For example, on Monday’s line you could list out cereal, grapes, toast, and hard boiled egg and draw a line down the rest of the week and those are the breakfast options for the weekdays. We like to make more extensive breakfasts on the weekend and keep the week more simple. Then have the kids select one or a combination of those 4 breakfasts each weekday. For breakfast or snack instead of something different each day, make a list of 4 things and draw an arrow down. You may feel like you are in a meal planning rut. It gets old having the same foods each day or meals each week. Lastly, I fill in any holes with a meal I have been craving, the kids have been asking for, or a restaurant outing or pick up. Meals that require a lot of prep have to be on specific days when I have the time. In addition, I think about meal prepping and when I will have time to prep. Third, I check my weekly tasks list and weekly schedule to see which day works to prepare and eat which meal. Typically, I only buy things that are on sale unless it’s a necessity like milk, eggs, bread and bananas. However, I may add it to my grocery list under the “watch for this item” section. If I don’t have the ingredient I may not do that meal that week. I’m not going to complicate this, because I actually want you to give this a go, so here is a super simple Meal Planning template that works.Ĭlick on it, Print it, Save it for next week.I keep my recipe book handy in case I need to look up a recipe to make sure I have all the right ingredients. So Whats Special About my Meal Plan Template? Nothing. Game Changer, baby! I have a year of Meal Plans up my sleeve now.
It’s not rocket science.Īnd as an added little bonus, after a few weeks, The grocery store tends to have similar things on special, so if I keep my Meal plans, I can rotate them and use them again. Now I just take a picture with my phone of the meal plan stuck (with a magnet) to the fridge and shop from that. I used to write out a detailed shopping list to go with it but that just pushed it into the ‘ Agh!! too much‘ zone. And I love going through mailers so at the same time, I check out the specials and fill out my meal plan for the week based on what’s in Season or on sale. And meal planning helps me with both of those things.Įvery Thursday, the local grocery store mailer arrives in my mailbox. Not me, because that s just not my ‘thing’.
I’m not naturally organised and Meal Planning is one of those things I thought ‘other Moms did’. The thing is, I always thought Meal Planning was too much of an effort. My husband works really hard to support us and when I waste money like that – simply because I’m not organised – it upsets me. Knowing that I spent $3 on that soggy, rotten lettuce that I forgot about at the back of the fridge, and now tossing it in the compost – makes me feel guilty. Throwing food away really, really bugs me. There was one thing I did last year that I wish I had started years ago – Meal Planning.įor some reason I have always resisted this simple 5 minute job and I am now certain that this little mistake has cost me thousands of dollars in unnecessary spending and food waste over the years. * We sometimes use affiliate links, so we may receive a commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.