I am excited to announce one of our family resolutions for this year. We are working off Monthly Meal Plans this year!! Yes, monthly!
Last year, we did weekly meal plans. Well we did weekly meal plans most of the time. I say most of the time because some weeks we forgot to plan. Life got busy, school work was out of control, the preschool business started, the family all got sick. You name it, life happens. When I suggested a Monthly Meal Plan late last month, I was sure my husband would declare me nuts for good. BUT … he was on board. He was on board so much he tried to find a monthly meal planner online. There were none to be found that worked for what we wanted though. So being the Excel junkie that he is, he made a calendar he could fill in a meal for each day.
Part of my accountable in doing this is posting our Monthly Meal Plan each month. Yes, this month is a tad late but I running like crazy trying to catch up on some blog posts. (I hope you noticed!)
So here it is …
| Date | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | ||
| 30 | Pancakes | Leftovers | Out | ||
| 31 | Oatmeal | Soup and Salad | Meatloaf Potatoes Veggie |
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| 1 | Sausage Muffins | Soup and Sandwich | Tasty Pork Tenderloin(p. 90) + Rice Veggie |
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| 2 | Cereal | Soup and Salad | Burgers Salad |
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| 3 | SEC Muffin | Salad and Sandwich | Leftovers | ||
| 4 | Oatmeal | Soup and Fish | Tacos | ||
| 5 | Bacon & Eggs | Out | Spaghetti Salad |
||
| 6 | Pancakes | Leftovers | Beef Chili | ||
| 7 | Oatmeal | Soup and Salad | Quesadillas | ||
| 8 | Sausage Muffins | Soup and Sandwich | Chicken/Rice Soup (p. 144) | ||
| 9 | Cereal | Soup and Salad | Honey Mustard Chicken Salad |
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| 10 | SEC Muffin | Salad and Sandwich | Leftovers | ||
| 11 | Oatmeal | Soup and Fish | Pizza Salad |
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| 12 | Bacon & Eggs | Out | Birthday – OUT!=) | ||
| 13 | Pancakes | Leftovers | Quiche | ||
| 14 | Oatmeal | Soup and Salad | Meatloaf Potatoes Salad |
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| 15 | Sausage Muffins | Soup and Sandwich | Turkey Macaroni (p. 45) | ||
| 16 | Cereal | Soup and Salad | Sloppy Joes Salad |
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| 17 | SEC Muffin | Salad and Sandwich | Leftovers | ||
| 18 | Oatmeal | Soup and Fish | Tacos | ||
| 19 | Bacon & Eggs | Out | Pork Chops Rice Veggie |
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| 20 | Pancakes | Leftovers | Cowboy Barbecue Beef (p. 124) Veggie |
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| 21 | Oatmeal | Soup and Salad | Breakfast | ||
| 22 | Sausage Muffins | Soup and Sandwich | Barbecue Salad |
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| 23 | Cereal | Soup and Salad | Panini Tomato Soup |
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| 24 | SEC Muffin | Salad and Sandwich | Leftovers | ||
| 25 | Oatmeal | Soup and Fish | Pizza Salad |
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| 26 | Bacon & Eggs | Out |
Fries |
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| 27 | Pancakes | Leftovers |
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| 28 | Oatmeal | Soup and Salad | Fajitas | ||
| 1 | Sausage Muffins | Soup and Sandwich | Chicken/Rice Cass (p. 34) | ||
| 2 | Cereal | Soup and Salad |
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| 3 | SEC Muffin | Soup and Sandwich |
|
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| 4 | Oatmeal | Soup and Salad |
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| 5 | Bacon & Eggs | Out |
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A few notes …
- Yes, breakfast and lunch repeat each week. That was for ease of planning to be honest. After we planned all the dinners, we were tired! My husband plugged in the breakfast and lunch plans on his own!
- The breakfast and lunch plans are mostly for my husband and I. The kids dig their cereal and muffins in the morning. Plus if they didn’t have mac and cheese and apples for lunch on a regular basis (their chosen combination!) there would be a revolt around here!
- The dinner plans are simple. This month we focused on using what we have from our freezer and pantry. Besides produce, we needed 3 things from the store for this week’s menu!
- I am AMAZED at how fast we can plan of month meals. AMAZED.
- Want to know a secret? We cheat. Sometimes whatever it was doesn’t happen. That is fine. We swap days around if messed up meal planning times or even don’t want what was on the menu. It all works out and we eat out way less than we were even when we limited our eating our! YAY for the budget!
If you are looking for answers on monthly meal planning, ask the questions you have! I don’t know that I have the answer for you but I will look for them!
If you want the empty Excel spreadsheet formatted like a calendar, let me know and I will send it you via email. Just send me an email at simplybudgeted at gmail dot com.
Have you tried monthly meal planning? How did it go? Any tips or suggestions?
So this month I have my meal plan up the first day of the month (we made it Friday night). I still don’t love this format but I can’t get a table to work right in my blog template so for now this is it.
indeed a good budget planning
I think this is a great idea. I think it's very smart to repeat breakfast & lunch every week.
I try to do weekly. It's easier for me than monthly meal planning!
Looks great, I wish I could be this oranized!
Lots of great ideas
rhondastruthers atyahoo.ca
I always use leftovers, especially at lunch. And make some dishes that call for hamburger go further by adding a can of whatever beans seem to match the dish–a pound of hamburger becomes two pounds.
bethelderton59 at gmail dot com
Yum! Chicken Rice Soup. I like to make mine from a Rotisserie Chicken with wild rice. So yummy!
Wow! I thought I was awesome for doing weekly plans! Do you freeze a lot? I'll make big batches of pancakes and freeze them since they reheat so well. Great job!
There is some great dinner ideas. I would love to map out my meals like this
It's smart to schedule leftovers and such.
I was wondering how often each month do you go grocery shopping? Just wondering if it was less or basically the same. I think that I'd like to try this so I'll be sending you an email asking about the spreadsheet.
[email protected]
(PLEASE USE THIS ADDY NOT THE GOGGLE ONE)
I love having "leftovers" for dinner because it gives me free time!
momznite_at_yahoo_daught_com
Hmmm I do weekly, but i like the thought of only having to do it once a month. It probably wouldn't take "that" much longer. I tend to do my shopping list at the same time though…I wonder if I could pull that off too
im glad to see that you too eat your left overs for lunch. I try to do the same so no food is wasted..
[email protected]
This is a great idea. I should do something like this…I throw too much food away and I'm trying to get on a better budget with groceries and food.
sarabeth1117(at)gmail(dot)com