How to Create Budget Meal Plans

This is what works for me in a big way, and I would recommend it to anyone:

I sit down with the supermarket ad that comes out in Wednesday's paper, and since I don't go shopping until Saturday, I have plenty of time to create my budget meal plan for the coming week.

What I eat depends on what is on sale!!! Fortunately each department has sales each week, so you can come up with well-balanced meals. These "loss leaders" are aimed to bring you into the store to hopefully sell you items at regular prices to make up for the difference. But you can be more selective than that.

For your main dishes, there are choices from meat, fish, and poultry; and if it is a cut of meat that needs extra cooking to be tender, you can fix a slow cooker recipe with added vegetables.

My grocery store has certain "buy one get one free" specials each week, and this "added bonus" enables you to have back-up items for future weeks.

If it is Hamburger Helper or Chicken Helper, you can stretch your meal by making many extra servings.

Pasta and spaghetti sauces are often on sale and give you low cost meals with many servings.

I always find plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit on sale depending on what is in season, so those are the ones I eat that week. The same goes for canned goods where you can buy extras for later meals. You save money buying the store brand, which is usually the same product.

Dairy products: You don't have to have a certain cheese or a certain brand to make recipes - buy what is on special. Yogurt, cottage cheese, butter, etc. usually have some brand on sale each week.

Cereals: Most times the store brands are much cheaper, and you get a larger quantity for the money.

Bread: With the cost of wheat having gone up, bread products are more expensive. See what has an especially good sale and buy an extra loaf to put in the freezer for future use.

Paper goods: The same is true: buy the paper towels, napkins, paper plates, storage bags, detergents, and such that are featured, and if you have a certain favorite brand, wait until it goes on sale.

Once you have made up your week's meal plan, the "bonus" is that you can put it into a notebook, and since most markets tend to have many of the same items on sale every 4-6 weeks, you can pull out a prior meal plan and use it again when that happens!!

I usually save between $10 and $20 a week doing the above, and since I am alone, I end up paying only $30 to $40 when I shop, so that is quite a large percentage of savings, don't you agree?

Do you have additional tips? If so, please let me know.