Frugal Menu Planning and Grocery Shopping

I hate planning menus. But I know it's important to do it because 1. It will keep me from aimless grocery shopping and unnecessary spending, and 2. I don't have to wonder at 5:00 every night what I'm going to fix for dinner. But I hate to do it! So I let somebody else do it for me. That somebody else is Menus4Moms. And the best part is that their menus are free! This is the only free menu site I have found, but it's also the best I've seen! They have some really neat features like reminding you to cook double hamburger if you're going to use it in tomorrow's dish, giving instructions on how to make double batches and freeze them, and lots more! Here's how I make sure my menus are frugal, though: I don't just automatically use the menus that the site has listed for that particular week. I go through my grocery store ads first to see what meat and produce are on sale (or what I already have in the freezer), then I go through the site archives and find a week of menus that uses mainly those meats and produce. I tweak the menu as needed according to our family's tastes, and voila! my menu planning is done for the week in literally minutes! I love it! Fast and frugal! It really works for me!