Have you ever opened your pantry or fridge and felt lost? Even though it’s stocked, you don’t know what to cook or what you have might not work to prepare a meal.

What about your food shopping process? Do you carelessly fill your cart? Although some people work with a list, their shopping can still lack intention. Often they may purchase items thinking that they work well for a meal, but they don’t have a menu in mind.

In the scenarios above, shopping haphazardly can cause you to overspend. Soaring food prices mean there’s a greater need to cut your grocery bill and buy with purpose. Becoming a purpose-driven grocery shopper is crucial if you want to stretch your dollar and avoid waste.

Creating a monthly meal plan is an effective way of carrying out your food shopping with purpose. It’s pretty doable. Also, if you find cooking every day to be a challenge, you’ll love this. You can begin with meals for two weeks. Then alternate your menus for the last two weeks of the month. Alternatively, you can create weekly menus for the entire month.

Now to the planning of your weekly meals. You may decide to cook a new dish every day or have one meal left over for the next. For example, Sunday’s dinner may provide leftovers for Monday. This pattern can follow until Friday. On Saturday, you have one of two options; either cook something fresh or treat it as a ‘kitchen closed’ day and eat out.

This strategy allows you to use your menus to guide your monthly food shopping and then you’re less likely to waste or spend money unnecessarily. What’s more, it will help you to shop for groceries intentionally. With your shopping for main meals guided by your meal plan, you can then focus on toiletries and other necessities. 

We want to help you get started, so we’ve created a two-week meal plan for a family of four. Our meal plan will allow you to use the same ingredients twice.

Yello’s Two-Week Meal Plan

Sunday and Monday (Week one)

Roasted potatoes with vegetables and baked lemon pepper chicken.

Ingredients: pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes (sweet or Irish), lemon pepper seasoning and chicken.

Tuesday and Wednesday (Week one)

Spaghetti and meatballs.

Ingredients: spaghetti, ground meat (chicken, pork or beef), pasta sauce, grated parmesan cheese.

Thursday and Friday (Week one)

Ground provision and stewed fish.

Ingredients: Plaintain, sweet potatoes, yam, dasheen, yuca, red onion, chives, sweet and sour sauce and fish.

Saturday (Week one)

Kitchen closed/Eat out.

Sunday and Monday (Week two)

Coconut rice with pan-seared fish and a bean salad.

Ingredients: Rice, coconut (cream or powder), black beans, corn, red beans, chickpeas, red onion, chives, limes, fish (any white fish, e.g. tilapia).

Tuesday and Wednesday (Week two)

Noodles with pineapple chicken.

Ingredients: Noodles (egg or plain), peas and carrots (frozen), pineapple (crushed), sweet and sour sauce and chicken.

Thursday and Friday (Week two)

Salmon pasta salad.

Ingredients: Pasta (penne/elbow), corn, black beans, red beans, chickpeas, red onion, chives, mayonnaise and pink salmon (can or fresh).

Saturday (Week two)

Kitchen closed/Eat out.

We hope you’re excited about your next trip to the supermarket. You can buy groceries you know you’ll use by having a plan. You can use our meal plan to get started until you’re comfortable developing your own.  

To shop for groceries, visit Find Yello’s supermarket and grocery listing for the opening hours of those closest to you.