{"id":12752,"date":"2025-09-12T08:38:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T12:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/?p=12752"},"modified":"2025-09-12T08:38:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T12:38:05","slug":"meal-planning-to-save-at-the-grocery-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/12\/meal-planning-to-save-at-the-grocery-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Meal Planning to Save $$ at the Grocery Store"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"MealThe amount of food that goes into landfill sites each year is truly staggering. It\u2019s not only an environmental problem. It\u2019s also a waste of your hard-earned cash.<\/p>

A recent scientific study calculated that wasting food means that the average American family puts at least $600 or more a year in the trash.<\/p>

Now, would you take $600 cash and just throw it in the garbage can? How bout a $100 bill? I know I sure as heck wouldn\u2019t!<\/p>

Meal planning will put those dollars back in your pocket.<\/p>

Specials aren\u2019t always special!<\/h3>

The supermarkets make it easy for us to buy food that we don\u2019t use. Special offers only save you money if you actually consume the goods before the use-by date. A simple grocery list is the key to smart shopping and resisting unnecessary purchases.<\/p>

That list should be based on a realistic assessment of what you need. A meal plan will allow you to draw up a shopping list that covers those needs.<\/p>

Planning your meals<\/h3>

Meal planning doesn\u2019t mean a rigid schedule where you have pasta on Monday, meat on Tuesday and fish on Friday.\u00a0 It means knowing what your eating habits and meal preferences are so that you only buy the perishables you\u2019ll use and don\u2019t get seduced by the bargains in the store.<\/p>

You may want to keep a food diary for a few weeks to see what your meal pattern is. How much salad do you actually eat in a week or a month? Realistically, are those fresh vegetables going to be used up while they\u2019re still fresh? What types of food do you regularly consign to the garbage?<\/p>

Make a note of your staple, regular meals. Your core menu might include a favorite pasta dish, a stir-fry and a weekend barbecue.\u00a0 If you have pasta and home-made spaghetti sauce once a week, it\u2019s easy to calculate quite precisely the quantities of fresh ingredients you need. \u00a0When you know what you normally eat, you can draw up a meal plan for a specified period. That could be a week, fortnight or even a month.<\/p>

If your menu includes meals with lots of fresh ingredients, it makes sense to shop more often, for maximum freshness and minimum waste. If that\u2019s not practical, plan meals that use up perishable ingredients and can be put in the freezer. \u00a0By planning meals that use seasonally available ingredients and can be frozen you can still take advantage of bulk buys when produce is at its cheapest, without worrying about waste.<\/p>

Meal planning will save you time and effort too. Most of us waste time dithering about what to have for supper when faced with a refrigerator full of incompatible ingredients. That\u2019s when you\u2019ll be tempted to reach for the phone for a take-out \u2013 not the most economical option. Smart planning means there\u2019s always something good and fresh to eat.<\/p>

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The time you put into meal planning will pay you dividends. With a bit of practice it becomes second nature. You\u2019ll know intuitively whether you need six eggs or a dozen. Meal planning means a smart shopping list, which also means you won\u2019t find out halfway through a meal that you\u2019re missing the vital ingredient.<\/p>

Planning your meals also means you may never have to deal with those vegetables that you meant to use but that are actually rotting in your refrigerator.\u00a0 With the gains of fresher food, less daily hassle and extra money in your pocket, meal planning is something we should all be thinking of.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The amount of food that goes into landfill sites each year is truly staggering. It\u2019s not only an environmental problem. It\u2019s also a waste of your hard-earned cash. A recent scientific study calculated that wasting food means that the average American family puts at least $600 or more a year in the trash. Now, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-and-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valuecare.wpgamma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}