Menu planning challenge

I’ve been meal planning on a weekly basis as long as I’ve been cooking and I’ve adjusted according to our family size and my culinary inclinations over the years. But for a while I’ve felt that my way of doing it wasn’t working anymore.

My family is growing and the cost of groceries is climbing. I also want to integrate more organic and fair trade products, and they are often more expensive. (But not always, this week I bought organic broccoli and romaine lettuce for the same price as conventional!)

So I wondered, What if I meal plan monthly instead of weekly? Will I save more time and more money?

This week I spent hours working on a new meal plan for my family. It was actually fun, there’s something about those spreadsheets! I’m happy with the result. It’s very detailed. I know how much each meal costs and what ingredients (staples or need to buy) are needed from different stores.

My new meal plan accomplishes the following things:

1. It covers 2 months, or 8 weeks

2. It has variety, but it is not pretentious. It has simple, common ingredients.

3. When I cook, I double the recipe so we eat the same meal twice in a week (I’ve always done it this way). There are no repeats of meals over the 8 weeks, unless it’s a meal we really enjoy.

3. Each month has the same meal cost.

4. It’s balanced (equal meals of beans, lentils, tofu, vegetable-based, eggs, fish, red meat and white meat).

Now the challenge: Will I manage to stay within budget during the next 8 weeks? This was something I was unable to do these last months using weekly menu planning.

I’m certain I will save time. Just this week, I was able to buy all non-perishable items needed for the month in one trip, instead of going each week. Writing down my grocery list will also be quicker, since I made a list of every ingredient for every recipe – I won’t need to thumb through my recipe book.

In 8 weeks, I will be updating to tell you whether I stayed within budget!

What about you, do you meal plan? Do you do it weekly or monthly?

…

Edited to add (Feb. 16, 2012): How do I evaluate the cost of my meals? 

I’ll use meat sauce and spaghetti as an example:

Ingredients I need:
olive oil
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
1/2 pkg mushrooms
1 lb ground beef
2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 lb ground beef
salt, pepper, sugar, dried herbs
3 pkg spaghetti

I do not count items that I consider staples. I always have them on hand no matter what: olive oil, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, seasonings.

So I ended up adding:
1 pkg mushrooms – 2.00
2 cans crushed tomatoes – 1.25 x 2 = 2.50
1 can tomato paste – 0.50
1 lb ground beef – 4.50
3 pkg spaghetti – 2.00 x 3 = 6.00

My total for this meal is 15.50$. This batch of sauce makes 3 meals, but that’s an exception to my 2 meal rule.

What about the fluctuating cost of fresh food products?

The short answer is that I don’t really worry about it. My numbers are all rounded and I pretty much know what everything costs on average. I expect slight variations and if an item becomes overly priced, I find a different option!

---