Guest post from Jane who blogs at Jane Saves
Last year, we bought a fixer-upper home from the most frugal family I’ve ever met. Our green Spanish mission-style house was built and paid for in all cash.
The owners then lived in the home from 1977, until they passed away. We purchased the home from their daughter who owned her own home, which she bought in cash too.
This family was not wealthy. They just knew how to pinch a penny before it was even cool.
When we bought the home, it was like walking out of a time machine into 1977. Wood paneling. Yellow bathrooms. Grasscloth wallpaper.
The original homeowners lived by the motto, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” Which is why we were successful in flipping the house. Because they didn’t fix anything. Not one single thing. Because it wasn’t broken.
During our kitchen renovation, we uncovered a few items tucked down into drawers and hidden behind the original cabinetry. The best find was a meal plan from the 1970’s or 1980’s hand-written by the original homeowner, Sarah. (Sarah passed away in the late 80’s, so it was before then.)
I looked over her simple monthly meal plan again and again. Here are 8 things I learned from her penny-pinching ways.
1. You don’t have to meal plan on a Pinterest-worthy printable or calendar.
Sarah made her monthly meal plan on an old, used envelope. Now, if that isn’t frugal, I don’t know what is! This is proof that you don’t need a fancy form to plan meals for the month. As long as you have a piece of paper and a pen, you don’t have an excuse.
2. Plan your meals for the whole month.
I had never heard of monthly meal planning until I got on the debt-free train several years ago. The more I read about the most frugal way to meal plan, the more I heard people rave about monthly meal planning.
If the most frugal family I know made monthly meal plans three decades ago, there must be something to it.
3. Meal planning is not for people who only eat rice and beans.
When I first started meal planning, I thought I had to plan the cheapest meals possible.
As I started planning more and more, I realized that it’s about so much more than just the bottom line. Meal planning is about reducing stress during the late afternoon rush because you know exactly what to eat and when.
Even if you plan on eating out every night, writing it down on paper gets it out of your head so you can focus on other things.
If Sarah could take the time to write “Burger King” on her menu, you can too.
4. Balance expensive dinners out with go-to frugal favorites.
In between steak dinners and Ponderosa, Sarah sprinkled in simple and cheap dinners, like spaghetti, chicken noodle soup, hamburgers, pizza, and ravioli.
Sarah and her husband may have outgrown the beans-and-rice season of life, but they still knew the importance of saving when possible. It’s all about balance – saving and splurging, steak and spaghetti.
5. Don’t be afraid to eat the same meal a few nights in a row.
There’s no shame in eating a ham or roast several days in a row. In fact, I’ve never cooked a roast and not had leftovers.
The fact that Sarah went ahead and planned to eat the same food several days in a row showed that this wasn’t her first rodeo. She knew exactly what to cook and how long it would last. Because rule #1 to save money in the kitchen is don’t waste food.
6. Plan to be generous if your budget allows.
You’ll notice that she wrote “Bill Treats” (her husband) after dinner on October 10. Even though they were extremely frugal, they were generous enough to pick up dinner for family and friends. Being debt-free is beautiful because you can be generous. Even though they picked up the bill, you better believe they planned and budgeted for it.
7. Plan realistic dinners around your schedule.
I love that Sarah made a note on September 28, that she was going to have a yard sale and grab hamburgers for dinner. Yard sales are hard work. After a long day of sitting out in the sun, nobody has the energy to stand in front of the stove.
This is such an important lesson. There’s no point in scheduling “roast duck” on the menu for a night when all three kids have soccer practice. An experienced menu planner knows that if you don’t set realistic expectations, you will fail. It’s just that simple.
8. Meal planning doesn’t stop once you’re debt free.
Not only were the original homeowners debt-free, but they lived in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in our area and obviously had disposable income for eating out. Yet they still followed a meal plan.
Meal planning is the number one way to save money and everyone can benefit from it!
Do you want to start meal planning? Here’s a great resource from MoneySavingMom.com to help you get started!
Jane and her family were able to pay off $81,400 in consumer debt in a little over 2 years through a combination of good old-fashioned frugality and flipping a fixer upper. She blogs about saving money in creative ways at JaneSaves.com
Ashley P says
You know what’s kind of scary?
I already do all of those things! It’s like they read my mind or I read theirs, I guess…
I mean plan once per quarter. (That way I only have to do it 3 times a year because, frankly, I hate doing it.)
I just program it all into Google Calendar. No fancy app. Just the one I always carry with me. I actually keep everything in Google Calendar because if I didn’t, I’d forget. My son’s therapy schedule, the days I work church nursery, planned family days…
I do schedule meals for multiple days. In fact, I always make a double batch of whatever it is because every other night is “leftover night” for us. That way I only have to cook 3 or 4 times a week, instead of every day.
we also schedule meals around whatever we’re doing that day. In the days leading up to our move, I only scheduled meals I could make in the crockpot or in one pan because I didn’t want a on of dishes and had dropped off most of the kitchen supplies early. The day of the move, we scheduled pizza.
We definitely balance things out. We make room in the budget for steak once a quarter, usually anniversaries and birthdays. And we totally splurged at this restaurant last week. The waitress was so lovely we gave her an extra big tip. Thankfully, we had ordered so much food that we ended up with, you guessed it, leftovers for the next day.
We’re…almost debt free. Just need to pay off the car. And we haven’t bought a house yet. But I see us doing our meal planning routine for a long, long time. 🙂
Meg says
Sounds like you’re on top of it! WooHoo!! -Meg, MSM Team
Ju says
Hey, grasscloth wallpaper is all the rage again! What’s old is new again so no up-date needed!
