Menu Plan Blues

I love the idea of making my weekly menu plan but I have the hardest time sticking to one. Such as this week...I had pizza night planned for Friday night but we ended up doing pizza on Thursday. So I figured I would just move my chicken scampi to Friday night instead. After I got home from work I was goofing around and decided it was high time I became a supporting member for All Recipes (before I buy one for one of my readers next month). While checking out all the new features I now have access to, I found a really yummy looking replacement recipe for my chicken scampi. For a while our Friday's were always Mexican...the last month or so I have deviated from that. This new recipe will bring us back to our Mexican ways....

The other thing I find extremely difficult is making my menu plan to begin with. Monday's are tough for me as I get paid on Friday's and the new sale ads don't come out until Wednesday's. My payday dictates my shopping trips most of the time - so planning on Sunday nights becomes very difficult when I don't have the current sale bill to go off of....

So I am posing a few questions for my readers to ponder:
1. Why is it so hard to stick to a menu plan?
2. Am I the only one that deviates this much?
3. Is it really worth making a plan if your constantly changing up the plan?
4. When making your plan, do you grocery shop first or plan your meals around what is on sale for the week?
5. How often do you grocery shop?
6. How in the world do you get your pantry stocked up enough to do a pantry challenge for an entire month?
7. What problems have you had with menu planning and how did you solve them? 
8. What kind of variety do you give your menu plans? Do you stick with only three or four and rotate them?

Share your menu planning/grocery shopping blues and/or tips and tricks in your blog then link back using Mr. Linky below. I am sure I am not the only one who faces menu plan blues!