Meal planning is an important aspect of preparing frugal meals. By working out a game plan ahead of time, you can streamline what you buy and avoid the take-out trap. So today, Super Coupon Girl and Pocket Full of Posies have teamed up to give away a meal planning system to one reader!
Pocket Full of Posies offer a unique pocket meal planning system. The purpose of the system is to combine your week’s menu with a shopping list, creating a plan for you with the goal of reducing your workload. You are provided with a stack of cards with ingredient lists and recipes, which fit into a magnetized pocket holder that you place on your fridge. Pocket Full of Posies sent me one of their planners to try out so that I could share my thoughts on the system.
I thought this handmade system was very cute! The basic idea is that you choose one ingredient list, then pull the corresponding 5 recipe cards that go with it. You then take the ingredient list to the store and buy all of the items you will need to make five meals – two days a week are left open to utilize leftovers or eat out. You put each ingredient list and matching recipe cards in one of the meal planner pockets; the planner fits a total of 4 weeks worth of recipes. The ingredients needed are also listed on the back of each recipe card, so if you prefer to customize the meal plan, you can refer to the individual cards for your shopping list.
I’ve tried various different approaches to menu planning over the years, so I was curious to see how this would compare to my current system. Since my household is just myself and Jai, I’ve found that our meal plans need to be very flexible: I’ve tried writing out detailed plans for each day of the week, but inevitably I find it needs to change as the week goes along because we end up with more leftovers than I anticipate, or a surplus of a certain ingredient. Also, since our schedules are so hectic, it makes it hard to anticipate what will work the best on any given night; a big pot roast on Thursday may sound like a great plan on Sunday night, but if I work late it may end up being more of a Quesadilla night. So now what I do is write up a big list of all possible meals that could be made with the ingredients I have on hand, separated by category – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then I can decide on the day what will be most practical, while still having a detailed plan to rely on.
The recipes in the Pocket Full of Posies Monthly Pocket Package 1 Meal Planner certainly look delicious and simple to prepare! I like that you can pick which recipe you want out of that week’s pocket – somewhat similar to how I pick and choose whichever meal works the best off my list – although obviously since the menu is pre-determined that does eliminate some flexibility. The downside to this type of system is that it would be more frugal to go through your weekly grocery ads and prepare a menu based on what is on sale, rather than using a pre-made list. However, for those who may be new to meal planning, something like this could be a great way to get started. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, so this is one way you could reduce the workload and get into the rhythm of menu preparation. And if you’ve never made a meal plan before, then you will save money just by starting, since meal planning reduces waste, helps you streamline what you buy, frees up time, and reduces the temptation to call for a pizza when your family asks, “What’s for dinner?”. The most important thing is just starting, however you choose to do so – as you establish a routine and get the hang of meal planning, you will be able to make your menu more cost effective as you go along.
Reader Discount:
Pocket Full of Posies would like to offer my readers 10% off with discount code “SUPER10”.
Giveaway time!
One Super Coupon Girl reader will win a Pocket Full of Posies Monthly Pocket Package 1 with their choice of pocket design! Here’s how to enter:
1. For your first entry, just leave a comment on this post telling me how you plan your meals!
Want extra entries? Do any of the following, and leave a separate comment for each one:
2. Click here to visit the Pocket Full of Posies blog, and follow them on Google Friend Connect. Then come back here and leave a comment below letting me know that you did!
3. Link to this post on your blog, then come back here and leave me the link!
4. Write about this on Twitter, then come back and leave me the link to your tweet! One Twitter entry per person. You can use the button at the bottom of this post to tweet with one click!
5. Post my button on your website – just copy and paste the following code, and let me know where you put it:
Rules, regulations, and other important stuff: Giveaway ends on November 2nd at 11:59 PM, PST. Winner will be chosen the following day via Random.org. Winner has 48 hours to respond to my notification email, or a new winner will be chosen in their place. Giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents.
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I love to take our freezer inventory and then plan meals around what I have on hand.
I have a list of meals I know how to make 🙂 Then, I look at the weekly deals at my local grocery store and plan my meals around what’s on sale and my list.
Very nice post!
