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Take a peek at my THM fall menu of 2022! I love the cozy meals that a chill in the air inspires and an excuse to always have a warm drink within reach. Thankfully with Trim Healthy Mama comforting casseroles, soups, breads, and other baked goods are on the menu!

This free downloadable THM fall menu has quick references to page numbers and recipe names and are broken down into categories. As well as the fuel types for each meal category. If you’re wanting an “E” meal or snack you can easily find what you want without searching through every section.

Trim Healthy Mama Cookbooks

“Old timers” of the THM plan will remember the behemoth book that Serene and Pearl first published back in the day. In a feverish de-cluttering session I actually donated mine. To be honest, I didn’t really ever use it. However if you have the first book you can also look up recipes that go with this fall menu theme.

The main cookbooks used for this THM fall menu are “Trim Healthy Future” (THF) and “Trim Healthy Table” (THT). Some of the recipes are from the first cookbook “Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook” (THMC) although most of the “main” meals used in this plan come from the first two. All three of these cookbooks are great, but there were so many in THF and THT I hadn’t made yet. I honestly didn’t realize how many recipes I hadn’t yet made from THT until I looked through every. single. page.

Eating Seasonally On THM

Making seasonal foods the base of my menus has helped us to save money and eat more nutrient dense food. For fall you will see more root vegetables highlighted: potatoes (yes you CAN eat them on THM!), carrots, beets, and sweet potatoes. Greens come back into season so salads are back on the menu! You will also see a couple of non traditional salads listed. Let’s not forget about fruit! In the fall, we celebrate the harvest of apples, pears, and grapes.

I enjoy the the changes even within a seasonal shift. Where I live in the Midwest the weather takes a minute to change into the lovely crisp days we all enjoy. I have memories of heat waves in October pushing people to find the nearest swimming hole. Because of this you will find a wide variety of meals. I didn’t want to only list heavy meals, there are soups and casseroles right next to yogurt parfaits and sandwiches.

How I Use A Seasonal Menu

Having one compiled list of recipes and where to find them is a major help in meal planning! I don’t have to worry about forgetting a recipe I wanted to try or old family favorites. I consult the master list of seasonal meals every week when planning a grocery trip. Then I pick out meals based on what we already have at home, any requests, and what the week looks like. The great thing about THM is that many of the recipes share similar ingredients and can be used in various ways. I love that!

It also makes buying in bulk easier! I look at the meals on the master list and see if there is anything I can buy in bulk to save money. For example, in September I plan on buying a couple cases of apples and a large bag of oats. We will use them as the center of our snacks and treats for fall. For you, it may be a spice, grain, or meat. Buying in bulk saves money and allows you to plan your meals more easily. You can read about where I source some of my bulk items here.

THM Fall Menu

Now that I’ve covered a bit of why I plan our menu for an entire season and how I use it, I hope that you’ll snag this download!

Would you like to see more seasonal menu plans? Let me know with a comment below!

Shalom,

Olivia

Staying within a grocery budget without sacrificing food quality is getting more and more difficult. I hope that at the end of this post you will have a little confidence boost that you can do this. Saving money on groceries during hyperinflation is going to require a few habit changes but it’s not impossible!

Saving Money On Groceries In The Store:

Go To The Store Less

I started grocery shopping in an actual store once a month as a coping mechanism. Once our third child joined the crew, the thought of dragging all of my kids in and out of car seats, stopping to nurse, the inevitable diaper changes and bathroom stops, made my brain melt out of my ears. To combat this and not having to rely on grocery pickup (because it is a blessing but another kind of hassle in my humble opinion) I began making only one or two grocery trips within a calendar month.

The unexpected benefit was saving money on groceries, and of course the mental hassle and physical drain. I never really realized how much extra money we spent each week on impulse buys or seeing something and thinking “I’ve been wanting this for weeks now, might as well get it. Treat yo’ self mama!”

Going to only one or two stores really made me think through which store(s) I shopped at as well. I don’t have a lot of options in my area and I also prefer shopping locally when I can. I prefer Aldi and a local discount grocery store for most of our items. There are only a few things that we can absolutely only get from Walmart. The nearest Aldi I have is about 40 minutes away. With rising gas prices, cutting down to grocery shopping once a month made more sense.

Make A Monthly/Seasonal Menu

One of the biggest shifts I have made in my endeavors to save money on groceries has been to create a seasonal menu. I try my best to plan around the types of meals that will be in season. For example, in the fall and winter I bake more so we eat more muffins, biscuits, and comforting foods. Casseroles and soups ruled the majority of our menu items. For Spring I have soups, salads, and sandwiches as the main focus. I usually think of 35-40 different meal ideas for lunches and suppers. Each time I go to the grocery store I review which meals I want for that calendar month.

Some seasons like Spring have a lot of variety. We start the season with chilly days and end the season with days warm enough to swim. So obviously there are some meals I put on the menu that wouldn’t get used until later in the season.

I don’t assign meals to specific days (unless it’s a special occasion like a birthday). This helps me to stay flexible. Lest you think that supper is a 4 course affair, I’ll say that most of the meals are really simple! Most of the time I only have a “fancy” meal once or twice a week. The rest of the time I rely on simple meals. I also allow room for leftovers and repeats. I usually shoot for 35-40 meal ideas. There are always some staples that follow us throughout every season: tacos, pastas, hamburgers, and stir-fry for example.

Buy Items In Season

Seasonal eating is foreign to our modern palates. However it’s something that was practiced out of necessity up until recent memory. Cherry tomatoes in December just weren’t an option 40 years ago. I’m not a seasonal eating “purist” by any stretch of the imagination. However, it is one of the best ways to save money on produce. It’s also more nutritious. Most fruits and vegetables are harvested before they are ripe in order to stay ripe during shipping . This means that the produce has less nutrients than it could have had if allowed to ripen naturally.

