Saves Time

Planning your meals ahead of time will save you a lot of time. When you visit your grocery store, take a list with you that shows everything you need for your weekly meals. This way there will be no return visits to the grocery store for something you forgot, and you won’t waste any time deciding what you are going to have for dinner that night. Forgetting a key ingredient or having to fight in long lines at the grocery store can be very frustrating, but meal planning can completely eliminate that.

Saves Money

Who doesn’t like to save money? And if you can reduce the amount you spend on grocery bills, you can save it up for something really fun – like a special night out or a family vacation. Meal planning saves anyone a significant amount of money, since meal planning is much cheaper than eating fast food. Also, since you will be bringing a shopping list with you to the grocery store, there will be no more impulse buys and wasted food. We’ve all fallen victim to foods that we suddenly have a craving for when we are shopping only to get home and realize that we need other ingredients to turn it into a meal. And having a shopping list will make it easier for you to clip coupons, since you know what you will be purchasing each week. This means even more savings to you and your family.

Meal planning allows you to create a calendar of what you will have for dinner each night. If you create a menu one month at a time, you can ensure that you aren’t having chicken nuggets five nights a week. Have an overall calendar of meals will allow you to shop for foods when they are on sale and buy in bulk whenever possible.

Health

Planning out what you are going to cook for dinner will make it possible to ensure you are cooking a healthy meal every day of the week. While eating out is convenient in our ever busy world, eating fast food or at restaurants is not nearly as healthy as cooking it at home. This is largely due to the fact that you don’t have control over what goes in those meals. By preparing your own meals, you can choose healthy options, like baked chicken, and add any of your favorites for a side like a fresh green salad or steamed vegetables. Most boxed or frozen dinners contain a great amount of fat and sodium, but cooking the meal from scratch can eliminate them. You control the flavor and the fat. You can take steps to reduce the amount of fat by adding seasoning and spices to perk up the flavor.

Prevent Obesity

The rise of fast food chains in the world means that more people are becoming overweight and obese. Obesity can bring on many health issues, including heart or breathing problems. It is important to prevent a child from becoming overweight and teach them the importance of balanced meals. Cooking homemade healthy meals can do this. When you plan out what you are going to make, you can be certain that it will be healthy for the entire family. It allows you to have a better handle on the nutritional content of your meals. You can also tailor it to each family member’s needs. If there is someone who needs to watch their fat consumption, you can cook grill or broil instead of fry. If there is someone that is trying to get more servings of vegetables in their diet, you can help by offering two veggies for side dishes.

Spending More Time With Your Family

Because planning out your meals gives you more time during the day, you can spend it doing something that really matters. Spending time with family should be the first thing on anyone’s priority list, and being able to spend more time with them is a wonderful perk to meal planning. You can use this time to either play with your children outside, or maybe talk with your spouse about their day at work. With the time saved with meal planning, the family can enjoy a walk together after dinner, play yard games such as croquet or bocce ball, or compete in a board game night. No matter how you use the time, it is special and necessary to keep a family running. And when you kids are grown up and look back on their childhood, those will be the times they remember most fondly. Just think about all the home cooked meals that you look back on warmly. No one cooks it like mom does.

Teaching Essential Skills

By including children in the meal planning process, they can learn many skills that will carry with them into adulthood. They can help to plan the meals, and learn about the different nutrition groups. Learning how to assemble a balanced meal is a great skill to have. Measuring different ingredients in the meals teaches children about fractions. Younger kids can just play with the different kitchen utensils, which allows them to explore and learn about the huge world they have yet to explore and learn about. Spouses can get in on the fun, making it possible to bond with one another by cooking a meal for each other. Meals where each person can individually tailor food to their liking, such as making your own pizzas or a taco bar, allow a great opportunity for the whole family to cook and learn together.

Reduces Stress

Our world is hectic. We are being pulled in several different directions each day. Because we live in a fast paced world, it is important to do everything possible to reduce your stress load. We have enough stress with our every day lives without mealtime stressing us out. Planning meals can reduce your stress since you won’t have to worry about everything that goes into making a meal for your family. As long as you bring your list to the store and buy everything on the list, you will be all set. You can choose to either visit the store each week or twice a month, rather than a million times like before. The increased time you have will allow you to relax more often, and even feel great when interacting with your children. If you are enrolled in a food delivery service, having a handy list makes online shopping a breeze. Have it with you when you log in to order food and you won’t have to worry about a thing.

