How I Do Lazy Meal "Planning"

Yeah. You see those quotation marks around the word "planning." There's a reason for that. It's called "laziness." No, wait, it's just called laziness. 

We all know, if we happen to think about these types of things at all, that meal planning is very important for our budgets and to prevent food waste. The problem(s) with me and meal planning is(are) that I often find that on Tuesday when I'm supposed to be making lasagna, that I just don't want lasagna. Or that on Monday when I go to the store, the mushrooms for the stuffed mushrooms were way too expensive, but the kale was on sale. In short, I'm just too irresponsible impulsive and fun for traditional meal planning.

But then again, a proper cheapskate who gets bored eating the same four foods over and over must have some level of meal planning. Here is what I do.

When I do meal "planning" there are no calendars, no calculators, no fancy pants apps. There's just my Pinterest board and maybe a to-buy list if I remember that part. And this works for me. I hope that if you're feeling "lazy" lazy, it will work for you too.

1. I look on Pinterest for yummy things.
2. I pin them onto my board labeled "Recipes" and then, if they make the cut, I put them on my board labeled "This Week's Food" board.
3. I look at the ingredients if I remember.
4. I write the ingredients that I need on my to-buy list. If I remember.
5. I shop and buy those things unless they are really expensive. (If I remember to look at the list on my phone or the Pinterest board or anything at all.)
6. I make those meals. Sometimes. Maybe.

You will notice, if you look at my board labeled "This Week's Food" that there are too many recipes for one week. That's because I either forgot some key ingredient, or I didn't feel like making it. Or I totally ran out of time because I was procrastinating making dinner, so we had scrambled eggs on toast (again). #momwin.

But seriously, this little method actually helps me. It gives me an idea of what I'd like to feed us and what ingredients I'll need to do that. Once we've got the ingredients, I can make it sometime in the next couple weeks and call it good. And I usually do.

One other thing that kind of helps is the Walmart grocery site that you can use to order groceries and then have them brought right out to your car (#thejoy). One thing I like about this if it's available in your area is that you can add the things you need for recipes right into your cart as the week goes on (so you won't forget your list or to look at your list or whatever it is we forget when we forget stuff), And then when you're ready you can schedule a pick up and all your stuff is already there and you didn't have to remember what it was you remembered you needed last Tuesday. The other great thing for a cheapskate is that by not going into the store, you can save yourself from impulse purchasing (#notthatIever).

Happy "planning."