Do you meal plan? Meal planning is not only about getting organised, it can also help you to life a more waste-free life. When you plan your meals you use the items you have in your cupboard and don’t rush around the shops throwing stuff in your trolley. Not only do you end up buying stuff you don’t really want but you end up spending a lot of money.
Benefits of Meal Planning
- Saves you time! If you spend the time planning your meals once regularly, you won’t be spending time every day trying to figure out what to cook.
- The amount of food waste is reduced. When you plan your meals you can make sure that you use items you already have in your kitchen, reducing the amount of food that gets wasted.
- Say goodbye to the stress of trying to figure out what to cook. Scrambling around the kitchen with tired, hungry kids while you try to find something to cook is super stressful. When you know exactly what is on the menu, it reduces all of that stress.
- Save money. Last minute trips to the supermarket to get ingredients ends up costing you a small fortune. If you have a meal planned, you are less likely to buy takeout or a convenience meal that is not only expensive but also unhealthy.
Meal planning made easy
- Don’t rush it. When you plan your meals, give yourself enough time, you don’t want to rush this process. Book out an hour in your diary once a weekly or monthly so that you can focus on working out your plan.
- Focus on food your family will eat. We are trying this year to make a few different meals each month but to start with I am using the meats/foods that my kids will actually eat. The girls don’t like fish so there is little point in planning fish for dinner knowing that half they family won’t even try it. Make a list of meals that you know your family will eat and then find a few new recipes that are easy and are likely to be eaten by your family.
- Check your diary. This is an important step for me. Mondays and Wednesdays the kids have extra-muruals until after 17h00 so on those days I need quick, easy meals that can be cooked earlier in the day or cooked in a few minutes. If I know I am going to have a busy day with meetings the last thing I want to do is schedule a new recipe that is going to take time and effort. On those busy days your slow cooker is your best friend. A good idea is to make a bulk meal in the slow cooker, then you have dinner for a few nights with minimal effort. I have a bunch of really easy recipes you can try out in your slow cooker! Image
Image Credit - Start with a clear weekly/monthly calendar. I work on a monthly calendar but if you shop weekly then work weekly. Start adding in the easy meals. We do burgers or pizza every Friday so I start with that. Sundays I make one meal – either a roast or a stew/curry that gets added next. Then I look start adding in the meat type – chicken/pork etc so that we don’t eat chicken for 4 nights in a row. Once I have that done I add actual meals/recipes. Because we are home all day I do add in lunches as well.
- Shop from the meal plan not the other way around. Once I have the meals planned then I check what we already have enough of and what we will need and then I put my shopping lists together. I buy 90% of our food online. This makes it so much easier to stick to the list and buy only what we need because I am not tempted by sales and specials. That said, when it comes to the meat, I will often adjust my meal plan if something is on special that I know we will eat.
- Be flexible. Sometimes there isn’t as much leftover or there is more leftover than you planned for. Adjust and use the leftovers before cooking another meal. Try to avoid rushing to the shops to get one item you need for a meal. Rather swap out meals or make something a little different. Even with the best planning in the world the tomato sauce will run out quicker than you planned or the potatoes will suddenly be done or you will have too many carrots left. Rather use what you have in your fridge before buying more.
What is your favourite meal planning tip?
To get you started you can download the meal planner that I use to plan our meals out. Print it out, laminate it and reuse it!!
20 Responses
I’ve been planning to meal plan for so long. There are so many great benefits. I don’t know if I can be that organised.
I meal plan every week. Actually, tonight will be meal-planning night for me as we do our grocery shopping on the weekends. It saves so much time, money, and food!
When I take the time to meal plan, things are so much easier and we waste so much less food and money!
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We don’t really meal plan at the moment. My husband does all the cooking (yay!), so he’ll tend to cook something on Sunday that’ll last a few days and then cook again on Wednesday that’ll last another couple days.
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That is so convenient! I would love to sign up to a meal plan, it is healthy and convenient.
Meal planning helps me to make sure I do not forget anything and it also is nice to line up meals with when I have the most time.
Going back to my days of living in Tokyo, the concept of planning meals has been a big thing for me. In fact, I eat certain things on certain days. For instance, it’s always pasta on Tuesday evenings and chicken on Thursdays. On Saturday mornings, my breakfast must include buttered grits. At other points throughout the week, I plan out what I eat and incorporate that into my shopping.
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I always say I am going to meal plan and never do. I am sure it does save $$.
Meal planning is a great way to keep organized and on track. It makes things so much easier and helps with shopping too!
This is a good idea to save food and money. We should always make a plan to keep it organized.
Great tips and meal planning takes a lot more time and energy than one might think some times, thanks a lot for the article and will see how it works on saving food and money – Knycx Journeying
I’m relieved that I am not the only one who keeps a record of their meals or rather has a dedicated diary for it. I agree with shopping from the meal plan and buying food online, as I won’t get tempted to pick up items that I do not need. Thank you for these tips!
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I’m living alone, therefore, I have more freedom when it comes to meal planning. I rather have to make sure that I don’t buy and cook too much. It’s a sin how much food goes to waste.
This is awesome to plan the meals and for each day of the week. It seems fun and we can change meals as we wish for any day.
I absolutely love meal planning because it makes things so much easier for me. It also would help me to make sure that I don’t waste any food because I’ll know the meals by the day.
I always feel like I spend more money when I meal plan. I need to just spend the money and do it. Maybe I wouldn’t order in as much.
I LOVE meal planning! It saves me so much time having to think everyday what’s for tea and also saves us tons of money and waste. I have even started batch making food at the weekend for the weeks ahead, saving me even more time!
One of the struggles as a mom each day is planning what meals to feed that is available and yummy to avoid wasting food Thanks for these tips though, helps a lot!
I’m practicing this for the past month and I saved quite amount of money and I eat much healthier.
We meal plan every week, which means that our meals are always served on time – part of our routine – which is important.