Meal Planning with Allrecipes.com

One of the best ways to save money is by making sure that you put together weekly meal plans. But it's so easy to get caught up with life to not have the time to be able to do just that.  Sometimes we need the additional help to be able to not only do the work but come up with the ideas.  I can't tell you how many times I sat down to actually plan out my meals and I just couldn't think about what to cook.  We all go through that and so it is helpful to have different tools to assist us during those times.  One new tool that Allrecipes.com came up with is a meal planner. The meal planner allows you to pick and choose the recipes you want and then puts together a shopping list for you.  And with their incredible and extensive library of recipes it is so easy to be able to quickly put together even more then a weeks worth of meal plans.  I personally love to search for recipes using their ingredients search feature, especially when I am looking for inspiration so that I can make sure that I am properly utilizing all of the fresh ingredients that I buy.  Because there is nothing more wasteful then buying something for one meal and then allowing the rest of it go to waste because you didn't know what else to do with it.  Once you have select the your meals Allrecipes then puts together the grocery list you would need for those recipes and then you are done.  And the best thing about it is it isn't expensive, it is a feature that is only offered through their paid membership but their memberships start off at just $4 a month.  And right now they are offering special introductory rates at only $1 a month.  It is a great option to have, especially when you are struggling finding the time to put together menus and shopping lists.

Now the key to always remember about working with a scheduled weekly meal plan is that not everything works out perfectly.  I have had very few weeks where we have followed my meal plans 100% but it is important to not beat yourself up about it and just give up.  By creating a meal plan not only will you find that you significantly cut your spending and your waste but you will find that meal time is a little less stressful because you don't have to go through that struggle at the end of the day trying to figure out what on earth you are going to make.  Find the 20 minutes to sit yourself down once a week before you do your shopping and put together a plan, it doesn't even have to be an actual daily schedule, it could be as simple as you come up with 5 meal ideas and cater your shopping and cooking around those certain ingredients.  It isn't so much as making sure that you adhere to a strict schedule as is is making sure that you think ahead a time about your meal ideas so that you can make your life easier.