How I Menu Plan + The Best Meal I Didn't Cook This Week

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias Inc. and It's advertiser. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #FamilyPizzaCombo #CollectiveBias

I've talked a lot over the last few years about menu planning and how it is pretty much essential to keeping our food bill down each month. The one thing I've failed to mention is how I actually plan our meals, and how it saves us money. I figured I shouldn't keep you in suspense any longer and show you all the ins and outs of how I get my meal planning done. 

The first thing I do is take an inventory through my fridge and figure out what we're working with. I throw away the things that have unfortunately gone bad, and then I figure out what things we still have to use up. I then base my meal plan for the next week based off of the items that I need to use in the fridge before they go bad. 

This week we had bacon that needed to be used, so I knew we would have breakfast for dinner one night. We also had an open jar of pasta sauce, so I knew lasagna would be going on the menu plan for the week too. Next week I'll have left over pumpkin puree, heavy whipping cream, and ricotta cheese, so I'll look for ways to use that up. Then I'll go on pinterest and look for recipes to use up the ingredients I have on hand, and to see if there is anything else that sparks my interest to make that week.

Another thing I do is go through my planner and figure out what nights we're having people over for dinner, and what sponsored food posts I have this week. I used to menu plan, and then forget about blog posts that I would need to write and we'd wind up with a ton of extra food and so much would get wasted, so now I remember to go through that while menu planning. 

This week we had the missionaries from church coming over for dinner, and I don't like stressing out when I cook for them, and I know they love pizza, so I headed over to Sam's Club and picked up one of their family pizza combos. YOU. GUYS. Did you know you can get a 16'' pizza, cheese sticks, 6 cookies, and a 2L of coke for $13.98?! Totally made last night so much easier, and the pizza was delicious. I mean, just look at the picture... I was not expecting it to be so good, but it was, and Sam's Club is pretty much my go to now for our monthly pizza nights! I know you're probably rolling your eyes at me and saying, "uh-huh, sure Paige..." But I mean it. This pizza it the bees knees, and you need to try it. 

The best part about the meal was that it basically took no time at all. We live right down the road from Sam's Club, so 10 minutes before the missionaries got here, I just went over, picked up my pizza that they made right in front of me, and headed home. Basically the easiest meal for company ever. Have you tried the family pizza combo from Sam's? Will it be making it's way on your menu plan soon?