I can hear you now, “But Olivia, what about vegetables in winter? Do you want to end up with scurvy????” We eat a lot of vegetables that traditionally have been consumed from cellar storage in winter: potatoes, cabbage, winter squash, beets, onions, garlic, etc. And fermented foods like sauerkraut, kefir, fermented carrot sticks, pickles, peppers, etc. Don’t forget that citrus fruits, avocados, and sprouted greens are in season during the winter.

We do still buy some preserved (canned or frozen) fruits and veggies, but not nearly to the degree that we would buy fresh when in season. These types of preservation are done when the fruits and vegetables are in season and picked when ripe. Preservation of the produce happens quickly after harvest. That means more nutrients for you. Yay!

In season produce is less expensive because it isn’t trucked in from greater distances than normal. It also tastes better, and as discussed above, gives more nutrients meaning your money is going to food that will actually benefit you.

Saving Money On Groceries: Meat

Bone in cuts are generally much less expensive than de-boned meat. It’s also more nutritious! Amino acids release from joints while cooking. You also get more meals out of bone in cuts by making broth with the bones.

Saving Money On Groceries: Chicken

Whole chickens are also usually much less per pound than chicken that has been separated. I suggest becoming familiar with learning to carve chicken to get the desired cuts for recipes. It is a little more of a hassle, but when I compare prices, I don’t mind so much. Buying chicken this way also makes it easier to buy directly from a farmer, which generally means you get a higher quality product.

Saving Money On Groceries: Red Meat

One of the biggest ways we are able to eat high quality meat has been to take meat from hunters who only want the animal for display. Deer season provides us with a lot of meat even though my husband hasn’t hunted in a few years. We have most of it ground and only save the chops and back strap. This supplies most of the red meat we eat during the winter and usually costs less than $100 for 3-4 months worth of meat.

If you aren’t a fan of venison you can still use it to stretch any ground red meat you do enjoy. I will sometimes use 1lb of venison combined with 1lb of beef for a recipe that I would normally use all beef for. No one notices and it helps stretch our beef to last longer. Plus venison is often much leaner than even pastured beef!

Buying meat in bulk is always a great way to save money as well. Wondering how to budget for this? I suggest setting aside money each week from your grocery budget. $5-$10 a week doesn’t steal too much from your budget for food you need now and adds up quickly. Finding a source is the hardest part. Once you have found a source for your produce/meat/dairy you can keep up a relationship and stay on their customer list.

Be Flexible

Sometimes I go to the store and find a good deal on something unexpected. Even if I wasn’t planning on buying extra of that item, I will try to buy a little more than usual. For instance, the local discount store has had an amazing deal on grass fed butter. Every time I’m there I buy 4-5 lbs and throw the extra in our deep freezer. This means I have less to spend on other items, but the trade off is worth it because it saves me about one dollar per pound on butter. We use a lot of butter and I would be buying it anyway, so why not save when I can?

Saving Money On Groceries Outside Of The Grocery Store

Grocery stores aren’t the only place you can source your food! I never used to buy in bulk, however I started to tire of buying some items every week. We started ordering from Azure Standard (which you can read about here and here). I was surprised at how much it saves us on items that we buy regularly. If Azure doesn’t work for you there are also many other varieties of grocery co-ops. Azure has saved us so much money on salt, sugars, grains, herbs and spices, and even specialty items like beef bacon. I love being able order from my home and only having to pick up our order once a month.

Look around you and see what you can find in your own backyard! We live on less than one acre and so far we have found wild blackberries, plums, raspberries,elderberries, and mulberries on our property. If you don’t have anything like that in your yard look around you as you drive in your town, walk through the park, or visit your friends. You can often find wild berry bushes even in urban areas and no one is taking advantage of them. By canning or freezing these items we hope to add to our food storage and enjoy fruit in the winter months.

Waste Not, Want Not

I try to incorporate and substitute ingredients based off of what we have. If a recipe calls for cheddar, but I have colby or monteray, I work with what I have. There are many examples I could give, but the basis of the idea is to be willing to make swaps and try new combos.

Dedicate yourself to cleaning out your freezer and refrigerator! My go-to meals that are great for using odds and ends are stir-frys, soups, casseroles, tacos, fritatas, quiches, and even pizza. I know some people say they don’t like leftovers. The fact is that food isn’t cheap. If you can use leftovers to make something new and be sneaky that helps a lot. If that seems daunting the best thing to do is to learn to like them. There are very few foods that truly don’t reheat well.

Something I recommend is to try stretching your grocery store trips by one day. Once you feel like you’ve got that down, try two days. Maybe you’ll even be able to get an extra week out of what you have in your pantry. By giving yourself little “pantry challenges” every so often you can stretch times between grocery runs. If you want some inspiration, go give Jessica from Three River’s homestead a follow on Instagram or YouTube. She has some great pantry and food preservation challenges. I love how encouraging and practical she is.

Don’t Give Up!

I hope you’ve learned something from this post and have come away with some inspiration and determination to stay on budget without sacrificing the quality of food you eat. Ramen noodles and saltines are cheaper than pastured beef and organic spinach, but in the end don’t offer much nutrition. Saving money on groceries is something completely dependent upon the lengths we are willing to go to be good stewards. Seeking out deals, stretching our food, and being creative with what we have.

Please do not be tempted to play the comparison game. Some people wear their grocery budget like a badge of honor “I only spend $10 a month on groceries for our family of six.” or something ridiculous like that. We all have different needs, priorities, and resources. I’m very thankful for our local discount grocery store and I realize that a lot of people don’t have access to something similar. Just do the best you can!

Please join in on the conversation and leave your tried and true grocery saving techniques below in the comments!

Stay well!

Olivia