Thanks for sharing,
Ju
Julie- Logger's Wife says
Definitely agree with working around your schedule. I use a simple monthly calendar I print off and the first thing I do is fill in the days we will be gone, special events, etc.
Angie says
Some great ideas, I’m off to make a plan…
Sammy says
Great post, I might copy Sarah’s planner for the month and see how I get on!
des says
I loved reading this. My great grandparents passed with over a million in assets, yet you would not have known it to meet them. They were frugal in this same way. They wore a limited amount of clothes for function, and didn’t replace anything unless totally necessary. This brought back the days of visiting them. Thanks for sharing!
Rebecca says
This is the best post I’ve ever seen on budget meal planning. Straight and to the point, going beyond “buy what’s in season” and about the points where mistakes are made, made me go, “welp, I’ve done that before.” I especially love the truth that we have to be realistic. We will fail if we make it too hard (gourmet meal on a busy busy day) on ourselves. And we will give up and lose patience with everyone around us too. Awesome post.
Jane @ JaneSaves.com says
Thank you SO much, Rebecca. 🙂 And yes, I am a type-A personality so I easily fall into the all-or-nothing mentality. (Rice and beans or Outback Steakhouse!) Haha. It’s all about balance! Thinking through this post really helped me with my attitude and motivation toward meal planning so I am very happy that it is helping others.
Megan says
After seeing a friend plan their meals monthly, I decided to give it a try. Side note: this friend was able to have a small grocery budget but still ate well because of this method. Once I got the
hang of meal planning, it took a couple of months, I loved it. There was no more wondering “what’s for dinner” plus then you have the supplies you need. If you have not tried monthly meal planning, I would recommend you give it a try. Thanks Jane for the tips!
Jane says
Thanks, Megan! I totally agree with the monthly meal planning!
Kim says
Megan, Could you please show us your monthly meal plan? Specially if its a small budget. I am always up for new suggestions 🙂
Megan says
Hi, Kim, I do not have an exact meal plan to share but I do share an easier way to meal plan: http://www.swimmingindebt.com/meal-plan-easy-way/ the method includes a calendar plus magnets! Something that I do often, once a week, is planning an expensive meal (mine is fish with rice) then I have salad, breakfast, more rice meals, pasta, etc… around that expensive meal. But my expensive meal comes out to be about $18 for that meal for a family of 5.
I do like the idea of sharing my exact meal plan or have my friend that is amazing at meal planning. I will start working on that and hopefully, I can share that soon!
Kristie says
Neat story! I enjoyed the insights from this. There is something sweet about a pre-Pinterest era homemaking lesson that even includes a nod to Burger King! 🙂
Jane @ JaneSaves.com says
Yes, I really love homemaking from previous generations. There is so much simplicity to learn!
Megan @ Prioritized Living says
What a fascinating find in a drawer . . . and what great insight into meal planning this post has!
#5 is so true. My meal-planning mantra is “make enough for AT LEAST two nights!” If I’m going to the bother of prepping a yummy meal with a main, sides, etc., I want to maximize the return on my effort by being able to eat it twice! (If I can make even more and freeze it, that’s even better!) Besides, buying my ingredients in bulk usually gets me a great unit price.
Thanks for this awesome post, Jane!
Jane @ JaneSaves.com says
Thank you, Megan! 🙂 And so very true about doubling up on recipes. It was life-changing when I learned that trick!
Monica says
That’s interesting! I love finding little insights into the past, especially if I can learn from them. I’m wondering if this was more of an after-thought rather than a meal plan. Could it be that she was listing where they had eaten? I’m looking at all of the past tense verbs here (brought burgers, Bud took, ate). I do this often when I’m thinking….where DID that money go? 🙂 Either way a glimpse into organization from the past is cool.
Lisa says
Good points in the article, though I agree that this looks more like an after the fact record of what they had for dinner, since some lines list what they ate at someone else’s house, ie “Ham at mother’s”, “Turkey dinner at Glenn’s” . Interestingly, about 2/3 of their dinners are either eating out or eating at someone else’s house…which would probably be unusual for most families like us with kids that are trying to save money 🙂
Jane @ JaneSaves.com says
Yeah, I should have mentioned that they were definitely in a different season of life than all of us with little kids! They were older when this was written, which is why they ate out a lot. (I think of them like my own frugal Grandparents who went to a restaurant and split a turkey sandwich for lunch!) But I do know that they cared about where EVERY cent of their money went. While renovating this house it was clear that not even one original nail was thrown out….it was nailed into the next place! 🙂
Kim says
That is what I was thinking. I was looking over the menu and it looked like they went out to eat a lot or went to somebodies house to eat. I am not sure how this is showing how to save. I do think it is cool to find something like this from the past. I am always wanting to learn how they did things in the past. Specially on saving money etc.
Lisa says
The principles of her article are still awesome. Even if you don’t agree that the list is a meal plan, the ideas that she pulled from it are really great tips that you don’t always see on every other menu planning article. Don’t ignore the ideas just bc you don’t like where they came from. Take what she’s offering! ?
Susan says
Enjoyed this post so much! Such great advice that was gleaned from another person’s life well lived. So sweet. I would like to think that Sarah and Bill are now feasting on everything that heaven and all it’s glory has to offer!!
Jane @ JaneSaves.com says
Thank you, Susan!! I’m sure they are. 🙂
Jane @ JaneSaves.com says
Thank you, Susan! 🙂 And I am sure they are!