Learn How To Meal Plan Effectively With This Free Printable Menu

Jordan

2 years ago

Want to learn how to meal plan effectively? Believe it or not it isn’t hard, but takes a little time. However, learning how to meal plan effectively can help you save a lot of money and waste less! Which is all things we want to do especially in this day and age. But how do you meal plan effectively?

Meal Planning

If you find premade menus many of them use expensive recipes and a different meal for every meal. It can be tedious, time consuming, and super expensive. That kind of kills the point of meal planning in my opinion. We want people to be excited about meal planning, cooking, and save money. So how do we properly meal plan?

It’s easy! Just follow these great meal planning tips and ideas.

How To Meal Plan Effectively

1. Look Through Your Family’s Favorite Recipes

We know what our family’s will or will not eat. We have a tendency when we want to be organized to make drastic changes. Suddenly you’re going to try to make your family eat insanely healthy and suddenly no one wants supper or to eat all the brussel sprouts you bought. Find 2-3 recipes your family enjoys and choose 1 new recipe you want to try.

New to cooking? No worries we have plenty of family-friendly recipes!

To save money, eat the same meal 2-3 times a week. That way you’re saving money and not making something new with 5-6 ingredients everyday. That can get expensive.

The 1 new recipe can be something you want to try to see if your family likes it or a day to eat out.

2. Write Down All Your Meals On A Menu

Using a menu will help you meal plan effectively. This free printable menu is one you can use. Fill out each meal for each day. Do you eat breakfast? Write down what you plan on making each day like oatmeal, cereal, eggs and bacon. Don’t eat breakfast? Than leave the block empty. Don’t forget to add snacks and/or dessert.

meal-plan-calendar Download

3. Make A Shopping List So You Only Get What You Need

Now that you know what you’re making your family all week it is time to get the ingredients for each recipe. I know if you’re like me you go to the store and think you’ll remember everything and with the chaos of the store, kids, etc you tend to forget things. This way you get everything. Plus having a shopping list will help you not buy junk you don’t need. We also have a free printable shopping list you can use as well.

4. Save Money At The Store Buying Only The Things You Need To Meal Plan Effectively

Now that you’re at the store you will see snacks, sweets, and things that may inspire new recipes. You can buy everything you need for 1 new recipe a week, but don’t get more than that. To save money at the store and not waste food don’t pick up more than you need. Stay away from the inside aisles, grab your coupons, and avoid sales unless you need the item. There are many ways to save money at the grocery store.

5. Stick To Your Meal Plan

We get busy, we get tired, and sometimes you don’t want to stick to your meal plan. It’s easier to eat out, skip a meal, or make something completely different. That kills the point of a meal plan and can use up ingredients messing up the rest of your week. Try to stick to the plan. Cook whatever you planned beforehand. If you know you’re going to be busy cook your meal the day before, plan easy crockpot meals, or simplify it. Were you going to make fried porkchops? Skip the breading and just make regular seasoned porkchops. You’re still using up the pork chops, not wasting more money, or an expensive ingredient while saving some time.

More Great Tips To Help You Learn How To Meal Plan Effectively

Check the weather! You may want comfort meals if it’s cold and rainy or light meals if it is gonna be sunny and hot.

6. Check The Weather

What? Why check the weather? It can change day by day. That’s true. But knowing if it’s going to be cold and rainy or warm and sunny can help you decide what you want. If it is rainy and cold then you may want more comfort food like soup, stews, chili. If it’s sunny and nice you may want to BBQ on the grill, make a roast, or eat salad.

7. Plan For Leftovers

You are more likely to stick to your meal plan if you don’t have to cook everything all the time. Sometimes I like being out of the kitchen. So I’ll make a big roast. You can eat a roast for 2-3 days and easily change it up. Eat roast and gravy the first day, bbq roast the next, etc. Plus, I like making large amounts of stews because they always taste better the next day anyway.

8. Meal Prep Ahead Of Time

I like doing this in the beginning of the week. Go ahead and chop onions, herbs, garlic and other veggies you will need for the week in the beginning of the week and store it in the fridge. It’s a lot less time consuming if you don’t have to cut, chop, dice everything before you cook each day.

9. Use Up What Is In Your Pantry and Fridge

Still have potatoes? Leftover veggies? Rice? Use the stuff you already have before buying more. You can base meals around the stuff you already have. A pack of chicken can use all of those ingredients. Roasted chicken with potatoes? Yum! Veggie and chicken stir-fry? Yes please! And who doesn’t love chicken and rice?

10. Use 1 Ingredient Multiple Ways

When I’m meal planning, I can choose 2-3 recipes, but I want them to be similar so I can use some of the same ingredients so I don’t have to buy a bunch of extra things. Let’s take carrots for example. I need carrots for my beef stew, but how else can I use carrots? I can make them a roasted side dish, into a puree, use them as a snack. Buying less ingredients means saving money if you can buy only a couple ingredients in bulk.

Learning How To Meal Plan Effectively Doesn’t Have To Be Stressful

Meal planning is actually easy. It doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. Keep it simple. Pick only a couple recipes that your family will eat and then stick to your meal plan. You will be surprised how much waste you can eliminate and how much money you save if you’re not buying excess.

Was this useful in learning how to meal plan effectively? Do you have any tips to help people meal plan?