Zero Cost Menu Planning

To save yourself the dreaded chore of deciding what to have for dinner, you can subscribe to a menu planning service with a small monthly fee. But why pay for something that is available for free online? Several websites offer free weekly or monthly menu plans that list meal ideas for each day. Menu calendars can add variety and budget-friendly meals to your food repertoire. So whether you follow the plans precisely or prefer to tweak and improvise, these free meal planning resources can help in your quest to save money on food.

Free Monthly Menus (One Meal Idea Per Day)

Woman's Day Magazine
Included in each month's menu is a wide variety of dinner ideas. Each day's menu includes simple instructions for that day's dinner right in the calendar square. This all-in-one format makes the menu plan quick and easy to follow.

Furthermore, planned leftover meals occur each week; you cook twice the needed amount of meat or poultry and use it again in a different meal two days later. So, for example, the chicken you grill on Sunday becomes your pre-cooked main ingredient for curried chicken salad on Tuesday.

Family Fun Magazine
This calendar contains links for three recipes that comprise each day's meal. Each recipe is designed to be quick and family friendly, while striving for a range of different cuisines that feature Asian, Tex-Mex, and Italian influences. Slow cooker nights and 30-minute meals occur two to four times each month, while Mondays are either leftovers or "Easy Monday" meals.

Free One-Week Menus

Hillbilly Housewife
Extremely frugal home-style cooking is the theme here. At this site you can find a week of menus with food costs of around $45 or another week for $70 that feeds 4 to 6 people. These menus are for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She includes recipes for each menu item on her website as well. You can read Jacqueline Parks' review of one of Hillbilly Housewife's menu plans here.

Money Saving Mom
The author of this deal seeker blog shares her weekly menu plan as a list on most Mondays. Money Saving Mom gives her plan for 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 7 dinners, usually based upon what she has purchased recently on sale and with coupons. Some of the menu items include links to the recipes she frequently uses, like "Pigs in a Blanket."

Local Grocery Circulars
Since many people are opting to eat at home more often, a number of local grocery stores and chains have started including weekly budget-friendly menus in their circulars. These menus are available in the online and print versions of the ads. Here is an example of a plan from a grocery chain in the Midwest, Hy-Vee.

In short, whether you are looking for monthly or weekly menu plans, there are several free websites that will gladly help you out of your dinner time dilemma. And how about you? Do you have any free web-based resources that you have used for menu planning and would recommend? You are invited to add your tips in the comment section below.