As you can see, there are many benefits to meal planning. From the ever crucial facts of saving money and eating healthier, to reducing stress and spending more time with your family. Meal planning only takes a little extra effort. And once you get the hang of it, it’ll become second nature and make you life so much easier. You’ll be wondering why you hadn’t started meal planning earlier. And will all the time and money you save you can spend on something that really matters – your family!

For more great meal ideas and a free menu planning report visit Menu Planning Central – Watch for a great meal planning offer after you sign up and let me – The Menu Mom – help you take care of dinner tonight!

• Plan your meals for the whole week and create your grocery-shopping list based on the ingredients needed to prepare those meals. Menu Planning Central has created a simple solution for meal planning and a grocery list creation. I love this simple online software! Their trial membership is basically FREE ($0.01), then it is about $7.00/month.

• Make your shopping list based on what you need. It will keep you focused and it will prevent impulse buying. Do not buy an item just because it is on sale, only stick to the items on your list.

• All financial gurus and hopefully your own common sense tell you- Do not go grocery shopping when you are hungry. I have done it myself before and I must tell you first hand when I am hungry and I walk in to the supermarket, I start drooling and my eyes tear up. Then I just start grabbing anything that looks good to me. These days, to curve my hunger, I have a snack before I go grocery shopping.

• Start paying attention to the “private-label” store brands. A lot of manufacturers use the same exact recipes for brand names and store brands. It is all in the ingredients. Compare those products yourself the next time you are at the supermarket.

• Why not sign up for the store’s savings card? This is probably one of my favorite ways of saving money and seeing savings right away. A few years ago, I was standing at the check out and the shopper a front of me said while paying for her groceries “Wow, today I save $40.00 dollars! I am going to put that money in my piggy bank, this way I know I saved.” I took a note to myself and started doing it too. Every time I shop, I use my store card, then, when I get home, I transfer the amount of money I saved in to my savings account. It sure does add up!

• I never liked using coupons before, but now I can’t get enough of them. This is not being cheap- this is being frugal. I remember a while ago I read an article about a woman who spends just about $10.00 on $400.00 worth of groceries. My jaw dropped, when I read it, and it took me some time to get it off the ground. She had copies of her receipts posted and all. She used a lot of store and manufactures’ coupons. Simple. I am not that good yet at saving with the coupons, but I am getting better. Coupons! Save Money, Be Happy!

• Here is an easy one for you: Do not buy anything other than groceries at the supermarket. The prices on other products such as shampoos, toothpastes, cleaning products and such are way high. Go to Target or Wal-Mart to get those.

• Try shopping at the farmer’s market for your fresh produce. Farmer’s markets have fresh local produce and sometimes organic for a lot less.

• Go grocery shopping no more than once a week.

• Stay away from prepackaged meals and frozen TV dinners. Stick to your grocery list that you create based on your planned meals.

• If you like buying in bulk then only buy your staple foods in bulk. Avoid buying perishables in bulk (what a waste of money).

• I know, I know, some of you will hate me for saying this, but have you ever considered cutting down on your meat intake? There are a lot of different ways to replace your meat as a protein source. Beans anyone? They are delicious and healthy. Your body and wallet will appreciate it.

• Avoid buying cold cereal. They are usually packed with sugar and processed carbs, some of them do not have much of nutritional value. Why not opt for whole grains such as oats, barley, quinoa, wheat, kamut, etc.?

• Buy seasonal fruits and vegetables.

• Instead of buying bottled salad dressing, why not make your own? I personally sprinkle my salads with lemon juice and add some olive oil, salt and pepper. So yummy! Or if you want, make something a little bit more elaborate.

½ cup of canola oil

½ cup of lemon juice, or vinegar, or water if you wish

add chopped onion and garlic, salt, pepper and any other herbs or spices your heart desires
let it marinate for a couple of hours and then ENJOY!

Share your money saving grocery-shopping ideas. How do you save?

You may believe that your exemplary behavior shields you from unexpected credit card fees. Sadly, that is no longer the case.

Starting next year, Bank of America will charge a small number of customers an annual fee, ranging from $29 to $99. The bank has characterized the fee as experimental. But card holders who have never carried a balance or paid late fees could be among those affected.

