If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know I'm not the best “housewife”! I'm trying to help Rachel out while juggling homeschooling and work… it's interesting, to say the least. In a past life, though, before I had an awesome wife to help take care of the family, I did a lot of meal planning because it saved a lot of time and money – two things I didn't have much of as a single mom. In this sponsored post, I teamed up with Albertsons to tell you about their awesome Stock Up Sale and to share some of my favorite meal planning tips.
Meal Planning 101
I find the process of menu planning enjoyable. I've always loved making lists. If you don't like meal planning, try enlisting the help of your family. Someone is bound to like list making.
The girls and I worked on coming up with different meal ideas, piecing together a grocery list, and heading to Albertsons for their Stock Up and Save Sale yesterday. We love that our local Albertsons is a one stop shop for all of our ingredients. If you're beginning meal planning, there are a few tips I'd like to pass on to you to save you time (and money!). Feel free to leave your own meal planning tips in the comments!
Meal Planning Tips
1. Plan around your favorites. We have several “go to” items that we eat every month, including: tacos, spaghetti, salad, and BBQ chicken. I work those into the menu plan every chance I get.
2. Before you shop, download the Albertson's store app on your smartphone, so you can save even more money.
3. Ask the kids and your partner for help with the meal plan for the week. If you don't, you'll be making meals nobody has agreed on and that's just a recipe for disaster! Get it, recipe? ;)
4. If you're struggling for ideas, make theme nights. Wacky Wednesday: have the kids throw together a meal idea for this one!
5. Just do it. If you've got any type of anxiety about meal planning, just sit down with a pen and paper and start writing. If it's easier to start with a grocery list, do that. If it's easier to search Pinterest for a while to come up with meal ideas, start with that.
6. Make it fun: stock up on staples at your local Albertson's and enter the sweepstakes!
Right click and save to download the free grocery list!
Menu Planning Grocery List
After creating our menu plan around the items we had in our pantry and refrigerator, we added some more items to our list. Now, we don't usually put the brand names on our list, because we already know what we like, but here are a few of the items we stocked up on to take advantage of the Stock Up Sale and sweepstakes Albertsons.
Honey Nut Cheerios™
Progresso™
Nature Valley™ Granola Bars
Yoplait®
Annie’s™ Natural Mac & Cheese
Coca-Cola MiniCans
OREOs
Ritz Crackers
Win FREE GROCERIES!
Shopping at Albertsons during the Stock Up Sale means I can get all my favorite staples from General Mills, Coca-Cola, Kraft and Nabisco at a great value! I always find all of these great products at my local Albertsons – be sure to check out these great products at your local Albertsons Companies grocery stores including Safeway, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Shaw’s, Star Market, United Express, United and Carrs/Safeway.
What will you win? Well, I'm glad you asked! Albertsons is giving away groceries for a year to one lucky winner. Between 10/4-10/19, show them how you stock up your pantry and share a photo of how you’ve loaded up with your favorite items, including those below, from #StockUpSale2017.
Entry is as easy as 1-2-3:
Take a photo featuring two or more of the participating Stock Up Sale products below
Share the photo on Twitter or Instagram or at Albertsons by 10/19
Use #StockUpSale2017 in your caption and complete entry form
For official rules and details, CLICK HERE.
Here is a printable list of participating products:
P.S. Here's a Freebie to Keep the Littles Entertained While Shopping
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Albertson's.
I always like doing the stock up sales. Usually this time of year I’m running low on stuff so I usually try to stock up as much as I can until the next sale comes up. Albertson’s always has some pretty awesome stuff up sales.
Meal planning is so important. It can save a ton of time during the week. The only thing better than meal planning is getting what you need at a great price!
Awesome meal planning tips plus an awesome giveaway? You just won the internet for the day! You are my hero!
Colleen Lanin recently posted..WIN a $1000 Gift Card to Spend with Someone Who Stands By You
I love the idea of theme nights. That sounds like a lot of fun and I could definitely get creative with that! Thanks for the motivation!
We just started doing meal planning this year and wow has it changed our lives. I love being able to stock up on items also, just the older day I stocked up on lot’s of yogurt too from my store. They had a great sale on yogurt and a few other items and I couldn’t pass them up.
I need to get better at meal planning. We have a large family and I know how helpful it would be.
I will have to download the Albertson’s store app and give it a try. I am always looking for ways to save some extra cash.
Meal planning has really helped me save money and eat healthier. I will have to give the Albertson’s store app a try. It sounds easy to use.
We’ve been pretty good at meal planning lately! Having a written list definitely helps when we’re shopping. I’m loving this stock up sale!
Liz Mays recently posted..Exploring South Carolina’s Old 96 District: Where Old South Meets New South
Meal planning is one of those things that I need to do more of. I always shop on a whim and end up spending more than I know that I should.
Meal planning can be so tiresome, but I love reading blogs to get ideas on how to make it easier! Thanks for the inspiration tonight!
I am a fan of lists. It helps me stay organized. I try to plan my meals as often as I can. We definitely do have our favorites.
Tara recently posted..Peanut Butter and Jam Muffins
Thanks for the ,meal planning tips. I especially agree that stocking up on staples is a smart way to make sure you always have the non-perishables on hand that you need for recipes.
Janis @MommyBlogExpert recently posted..Rumidifier Humidifier Review + Giveaway for US and Canada Residents, Good for Families
Great tips! I love meal planning and try to plan my meals in advance as often as possible. Life is so much easier when you plan your meals in advance.
Thank you so much for these meal planning tips! I will definitely try these! :D
I am a terrible housewife as well. I just HATE to cook. I really need to start meal planning because I’m sure it would help. I think I keep hoping a chef will magically appear and take care of it all.
Meal planning lists are really interesting. It can actually turn out into an interesting family activity and result in some quality bonding as well.
Who doesn’t love free groceries right? This sounds like a great resource when it comes to meal planning. We love shopping at Albertsons!
I am soooo terrible at meal planning!! I need to get better so I don’t feel like I waste groceries!!
In university, meal planning and grocery list making seriously saved me some cash! Although it’s always so much easier to do it when you’re only trying to feed for one haha..
I’ve been meal planning for over 20 years! Honestly I just can’t function without a menu. You have some wonderful tips and meal plan similar to me. Thanks for sharing your tips.
We make sure we have a meal plan set for the week. Not that my kids are picky eaters, but there are times when I plan for a large meal only to find out that no one will be coming home for dinner. :( The sweepstakes BTW is great, I just wish we had an Albertsons near us.
I love meal planning too. Love this idea plus the giveaway is nice. I would make something like for our meal planning, thanks!