Weekly Menu Planner

If you've ever tried to be the weekly menu planner at your house, you know it can save money to have a plan and have a shopping list to keep your grocery bill to a minimum. This lens was developed with that in mind. As an online weekly menu planner, I can give you tips on how to make this chore a little less cumbersome.

1. Know what food you already have in your cupboards and in your freezer that you can use for meals.

2. Take a piece of paper and write Day 1 through Day 7 down the left side of the paper. Come up with main menu ideas for each day. Just think of dinner for now.

3. Make sure that you cover each food group for each day. If there are food groups missing, add something easy to fix that would compliment the main dish.

4. Fold another sheet of paper into fourths and leave it folded like a book. Divide the paper into sections, like frozen foods, produce, canned and dry foods, refrigerated foods.

5. Make the shopping list by going through each menu item and listing the ingredients in the right section of the shopping list paper. This will make shopping easier if your list is organized like the store.

6. Then add lunch and breakfast and snack items. Don't forget milk, bread, cereal, and check the pantry for anything you may be out of.

Of course, if you'd like a free weekly menu planner service, there are some available online.