I’ve tried several ways to plan my meals, but can never seem to find a good system! I would love to try this one!
I follow pocket of posies
I look to see what I have and then plan my meals around that. countrycookinmama@gmail.com
I try to pick 2 or 3 items out of the freezor each Sunday night and plan a crock pot meal around each item. After that we eat leftovers for the last 2 weekdays. Working 2 jobs and being a full time mom I don’t have a lot of time to plan or cook so my crockpot is my best friend.
I use sales and coupons to see what items I can buy to either use or freeze, or build my pantry. I then plan meals based off of what I have on hand, or just bought.
We usually look at what we have in our pantry, and cook from those ingredients. We do things like breakfast for dinner, spaghetti, etc., nothing very ambitious!
Thanks for the info
I kinda sort of wait until 4 or 5, open up the fridge, panic and start looking around for what to make. followed by quite a few trips to the store with list, items I forgot the first time i went, and an additional trip after that! 🙂
We don’t plan our meals. We decide that day depending on what we have available. It’s usually never that good either.
tdlsfm(at)gmail(dot)com
just go by what is on sale at store
I’m embarassed to say I don’t plan our meals very well at all. I need this! 🙂
Laura
Planning? I’m supposed to do that!? Maybe this will help!
I use a white board and write out all the options we currently have!
I am really bad about planning meals. I would love this to help me out!
I usually plan out a week or so on the calendar according to what I have on hand and what’s on sale. Then the whole family knows what’s for dinner. Thanks for the giveaway!
meal plan?? whats that?? JK! but seriously, i dont meal plan. its hard when u never know if your hubby will be home for dinner or not. or if he is deployed for several months and its just me and the baby.
i have been using once a month moms freezer planning site. its great!
For the last two months I have done once a month cooking and love it so far.
I try to plan a week at a time.
I follow pocket full of posies on google connect. 🙂
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i plan my meals day by day- when i come home from work i see whats in the frig.
tcogbill at live dot com
i follow pocket full of posies gfc
tcogbill at live dot com
I usually just make up a dinner menu but really need this!
I really need to get more organized…I plan for about 2 days in advance so I”m going to the grocery store several times a week.
All of my meal planning is really done in the grocery store. I try to make sure I don’t buy anything extra that won’t fit with the ingredients I already have… so as to keep the budget as tight as possible. However, that is really the only system I have in place so far and I could use some additional help for sure! Especially to add variety to what my family eats…
To plan my meals, I look through my stash of recipes and jot down some ideas for the week.
carriemschmidt at gmail dot com
I follow Pocket’s blog via GFC
carriemschmidt at gmail dot com
planning the night before
amy16323(at)gmail(dot)com
I usually plan the night before or the same day -thanks for the giveaway
follow Pocket Full of Posies blog as jelaws5
I plan my meals on a two-week schedule (sometimes!) and try to alternate meals.
We try to plan our meals but sometimes it is grab something out of the cabinet – which leaves the whole family hurried and stressed. The program sounds great!
Depends on the week, but it’s not my strong suit. I tend to plan as I go. This sounds interesting, thanks for offering it.
I would love to take an inventory of the refregerator to see what I have to get rid of suelee1998 @ gmail.com
i plan the meals a week at the time
Right now, we try to plan our meals 3 days in advance by writing them on the calendar. Not the best system, really, but we eat out less.
I see what we have and whats on sale and try to plan a budget friendly plan around that thanks for the chance to win eaglesforjack@gmail.com
I follow pocket full of posies blog on gfc,
I try to meal plan weekly
freebiegoddess03@aol.com
We only get paid once a month, so in order to make sure my family eats good and the food last for a month, I have to plan meals, ahead. I do sometimes change my menu around, but if I’m careful, we always have enough food to last the month.
As far as the planning out goes, I know how much of what I need, all the extra’s like ketchup, mayo, pickles, cheese, it can all add up very quickly.
Tchoplin2009@gmail.com
I don’t plan my meals.
mary@cire.com
GFC follower -Mary J. of Pocket Full of Posies
mary@cire.com
i just buy things we like and fix whatever we have to fix @the moment.
gff
masonsgranny59