your groceries only to discover something that you already have. Make sure you check your list that you've made so that you don't buy unnecessary duplicates.

3. Purge your cookbook.

I always sit down with my cookbook to decide what to make for the week. That being said, I just went through it and did a complete overhaul of the recipes. There were recipes in there that I'd never tried and those that I had tried, but we hadn't liked. So I kept only the recipes that I knew I would use and went from 76 recipes to 48. I paper clipped the recipes to card stock and slid them into a sheet protector. This way I can just pull out the sheet and take the recipe I need instead of having my cookbook taking up precious countertop space.

4. Let other people do the work for you.
Okay, this one sounds lazy but it really does help. For those people who don't have time to be Extreme Couponers and scour all the stores for the best deals, know that there are people out there who have already done that for you. I follow blogs like Money Saving Mom,
The Peaceful Mom, and savings expert Sami Cone for the latest deals and coupons.

Those are my tips to help the meal planning process go along smoothly.