Meal Planning for Beginners

Whether you are brand new to meal planning or a seasoned mom who is in a rut and feeling overwhelmed by meal planning, this is for you!

What is Meal Planning?

Many people confuse meal planning with meal prepping, but they are actually two different things. One (meal planning) is where you plan out what you want to eat for the week or month and write out a meal plan calendar. Meal prepping is executing the meal plan and preparing many meals or items ahead of schedule to have on hand for a busy week, or if you simply want a week of little to no cooking.

Taking the Stress out of Grocery Shopping

As a busy mom, now of three growing boys, grocery shopping has become an Olympic sport it feels like most weeks. It is only when I prepare a meal plan in advance that I can shop in confidence, knowing exactly what I will need for the week or month. No longer am I spending extra time on the grocery store aisles wondering should I grab an item and figuring out what we might want to eat for the week.

Benefits of Meal Planning

You might be asking, “What are the benefits of meal planning?”

1. Meal planning can help you stay within a budget. Having a growing family in this economy can definitely put a strain on the grocery budget. Having a plan in advance with staying in your budget. If you know in advance what you are having for the week or month you can save money when certain items go on sale. This month our Aldi’s had organic ground beef on sale for $3.99/lb. (normally $5.99) so I was able to buy enough for the whole month at a discounted price because I knew we were having ground beef for 3 recipes.
2. Meal Planning can save you time as well. You can shop more efficiently, and if you know in advance there are many items you can prep (prepare ahead of schedule)
3. You will be wasting less food, especially when you get the hang of meal planning you can plan meals that use similar ingredients, so you are not wasting any. Example say you need celery for chicken salad, but you can also plan to have chicken noodle soap that week where you can use the remainder celery.

Meal Planning 101

If you do a quick search on the internet you will see various meal plans. It’s important to figure out what works for you and your family. I have been meal planning for many years and being a busy mom, I really do not have an hour or so to plan in out once a month and definitely not weekly. Over the past year I have discovered a simple tip to reducing the amount of time even in meal planning.

Tips for Meal Planning

• Figure out each day of the week what style or type of food you would like to have. Example Mondays is Beef night, and Sunday is crockpot
• Write out a list of all the different types of quick and easy meals your family loves for that type of meat or style of food. You just need 4-5 options for each category.
• Plug in the meals into your calendar and Ta-Da! You have a whole month of meals planned for your family.

*If you want to you can just do this for two weeks then repeat it again for the second half of the month.

Don’t Complicate Your Meals

When you are starting out with meal planning, the simplier the meals the better. Making meals with 25 ingredients each can become very overwhelming and expensive. I like to keep my meals simple but once a week I will try a new recipe that may require some extra ingredients but it is still cheaper than eating out.

Grab my Free Guide to meal planning BELOW. It is a free template that you can customize to your family’s meals, or you can use the ones my family enjoys so you can get an idea of how it works.