How 15 minutes over the weekends saves us $1000 every month

The one lifestyle change that saves us $1000 every month

It was almost 5 pm. Once again, I found myself standing in front of my fridge, wondering what to cook for dinner? After a long day at work, I was really hungry by that time. Kids were all over the place, and I was tired. ‘Should we just order take-away?’, I thought to myself.

Another scenario: driving back home from work, I remembered we were out of adrak (ginger; an absolute must for our evening chai). I stopped at the Indian grocery store, close to home, to quickly pick it up. As I picked some ginger, I saw dosa batter from the corner of my eye and thought, ‘that would be good to have too’ – so I picked it up. As I made my way to the counter, I also stocked on Uncle Chips and paneer.

Now, what was common in the above two situations? In both scenarios, our family meals—and as a result, our grocery lists—were not planned in advance. As such, additional expenses on food, which may not have seemed much at the time, quickly added up—a lot more than you’d think, creating a domino effect on our budget!

It’s hard to believe that food can have such an impact on your household budget. So, I am going to show you exactly what our food expenses were:

Our food expenses before:

$320: With grocery stores just two minutes away from our place, we did 3-4 grocery runs each week, spending about $80-90 each time. This was because without planning meals in advance for the week or without a list in your hand, you are likely to forget items and end up having to return later. Multiple visits meant picking up things which would be ‘good to have just in case’ or impulse buys. Please note that I have not even included our Costco grocery bill here.

$180: we ate out or ordered take away (for our family of 4) at least thrice a week. This would be at least $60 each time (most conservative estimate) in a place like Canberra.
$40: I spent about $12 – $15 to buy lunch on some days + occasional coffee (I am not much of a coffee drinker)
$40: Husband also bought lunch + coffee some days.

This adds to $580 per week, i.e., $2320 per month!

The 15-minute habit that saves us $1000 every month!

I knew we had to make a change without compromising on the nutrition, health and joy associated with eating yummy food.

That’s where MEAL PLANNING came in. It was life changing. It was amazing to see how spending 15 dedicated minutes over the weekend could make all the difference and save us about $1000 every month! And honestly, knowing what to cook in advance and having the right ingredients ready to go for it (because you did groceries on the weekend!) is half the battle won!

Every Friday evening, once everyone is home and rested, I ask the family to let me know one dish of choice each to put on our menu planner they would like to eat during the week.

Of course, it has to be a practical choice, that does not leave us cooking for hours on a weeknight.

We pop our meal planner on the fridge so everyone knows what’s going to be for dinner on that particular night.

There are two ways you could plan meals: 1) You pick a category for each day of the week (see below pic) – such as Dal for Mondays, Paneer for Tuesdays and so on. That way you just need to decide which dal to make come Monday and so on. 2) You choose exactly what you would like. I personally prefer the first option as it literally takes the thinking out of the meal planning process every week and we just need to decide within that category.

On Monday, we cook any daal dish. It could be *toor dal* (split pea lentils)*, malka dal* (red split lentils)*, panchmel dal* (combination of 5 separate lentils) or even *sambhar*. On Tuesdays its easy Italian – so could be any pasta (tomato or pesto base, etc) or pizza. I prefer this first option more, compared to the second one below, as it takes the thinking out of the process.

This one is a bit more specific. We only use this meal planning technique if I have very specific groceries left over which I want to finish quickly.

Our food expenses after starting meal planning:

$200: With meals for the week planned in advance, and full grocery list in hand, we now go for groceries just once a week.
We also save money buying in bulk from Costco (for items like paper towels, potatoes, onions, zucchini, spinach, nuts, lentils and yogurt)
$80: We still love to eat out once a week as a family and spend great time together; but not because we are ‘hangry’ or not sure what to cook come 5 pm.
$20: I still like to buy lunch at work once or twice and my decaf drink. But honestly, with our meals planned in advance and left-over dinners, we really don’t need to – it’s a breeze.
$30: Same for husband. Instances of wanting to buy lunches have reduced heaps!

Just setting aside 15 minutes diligently and regularly makes all the difference, and you can save $1000 every month!

We slashed our weekly food bill to $340, and monthly expenses to $1320!

Advantages of meal planning:

Nutrition and health – this is the biggest benefit for me! Knowing that the family (esp. kids) are eating nutritious, filling meals is a very satisfying feeling.
Weight loss – eating set meals, having planned them in advance, really helped me to lose some weight!
Saving money – you could use that money toward family vacations, or anything else!
After-school snacks sorted – In addition to the main meals, I use our meal planner to plan after-school healthy snacks and kids lunch box ideas too.

Surely you will find a way to put that $1000 to good use 🙂

If you have any other ideas around meal-planning, would be great to hear them. You can comment below or reach us out on Facebook.