How do you manage to get dinner on the table every single night without getting bored of what you are serving? Learning How to Meal Plan {Free Printable} can help with that. In fact, learning to meal plan can make a world of difference in many aspects of your week. This post goes wonderfully with our Grocery List which also has a free printable!!
Meal Planning is one of the main things you can do before you make your grocery list each week. It can help you to ensure that you get all the ingredients you need to create healthy, cost effective meals each night and prevent you from spending money on things you don’t really need while you shop.
There are many reasons to start meal planning, but you have to know where to start.
Use a Printable
In order to start planning your meals, you will need something that helps manage your recipes and ideas. Our FREE printable can provide an amazing template that helps you to not only write down what you plan to have each night, but also write down where to find the recipe for reference.
Get Inspired
Spend a little time each week looking for recipes that you want to create for the following week. Search through cookbooks, websites and even magazines to find something that inspires you to create delicious and healthy meals.
Plan Quantity
Take some time to figure out how many people you will be cooking for each night of the week and pick meals that work for the quantity of people that will be joining you at your dinner table. Get a rough idea of how many meals you may need, and plan around that.
Make a Timeline
Figure out your schedule and how much time each night you will have to dedicate to cooking. Save the easier meals with less prep for the nights that you have extracurriculars to take the kids to or longer work hours than usual and the more in-depth time-consuming meals for nights when you have more time.
Write a Grocery List
Create a well-organized grocery list that is heavily based off your weekly meal plan, ensuring to plan it by section of the grocery store for easy navigation.
Start Prepping
Prep whatever you can for the week’s meals in advance. Grate cheese, measure out spices or chop vegetables to make your daily meals even easier to execute.
Give Yourself a Break
There is no shame in giving yourself a break once in a while. Schedule in an evening that you will use to eat out, do fend-for-yourself nights for the family or order in. We all do it and no one should ever feel too much pressure to plan meals every night of their life.
Meal planning is extremely beneficial to the management of your week, meals, and grocery lists. Using a printable for your meal plan is a great way to manage everything and make sure it’s all easily accessible in one place.
Here is our free printable on How to Meal Plan for you to use!
Comments & Reviews
Tracie says
When I do our monthly meal plan, I use a generic calendar in Word. I do this after I take inventory of what we have and what we absolutely have to buy.
Tara Noland says
Wow, a monthly one!! Our lives change too much for longer than a week!! Good for you!!
Reesa Lewandowski says
Oh I need something like this! I am going to print out a bunch of these, thank you!
Claudia Krusch says
I’ve been working on meal planning for the last two months. This is just what I’ve been looking for. Better organization skills.
krystal says
Meal planning saves so much money. I need to be better at it!
Kathy says
I have never done any meal planning before. This is something I really want to start doing though. I’m glad you have this printable. I’ll have to print it out and use it.
Melissa Chapman says
This is such a smart way to plan out the meals, eat healthier and save some money along the way. I agree with the break at least once a week to break it up.
Brenda Kight says
These are some awesome tips that I know would make my life easier! It never fails that I forget the most important thing that I went to the grocery store to get. I definitely need to have an organized grocery list.
Jenna M Wood says
This is just what I’ve been looking for- I can be so disorganized when it comes to meal prep and grocery shopping. Thanks for sharing this resource!
Jeni Hawkins says
I need this in my life! I love the free printable, too – thank you! Great tip to plan ahead and start prepping early. That’s definitely a time saver!