Meal Planning Tips & Free Printable
Planning your meals in advance is a great way to save money, stop food waste and reduce stress. Using a meal planner can help you keep track of your grocery lists, recipes, and budget, and it’s a great way to plan ahead. Download our free 18-page meal planner and food diary to help you on your way.
Why Meal Plan?
Meal planning is a great way to save money, reduce food waste, and reduce stress. When you plan your meals in advance, you can make sure that you have all the ingredients on hand that you need, and you can budget for your grocery costs. Meal planning is also a great way to make sure that you’re eating healthy, balanced meals.
There are a few different ways to approach meal planning. You can use a meal planning service, such as eMeals, or you can do it yourself. If you’re doing it yourself, you’ll need to find a way to keep track of your recipes, grocery lists, and budget. One way to do this is to use a meal planner.
What Is a Meal Planner?
A meal planner is a tool that helps you plan and organize your meals. Meal planners can be used to track recipes, grocery lists, and budget. They can also help you plan ahead by prepping meals or packing lunch ahead of time.
Meal planners come in a variety of formats, including printable planners, online planners, and apps. Some meal planners are specifically designed for weight loss or special diets. Others are more general, allowing you to customize your meal plans to fit your needs.
How to Use a Meal Planner
There are a few different ways to use a meal planner. You can use it to track recipes, grocery lists, and budget. You can also use it to plan ahead by prepping meals or packing lunch ahead of time.
If you’re using a meal planner to save money, you’ll want to start by looking at your food budget. How much do you spend on groceries each week? How much do you spend on eating out? Once you have a good idea of your food budget, you can start planning your meals around that.
If you’re using a meal planner to reduce food waste, you’ll want to start by looking at what you have in your pantry and fridge. What ingredients do you have on hand? What do you need to use up? Once you have a good idea of what you have to work with, you can start planning your meals around that.
If you’re using a meal planner to reduce stress, you’ll want to start by looking at your schedule. What days are busiest for you? What time do you have to cook dinner? Once you have a good idea of your schedule, you can start planning your meals around that.
No matter what your reason for using a meal planner, the goal is to make sure that you’re eating healthy, balanced meals. Meal planning is a great way to do that.
How to Plan a Food Budget
There are a few different ways to approach your food budget. You can use a percentage of your income, you can use a set amount, or you can track your spending for a month to get an idea of how much you spend on food.
Once you have a good idea of your food budget, you can start planning your meals around that. If you’re on a tight budget, you might want to look for recipes that use inexpensive ingredients. If you have a little more to spend, you can splurge on a few higher-priced items.
The USDA suggests that the average spend in a month for a family of four is around $1200 on groceries. However, this depends on ages and genders of the children in the family, as well as the income and spending habits. They’ve broken it down into four food spending plans:
- Thrifty: $901.30
- Low-cost: $985.70
- Moderate-cost: $1,241.10
- Liberal: $1,485.50
This can give you an idea of where you may want to aim for your grocery budget each month.
How to Plan Ahead To Reduce Stress
Meal planning is all about making things easier on yourself. If you know that you’re going to be busy on Wednesday night, for example, you can plan to have a simple meal like grilled chicken or fish. If you know that you’ll have more time on Saturday, you can plan to make a more complicated meal like roast beef.
One of the best ways to reduce stress with meal planning is to batch cook. Batch cooking is when you cook a large amount of food at once and then portion it out into individual meals. This is great for busy weeknights because all you have to do is reheat your meal. It’s also great for meal prep because you can cook a bunch of food at once and then have it ready to go for the week.
Finding good recipes online can help you in this endeavor, as many “easy” recipes that may be simple to cook aren’t necessarily the best to store and reheat. You’ll want to find recipes that keep well in the fridge and freezer and taste just as nice once reheated in the microwave or oven. Your stress won’t get any better if you find yourself having to make an entirely new meal because you have a disgusting pile of goo in front of you by the third night.
How to Reduce Food Waste
A lot of food waste happens because we buy too much food or we don’t use what we have. Meal planning can help with both of these problems. If you plan your meals around what you have on hand, you’re less likely to buy things that you don’t need. And if you use up all the food that you bought, there’s no need to worry about it going bad in your fridge.
