I plan, therefore I save...

Menu Planning. This has been a long time recommendation to save money at the grocery store, yet it can be quite time consuming and often frustrating when best laid plans don't quite work out. Well although I haven't quite got everything together, anytime I get my menu plans on track it has saved me time and money. Here are a few points:

• Remember to take inventory: One of my biggest past mistakes is not taking inventory of what I had in the fridge/freezer/pantry and just assuming I knew what was there. Many times I have returned home with a great menu, just to find that someone has eaten a main ingredient I thought I had on hand, or you buy something you already have (that is why I have three containers of parmesan cheese!) The key here, actually take the time to look and write it down. Use the list to help come up with your menu for the month, and stroke items off as they are incorporated into your schedule.

• Use a calendar format: Enter all your menu choices into the days of the week on a calendar. You don't have to stick withtuna casserole on Monday just because you wrote it in there (I usually don't serve my meals in the order I write them), but it helps to incorporate your plans and time constraints into your planning. Is Wednesday a busy night? - plan a quick meal for that day. More time on weekends? - plan something requiring more preparation. This will reduce the amount of tiem you will eat out as your menu options available at home don't fit in with your lifestyle. Also, in a calendar you can incorporate any dinners out so that you don't overbuy.

• Book in Non-Perishables: In my world an impromtu dinner invitation is the case more often than not. Unfortunately, this reeks havoc on my menu plan (and my budget) as I find that I tend to throw out a lot of rotten food as I do not get to my recipe in time, and often times have to rebuy ingredients. To avoid this, I always book in one completely Non-Perishable (and quick) item per week (read: frozen pizza). If an invitation arises I simply skip the pizza altogether and incorporate it into another week down the road. At first I tried just booking a tentative blank day, but I found that if we didn't have short notice dinner plans we would simply take that day to get take out or go to a restaurant, often on a credit card for a ridiculous amount.

• Keep a copy of your calendars: One of my biggest vices with menu planning is compiling the menu items. Sure, the standards are always at the top of my mind, but I always try to do at least one new recipe on a bi-weekly basis. Problem is: I find great recipes, use them once, then forget about them. Keeping your old calendars or a compiling a spreadsheet with what recipes worked will help with the planning time. On any winners, I also write the cookbook it came from to save time later.

Overall, menu planning is a great way to save time at the grocery store, decrease your stress during the week as you always know what could be for dinner and that you have what you need, and it decreases the chance that you will waste your food budget on incomplete or unneccessary food purchases.