Why do you plan menu's?

I grew up in a household where my mom planned menu's.  These pre-computer days would entail my mom sitting down with her ruler and paper to draw out a calendar and manually making a shopping list. After a few hours, she would have a menu and shopping list ready.
I have it easy these days.  I print out my monthly planning sheet from Money Making Mom, and then find recipes at my favorite recipe website. This website even allows you to save it to your shopping list and then edit your list.

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I honestly thought everyone planned menu's, but I am finding many people are busy and feel they do not have time to make a menu. Especially with the tools out there it is easy. I use to work for  a group home where I was the menu planner. This was a little more difficult than the average family menu. I would have several clients all on different doctor order diets.  You would have to plan one meal that fits all the doctor orders diet.  This makes it hard.  To top it off, you have to take into account each persons personal taste.  Each resident would have to pick a meal of their choice.  Think that is hard, it gets worse.  You could not plan the same meat in a row or too often.  I often would have a fish day, a beef day, poultry day, pork day, hamburger day, vegetarian day,  and then one day for something else.  You must follow these State laws all while staying under the company issued budget. Going over would warrant a sever tongue lashing from the program director that they too had received from the management. Ultimately, you could loose your job as said menu planner.  I only went over budget once in the three years I did this job.  I have even been called by this particular home to contract out to repair the menus that others have struggled with.  To this day, they still use some of my menus. 


There are many reasons to plan a menu. Here are a few of mine.

1) I know that what I am going to make, I have on hand
2)  I can keep my grocery budget down by only purchasing items I need for my menu
3) I can plan for crock pot meals and other meals that need to be prepped before cooking.
4) I can stay away from quick fix meals that are not as healthy for my family (though I do prepare some of those meals from time to time)
5) I can plan and prepare Once A Month Cooking and make meals that I can put back into my menu's on a future date
6) I do not need to worry about what to cook.  I can come home from work, cook the meal, and give me more time with my small children.
7) It gives my family a choice in what they eat. (Right now it is mainly my Husband, but the kids will chime in soon)

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I found site that gives a sarcastic spin on why not to plan your menu's.  Here is what Mandi at Food Your Way had to say. 

"There are plenty of posts around the blogosphere about why you should take the time to plan your menu, but we’re going to look at the top ten reasons you shouldn’t.
10. You’re a non-comformist by nature, and since meal plans are popular, you refuse to give in.
9. You like to spend your free time staring blankly at the pantry trying to come up with dinner ideas. It’s like a hobby.
8. You prefer the “seek and you shall find” method of mealtime. You stock the shelves and the fridge, and your family is required to seek-and-find their meals there.
7. You like to test your cooking skills by looking through the cabinets at 5:15 and creating a gourmet meal out of the random ingredients you find.
6. Your family enjoys having the same 7 meals every week, so there’s no need for a menu plan.
5. You’re a free spirit and refuse to be bogged down with “organization” of any kind.
4. You want to be able to blame an empty refrigerator and pantry when you tell your extended family they can’t drop by at dinnertime.
3. The grocery store is your “happy place” and you like making extra trips to pick up last-minute ingredients.
2. You want to do your part to boost the economy by spending lots of money at the grocery store, even if the food goes bad before you use it.
1. You like to use the excuse “We don’t have anything to eat” as a reason to go out to dinner."

If you do not menu plan, it is all about finding what works for your family.  I normally plan 5 dinners a week.  One dinner is always an Indian meal Ravi cooks, so I buy the meet and items he needs and he normally cooks from his supply.   I also always plan one meal for leftovers, and if we happen to have no leftovers, I dig into our OAMC stash in the freezer.

So do you plan menu's?  If so why do you plan and how do you plan?  Tell me about it.  I love to get new ideas on how to perfect and make my life easier.  Join me every Monday and share your menu for the week.