Meal planning is a great way to save money and reduce stress. It’s all about finding what works for you and your family. Try different approaches and find what works best for you. And don’t be afraid to change things up if your needs change.
There are other storage methods than a refrigerator. The freezer can keep a lot of items that you wouldn’t normally think to freeze. Things like cheese, milk and bread are all fine to freeze, and they will last a lot longer, stopping them from going bad when you can’t get to them right away.
You could also try canning or pickling foods to extend their shelf life. This is a great way to use up excess fruits and vegetables from your garden.
Sticking to Your Grocery List
One of the best ways to save money is to stick to your grocery list. This can be hard to do if you’re used to impulse buying, but it’s worth it in the long run. When you meal plan, make sure to write out a list of everything you need before you go to the store. Then, when you’re at the store, only buy what’s on the list.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s actually one of the hardest things to do when you’re grocery shopping. There are so many tempting things to buy that aren’t on your list, and it can be hard to resist. But if you want to save money, you need to be disciplined and only buy what you need.
One way to stick to your grocery list is to shop with a friend or family member who can help keep you on track. Having someone else there will help you resist the temptation to buy things you don’t need.
Another way to stick to your grocery list is to shop online. This way, you can’t be tempted by things that are in the store but aren’t on your list. You can also take advantage of online sales and coupons to get the best deals.
Buying in Bulk
Another great way to save money is to buy in bulk. This can be a great way to get deals on food that you use a lot. For example, if you know you’re going to be using a lot of chicken breasts over the next few weeks, you can buy them in bulk and save money.
Just make sure that you have enough space to store the food you’re buying in bulk. And make sure that you’re actually going to use all the food before it goes bad. There’s no point in saving money if you’re just going to end up throwing away food that goes bad.
Knowing How to Cook Your Food
One of the main reasons people spend too much money on food is because they don’t know how to cook. If you can learn to cook, you’ll be able to save a lot of money. You can either take a cooking class or watch cooking videos online.
There are also a lot of great cookbooks out there that can teach you how to cook. And once you know how to cook, you can start meal planning and cooking your own meals. This will save you a lot of money in the long run.
Our free download includes some easy conversions so you can understand how to read recipes and convert measurements as needed. It also includes a guide to cooking meat properly. One of the worst things is wanting to cook the perfect cut of your favorite meat to your favorite level and having it turn out over or under cooked. This handy page will let you know the exact temperature it should be so you can get the perfect result each time.
Keeping a Food Diary
Another great way to save money is to keep a food diary. This can help you see where you’re spending too much money on food. It can also help you figure out where you can cut back.
To keep a food diary, all you need to do is write down everything you eat and drink for a week. At the end of the week, add up how much money you spent on food. This will give you a good idea of where you’re spending too much money.
Once you know where you’re spending too much money, you can start to cut back. For example, if you’re spending too much money on eating out, you can start cooking more meals at home. Or, if you’re spending too much money on Junk food, you can start buying healthier options.
The bottom line is that meal planning is an easy way to save money and reduce stress. It takes a little bit of time to get used to, but it’s worth it in the long run. So try out some of these tips and see how they work for you. You may be surprised at how much money you can save.
Download Your Free Printable Meal Planner
To make it easier on you, I’ve created this free printable meal planner you can simply download and print out. It is 18 pages, but feel free to print out the pages that work for you. The contents include:
- Cover Page
- Monthly Menu Plan
- Weekly Menu Plan
- Alternate Weekly Menu Plan
- Daily Meal Plan
- Favorite Meals
- Food Restrictions
- Meal Ideas
- Food Inventory
- Kitchen Inventory
- Recipe Page
- Recipe Cards
- Recipes to Try
- Daily Food Journal
- Grocery List (by type)
- Grocery List
- Conversion Chart (measurements)
- Conversion Chart (temperatures)
You can print out these pages as needed, or print out once and laminate them to make them reusable. Just use a dry erase marker on the laminated pages, and you can reuse them each week/month/day for a more eco-friendly approach.
I hope this planner can help you get and stay organized in the kitchen and make positive changes in your life. Let me know how it goes!
