I plan our meals a week at a time (dinners). Breakfast menu stays the same every week... Mon: oatmeal (each breakfast includes milk & toast) Tues: grits & eggs Wed: cream of wheat Thurs: oatmeal Fri: eggs & grits Sat: pancakes or waffles (sometimes turkey ham, too) Sun: homemade granola or cold cereal Lunches are leftovers (L/O) or something simple to fix (mac & cheese, ramen noodles, grilled cheese, etc.). By planning the dinners at least a week ahead, I know I have those ingredients on hand. So when I make the weekly trip for milk, eggs, etc. I usually only have a couple items to pick up. We do keep a lot of stock items on hand. We found that we constantly bought the same things. So I made up a list of items by section in the store (e.g. canned veggies, frozen foods, baking items) and ran off a few on a copy machine. After I make my weekly dinner menu, I mark what I need to buy. It seems ridiculous to just buy one of something that we use often, so I usually buy enough for several more of that dish. When I make up my weekly menu, I consult the supermarket flyers for produce & meat sales so I can take advantage of them. I also check my freezer inventories to see what I need to be using up (we have a separate upright freezer as well as the one on top of the frig). There are times when we have lots of L/O. DH takes whatever we had for supper as a lunch the next day for work. Frequently we have enough for all of us to have the same thing with the addition of carrot sticks, yogurt, extra bread, etc. I also do some freezing ahead (tripling or quadrupling things that freeze well). I must put them on my freezer inventory or they are forgotten (they are so quiet in there!). This has worked great for us.