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Here’s how: Clean up your credit score.

Seriously, I’m not going to harp on about how stellar credit means paying less interest on loans, qualifying for lower insurance premiums, and sailing through things like landlord and employment background checks. You know that already.

Instead, I’m going to let cold hard cash do the talking.

The table below illustrates the difference between what someone with a good credit score (e.g. 720 and above using the FICO scoring system) and someone with poor credit (less than 620) pays over the course of 30 years on a $150,000 mortgage. See for yourself:

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This recession has brought to light dumb money management practices, forcing just about all of us to confront our financial foibles.
Maybe, for instance, you’re one of the ones who panicked and sold during the market bottom. Or, you believed housing prices were guaranteed to rise.

The federal government is tapping behavioral economists — experts on why we humans make the money judgments we do — to help devise regulations so that people don’t take on unaffordable mortgages and to help them understand their actual credit card fees.

But these efforts just scratch the surface. Here are four common mistakes that surfaced during this economic turmoil, and fixes that we can put in place to prevent ourselves from making the same costly error again:

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Simple math suggests it’s better to get rid of debt before saving for retirement or an emergency fund. After all, if the savings rate is 1 percent and you have credit card debt at 14 percent interest, money is better spent paying down debt quickly.

“Like everything else in life, this decision is one of balance, not of absolutes,” says Michael Rubin, president of Portsmouth, N.H.-based Total Candor, a provider of financial education.But personal finance decisions are rarely so simple, and this method may not be the right choice for everybody.

Dean Barber agrees. The host of nationally syndicated talk radio program “America’s Wealth Management Show” says there are pros and cons to each approach.

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We looked for primo goods and services, no useless junk allowed. And boy, did we find ‘em, from financial management and planning helps to entertainment and vacation freebies.

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I say yes! More and more people these days utilize this shopping strategy. I am not exception. I haggled and will continue haggling regardless of my financial situation. Even if I save just a dollar by haggling, I am satisfied. Am I cheap? No, I am just concerned about my money.

A few years ago, when everything was fine and dandy in my world, I went shopping for a bedroom set. I went to a little family-owned store and found what I liked. The owner of the store came up to me and asked how he could help. I told him straight up that I would buy the set for $700.00 (the set was priced at $1500.00). He looked at me like I was a little crazy, and maybe I was, but I wanted to take my chances. He said he would not be able to meet my expectations. I paused for a moment and on the way out I said to him that his competitor was willing to sell it to me for $750 and I asked the owner if he wanted his competition to have my money. I think at that moment he made a decision to sell the set for $700.00. It wasn’t easy to negotiate the price in this case because I was asking for a huge discount, but haggling for something a little bit more reasonable is very easy.

Just about a month ago, I went to my dentist for a regular check up which regularly priced at $99.00. However, for the first time visitors, the price is only $49.00 for the same exact service. I told my dentist that the only way I can stay with him is if he gives me the same price as for his new clients. What do you think? Not only did I get this discount, I have also been told that they will continue giving me this discount at my future visits. Not bad at all!

These days, you can haggle anywhere, even at the stores such as Macy’s, K-Mart, Target, etc. It is not very easy to haggle for groceries, but big items such as appliances, furniture, home improvement products and such are very easy to get discounts on, especially right now when the economy is down. The retailers need to get rid of their inventory and the service providers want to stay in business.

I am absolutely shameless about haggling! One of my friends said that she does not feel comfortable doing it, because she wants the store owners to make some profit and that she would not want to take something away from the business owner and his/her family. What? This is crazy! You should never feel that way. In the example above, if the owner of the store did not make any profit at all on the bedroom set, there is no way he would ever sell it to me for such a deep discount. See, there is such a thing called “markup”. Every retailer marks up the price. Here are a few examples for you:

• Jewelry markup could be up to 500% (yes, you read it right!)
• Clothing-up to 50%
• Furniture-up to 60%
• Appliances and Electronics-up to 30%
• Sporting Goods-up to 45%

See? The next time you feel bad about haggling, think twice, because, most likely the retailer you are purchasing from is not thinking “Oh, My God, I cannot charge this person too much because I do not want to take money away from his/her family.” Businesses are there to make profits; otherwise, they would not exist. Haggle as much as your heart desires. If you do not ask, you will never know.