Waste not.........

One of the best ways to save money is to use what you buy. This may seem simple but many people don't do this. They buy more than they can use before things go bad, or simply change their mind about making that special dish they were going to make. Leftovers often get thrown away or shoved to the back of the fridge. Making a meal plan is often a way to avoid this. You need to plan for leftovers and work them in to your plan. The plan should be a guideline, if you say your going to have meatloaf on Tuesday(yes I have a hangup about meatloaf) you can change your mind and make burgers, or make it on Wednesday.
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You can write it down any way you would like, I prefer to make it look like a weekly calender. check your fridge, freezer and cabinets and plan as many of your meals from what you already have. Make sure anything that may be going bad soon is used up. That gives you a better idea of what you need.
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The next thing I do is check the ads papers for the local grocery store and see whats on sale that you can work into your plan. If you plan it right you won't often have to pay full price for most things. I'll talk about buying extra and stocking up another time. What we are talking about now has more to do with perishables. If you know that you will only need enough lettuce (for example) to make salad for two meals your a lot less likely to buy too much and have to throw it away.
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Using your leftovers often takes a little thinking ahead. It's better if you only make enough for the one meal your cooking but in most families this is a little unrealistic. So if your having chicken Tuesday night, you might want to tentatively plan chicken salad sandwiches for lunches. (Yes, this may take a little bit more work). I'll be giving you a lot of ideas to use leftovers as we go along.