How I Make our Monthly Menu/Grocery Lists
Our November 2014 Monthly Menu in iCloud
At the end of every month, I make out a menu for the following month. After making out this menu, I make our grocery list for each week in that month. In this post I am going to go through the steps I take to complete this process.
Step 1
On my calendar (I use a printed calendar at first and transfer to a shared iCloud calendar later), I list out everything we have going on for the month I am planning for. Some things always happen. For instance, we always plan to eat out Friday and Saturday. Every Sunday during The Walking Dead we alternate dinner at our house and a friend's house, so I note that. Whenever I have a hair appointment, we eat out. Also we look ahead at movies and get an idea if we plan to attend any. Basically, anything that may affect our dinner plans, I write down.
Step 2
Next, I decide what we are going to cook or if we are going to eat out each day. In another post, I will discuss this further, but we use our Food Saver regularly. So every week we try and eat one thing from the freezer and add one thing to the freezer. Some weeks or months we opt to eat out of the freezer more if we are trying to save money or our freezer is getting getting full.
Step 3
Once I know what we are going to eat each day, I make a list of everything needed. I include things on the list even if I think I have it in the cabinets. This way I can confirm I have it or that I have enough of it.
Step 4
Now I go through our cabinets and refrigerator/freezer to confirm what we already have stocked. I mark things off the list if it is not needed.
Step 5
At this point, I estimate which days I plan to buy groceries. Then I go through my list and note which grocery day I am buying everything. Anything I can buy week one, I buy. We stock up on meats and can products at Costco, so that we have to spend as little as possible at our weekly grocery visits.
Step 6
Now I make a grocery list for each week. This includes lunches, breakfast, and snacks. I date each one and hang it on the fridge.
Step 7
Once complete, I enter the meal plans on our shared calendar so that we can access it at any time. It also helps us to remember to remove frozen products from the fridge. Hopefully this will help you in making your monthly meal plans/grocery list.
