One of the best ways to budget (and just reduce A TON of stress in general) is to plan out your meals. When you are living on one income, it is more important than ever to not just save as much as possible, but to reduce the stress and frustration when it comes to food.

Over the years, we’ve done variations of the meal plan I’m going to share with you. We’ve done weekly and bi-weekly plans. We’ve had set foods for different days of the week. But NOTHING has worked…until now.

What has changed? Well, we allow one day a week to eat out. This day each week can change, but it gives Squatch the knowledge that he can get the Culvers, Dominos, McDonalds, etc. that he wants. I would much prefer to each at home, because when we go out as a family of 4, it costs at least $40 at any “fast food” restaurant we visit. (Yes, I put “fast food” in quotations, because it is ANYTHING but fast)

It’s not just the money savings we get from eating at home. Other than McDonalds and Dominos, if we want to eat out, we have to drive to the next big town. It takes 20 minutes to get to Culvers, Applebees, Arbys, Little Caesars, then there’s usually a wait to order and get the food (not Applebees/Caesars, because I always order those ahead), it is usually close to 20 minutes. And you can’t forget the 20 minute drive home. So…it takes AN HOUR to get “fast food” for dinner. Let’s not forget the wear and tear on the vehicle, gas, losing that time together (if just one of us runs out to grab the food)…I think you catch my drift.

But in January, I put my foot down and said “We’re coming up with a meal plan that we can stick with. It doesn’t need to be deciding on specific meals ahead of time for each day, but let’s just come up with a category or type of meat to eat.” Well, we’re 1.5 months into 2025, and what we came up with has been successful thus far. What is our plan?

That’s it. It’s simple. We can remember what is coming up. And it’s allowing us to use what we’ve had stored in the basement and freezer.

Roasts can either be pot roasts, roast chicken, or something we toss in the crockpot (pulled pork was amazing a few weeks ago) before we head to Mass in the morning. Pasta has been (until last week when we used up the last of the Italian Sausage) ground Italian Sausage mixed with some kind of pasta and sauce OR MexiMac (taco meat mixed into Mac & Cheese). Tuesday night Chicken has turned out to be our “eat out” night; usually grabbing Culver’s after we pick up Mr Man from his Catechism. Soup/Casserole is pretty self-explanatory, although it seems to be more of a “Must-Go” leftover night for us. Sometimes we’ll just do plain burger patties, sometimes they’ll be on some type of roll/bun. Fish & Chips occasionally ends up as chicken tenders & fries. And pizza night…let’s face it…NO ONE messes with pizza night.

So…that’s it. I know I’m not the only person out there who is into meal planning. I know folks who will come up with separate meals for each day of the week or month (however long they meal plan for), and I’ve heard of other folks who do something similar to what we’ve got – they just have a type of meat or dish they want to have that evening.

What I will say, is that meal planning is NOT new to me. Growing up, we had the same things every night of the week. Sunday was always a chicken, ham, or beef roast. Then we had mac & cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and pizza through the weeknights. Saturdays…I don’t recall what we would do on Saturday nights. It may have been leftovers or some kind of meat for my dad.

Knowing what we’re eating has taken a decision off my plate. It has helped us eat through our stores (and I’ve seen that I’m not as deep in my pantry as I thought I was). And it meant that I didn’t have to do “surprise” shopping trips (other than for hamburger buns or a side that we needed for whatever meal we were having). As it is, I prefer to do one big shop each month, doing a Walmart pickup. If I need meat, I’ll run to the local meat store and grab what we need (ground beef is NOT one of those things, thanks to having a cousin who raises cattle).

Yes, we ate through A LOT of what I had stored. Yes, it is ensuring we are rotating through what I’ve bought and stored. Squatch is also getting used to eating at home, and seeing how simple it is to cook with what we have. It’s also increased our savings because we’re not throwing SO. MUCH. MONEY. AWAY. to the “fast food” spots.

Can we do better? ABSOLUTELY! And I know we will do better going forward. This was just the beginning of a new era for us. And I cannot wait to see where we go!