Meal planning is.. a good idea. It’s one that I’ve floundered on a lot over the last couple of years. The idea of planning out the meals for the whole month, doing the big monthly grocery shop, and then just a weekly (or semi-monthly, even) produce run to supplement is so appealing.
I have loved watching and learning from Brittany’s monthly meal planning for years. I have watched all the videos. I get the system.
The reality, though, is that I do not have the bandwidth to monthly meal plan. I don’t have 30 meals in my brain that I can add to a list.
What our grocery shopping looks like, then, is that every two weeks I go to the store and get everything we need, spending about $150 each time. Three hundred dollars for grocery for two is a lot, but it’s not terrible. Since we value quality food and good ingredients, it’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make.
In my ideal world, I’d love to have all of my groceries come from three sources:
- a meat subscription service (like Butcher Box)
- a CSA or ugly vegetable subscription service (like Hungry Harvest which I loved when I lived in Baltimore)
- pantry essentials, like rice and flour, delivered to my door (through something like Amazon or Thrive Market)
Unfortunately, this reality isn’t possible today. I think Butcher Box is overpriced, there are no CSAs in our area, and I value the time savings of purchasing pantry essentials through a subscription less than I do the cost savings of buying them myself. I’m optimistic that the market will catch up to my ideal soon, but for now we’ve got to make do.
I recently signed up for a Shipt subscription. For $99 per year, I can place an order through the
I have some serious travel time coming. The cool thing about Shipt is that you can place an order anywhere. When I’ll be in SF for 10 days, I can place a Shipt order to my hotel room! Without a kitchen I won’t be cooking Chicken Cordon Bleu, but I can buy lunches that are 1. much cheaper than the alternative (eating out) and 2. better for me (because I can control the ingredients!).
Jury is still out on Shipt, but I’ll be sure to update. For now, I’m pretty into it.
I have a weekly grocery list that I use as a starting point every week. I think of it as
Let me know if there’s anything you’d add!
Here is my list:
- Toilet paper
- Paper towels
- Avocados
- Eggs- at least 2 dozen
- Peppers
- Onions
- Broccoli
- Spinach
- Sweet Potato
- Chicken breasts (Boneless, skinless)
- Salmon
- Tortillas
- Clementines
- Bananas
- Berries or Grapes
- Bread
- Tofu (Extra
firm )
Emilie is an Army Wife, Data Engineer, and CrossFitter with a love for working through her thoughts in this space on the internet. She lives with her husband Casey and their pup Bo in Savannah, GA.