How I stick to our grocery budget, eliminate food waste, and have a home cooked meal every night

Grocery shopping and cooking has always been trial and error for me. I like to eat healthy, but often I would go to the store and didn't know what to buy. I wandered the aisles and picked up random things, only to have them go bad in the fridge a week or two later. A lot of stuff I ended up throwing away, plus it always seemed like I never bought the right stuff to have meals for the entire week. Also, our grocery bill was pretty high for all of this stuff I was buying and throwing away.

I had an "aha" moment last year when I finally figured out how to plan meals for the entire week. I decided that I was sick of buying random things and having them go to waste not long after. I found this printable meal planning sheet online and decided to try it out:

I started planning meals for every night of the week and writing down only the ingredients I needed for those meals. When I went to the store, I only bought those ingredients and nothing more.

Trial and error ensued, and I began not only planning our nightly dinners but also breakfast and lunches too. I wrote down what I needed for everything.. and soon I was a pro at grocery shopping. Dinners became fun because we were trying new things, and every night I had something to cook! Also there was never a mystery as to what we were packing for lunch the next day. I had it all planned out.  Not only did this eliminate food waste because I used everything I bought, but with my intentional buying I found that our grocery bill went down too! We started saving money like crazy and had these great home cooked meals. It was a win-win.

If you are feeling uninspired at the grocery store or wanting to stick to a budget, I highly encourage you to print out the meal planning sheet above and give it a try! I've been doing this for over a year now and love it.