my first meal plan

I usually do some sort of meal planning - inside my head. But as I understand from reading around, meal planning has a number of benefits:

1. You will EAT OUT LESS
2. You will have a plan so you will be eating LESS PREPACKAGED MEALS
3. You will ALWAYS HAVE THE GROCERIES YOU NEED
4. In turn, that means you will WASTE LESS GROCERIES (how many times have you bought lettuce or broccoli with the intentions of using it and it ended up growing a science experiment at the back of your fridge?)
5. All these reasons means you will SAVE MONEY
6. You will eat a VARIETY OF MEALS
7. Eating out less, and eating less packaged garbage means you will be eating HEALTHIER
8. Your FAMILY HAS A SAY in what you are going to eat that week -kids are more likely to eat what you have cooked for them, since they may have requested it
9. AVOID THE ANNOYING "WHAT'S FOR DINNER?" - They can just check the list on the fridge
10. Work around ALLERGIES (like wheat, soy, etc)
11. Can PLAN FOR BUSY DAYS
12. LESS STRESS – no pointless staring at the fridge and cupboards "What the heck am I going to make?"
13. LESS TRIPS TO THE GROCERY STORE -which also saves you money, since there aren't impulse buys every time you go

(list courtesy of Meal Planning 101)

So yes, it would probably be more effective to write everything down and plan from there.

I usually go to Costco for my western needs, and the local market for its vegetables. But Costco isn't too single-household-friendly, and the local market only sell the same seven vegetables a season Frankly, I am getting sick of it. I already have a bunch of ingredients, but none of it really seems to go together (except tostadas/burritos).

Having said that, this week I'm going to go to Homeplus. It's a big department superstore that has somewhat competitive prices. It has some western goods in smaller portions, and a huge array of veggies to choose from.

Okay, here's my first try at meal planning:

What I have:               Cucumbers 1/4 Cabbage Bacon Salsa Sour cream (expires Friday!)     Cheddar cheese Rice Frozen Beef Tortillas Onions Curry Powder 1/2 Carrot Frozen Chili Peppers Brown Sugar Homemade Croutons

My shopping list:            A bag of potatoes Cilantro Green Onions Ginger Lots of Mushrooms Penne Bay Leaf Persimmons  ~17000 won ($15)

Foods to make:         Sour Cream Beef Curry Mushroom Congee Beef Tomato Sauce Penne Burritos Bacon vegetable soup Cucumber Salad Scallop Potatoes Vegetable Stir-fry Salad Rolls French Onion Soup

I will update this post as I make my meals!