Thrifty Meal Planning Made Easy

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Frugal meal planning can be a great way to save some money. Once you know where to start, the rest is pretty straightforward.

There are some key differences between regular meal planning and frugal meal planning. The instructions below are designed to help you to develop a weekly (or fortnightly) meal plan for your evening meal suited to the requirements of your family.

You can save money and time by making a menu - and you will spend less on junk foods. You are also less likely to throw bad food away as each food item you obtain already has a use when you buy it.

When planning a menu you should take into account the needs of your family. Are there growing kids or teenagers in the house? Any pregnant, breastfeeding, elderly or ailing family members? Anyone with food allergies or intolerances? What are the activity levels of the various family members? Is anyone underweight or overweight? In short, what are the special nutritional needs of your family? These different needs will control the kinds and quantities of food incorporated in your meal plan.

Next, you want to compose a list of an assortment of meals that you can incorporate in your meal plan. jot down down the meals that the various family members enjoy. If the meals themselves aren’t especially wholesome, try thinking of healthier alternatives. Also, try to make certain that each meal includes the suitable amounts of assorted kinds of foods. Something like half of your plate ought to consist of vegetables - potatoes and maize are not considered vegetables in this case so go easy on the fries. The other half should be separated equally between carbohydrates and protein.

Try to include about 5 assorted colors in each meal and you can be certain that your meals will be better also. By color I do not mean Sunset Yellow and Brilliant Blue. Try to use foods that are naturally different colors, like carrots, broccoli, beetroot and the like. Also incorporate diverse textures of food in the meal – soft, crunchy, smooth and coarse.

Now schedule different meals for each day. Try to plan your meals around your schedule so that you plan labor intensive meals for afternoons when you in reality have time to give over to preparing food. Making extra to freeze is also good for those days. Try to stay open with your meal plan and fine-tune it based on to the specials available each week, and record of what produce is in season as these will be less expense and tastier than out of season foods.

Once you have your strategy for the week you can then compile a shopping list of all the things you will want. Also confirm what you already contain in your pantry so that you don’t acquire twice over.

It is a bit of a misnomer to talk on the subject of thrifty meal planning, as meal planning is already a careful endeavor. Even though it takes a small piece of energy to get things started, try getting the family occupied in the process. They will also realize that just a modest careful meal planning will save you time and money.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Jane Frugal is co-author of Frugal-Living-Made-Fun.com, a site all about how to save money AND enjoy life. If you enjoyed this article, you'll probably enjoy the tips and ideas at .

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