Meal planning for amateurs

So meal planning is something I've been somewhat struggling with for a while. I do okay planning meals through the week, but when I get to the weekend, it all falls to crap. This is for a multitude of reasons (or excuses, depending on your perspective) but I have resolved to take a more proactive approach, inspired by the prospect of saving $$$ and losing weight.
Meal planning is not as involved as it sounds. You don't need any fancy programs, heck, you don't need anything electronic for that matter.

To meal plan, you need:
- A pen or pencil
- A piece of paper
- A general idea of how often you eat
- A general idea of what you already have in your pantry.

You can plan:
- In your kitchen (where you'll know for sure what you have)
- On the couch
- In your car in the parking lot outside the grocery store, as I did yesterday.

What I did is pretty self explanatory. Is you're planning for yourself, as I do, draw columns for days and rows for 'meals.' For me, in order to keep my metabolism up I eat 5 times a day. This means planning for Breakfast, Snack. Lunch, Snack, Dinner. This is reflected in my picture.

So here are the steps:
1. Draw out your grid to the amount of days and meals you'll have.

2. Think about what you have, what you'll want to eat, and what you'll realistically eat. For example, I know I should eat more salads, but every time I buy lettuce with good intentions, it rots in my fridge, unused. Be honest with yourself, that will save you the most money of all.

3. Begin to fill in the slots. Don't leave any blank.

4. When you've filled in all your slots, make your grocery list. My list ended up including 4 bananas, 4 yogurts, 1 apple, 1 orange, 1 head of broccoli, 1 potato, and grape jelly.

5. STICK TO YOUR LIST. You will be tempted to stray, but sticking to your list will help you save time shopping and you won't spend your hard earned cash on something you won't need.

6. STICK TO YOUR PLAN. Of course, you don't have to be super strict, but refrain from buying things through the week that you won't need. Example from my own lunch today: I had planned on buying soup from the cafeteria, and as I went through I was also tempted to get some popcorn. But then I remembered, I already had enough food with me to get through the day. So the lonely popcorn got left behind.

7. Eat up!

Like laying out what I'm going to wear the next day the night before, I found out this morning that planning ahead saved me the headache of figuring out what I was going to pack and take with me to work the next day. Made this morning go by much easier than usual. And its not as complicated as it sounds. So, as it stands, meal planning is a go! FTW! :)

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