Just kind of a side note here to go along with your menu design; this idea will save you time and possibly even more money.
After you’ve done your grocery shopping, look at your menu and see which meals can be made ahead of time and frozen. Then when it comes time for that meal all you have to do is thaw it out and heat it up. This works great if you have kids that play sports or other activities and you need something quick for dinner. Now you have something quick without having to resort to fast food.
Meals that work well for this include:
Hamburgers
Spaghetti
Lasagna
Pepper Steak
Baked, broiled, or grilled chicken breasts
Chili
Gumbo
Ground beef cooked ahead of time for tacos
Meatloaf
Baked ham
Deep-fried turkey
Oven-roasted turkey or chicken
This is just a very small list of main courses that can be cooked ahead of time. I usually pick either Saturday or Sunday and spend two to three hours cooking and I have plenty of ready-made main courses that can be thawed quickly in the microwave and dinner is served!
I hope you have found the information in this article helpful. Remember, it's a little bit of work at first and getting used to the willpower to refuse impulse buying takes a little while, but keep at it and you'll have plenty of rewards to look forward to enjoying. Bon Apetit!