Menu planning

In my endeavour to become debt free, I had started to plan my meal out each week. Because Zack is the bread winner and was able to pull extra shifts and deliver pizza, I had to make a dent somewhere. My job is to take care of the family and the home. I had to find a way to cut cost in my "career." One of those ways is menu planning and food bill cuts.  It started out as a weekly meal and I am just now up to the monthly menu. I have gotten pretty good at this but there is always room fro improvement. Take yesterday for example.  I was fretting over the fact that I had stuck to my menu and grocery list and the bill was still more than I wanted. Still haven't figured out what went wrong. Anyway, I wanted to share my tips and tricks. So here are some websites that I like to use.
1 http://www.momadvice.com/ She has free menu templates for a week. This includes snacks and extras that you may forget.
2.Tip Junkie She also has printables,
3. http://www.kraftfoods.com/  Tons of inexpensive meal ideas. It even has a weekly meal plan with a grocery list already for you.
4. http://www.allyou.com/ Same as above. Tons of budget friendly meal ideas and cleaning on a budget tips.
5.These two websites I came across just this week. The first is a great site from a stay at home mom. It is called http://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/ She post her weekly menu with recipes each week. ( I may start doing that) On her website I found a website called http://www.saymmm.com/ On this one, you enter your weekly menu and it prints a grocery list for you. It is dummy proof and free.

Some other tips on cutting your food bill is to eat out less. This was a hard pill for my family to swallow. We love to sit down at a restaurant and be served our food. This little luxury can destroy your wallet faster than a fire. So I have learned to eat out once every two weeks and start making some of those things at home. I haven't cut that out of my budget completely because doing so will make me crash and blow the budget anyway.
Convenience foods (lots of packaging and lots of preservatives) will break the bank also. Many of the items you purchase can be made at home for a fraction of the cost. Biscuits, instant oatmeal, rice mixes, cake mixes, ok most of the items in the center isle of the store. Google recipes for your convenience foods. It does take more time. This is where you need to sit down and weigh the cost and time. Keep in mind that made from scratch is so much healthier than bought from the grocery store shelf. I still by Kraft Mac and Cheese, occasionally Ramen Noodles and Almond or Rice milk. Those three convenient foods have yet to make it out of my house. We even kicked hot dogs out unless they are all beef and come direct from the factory. Not everyone has the inside scoop on hot dogs ya know...=)
I hope this helps. Feel free to comment with your own tips and ideas. I will appreciate it and hope others will too!