What is meal planning?
Meal planning is simply how you choose to organize what you will eat for your upcoming meals. And it looks different to different people.
You can plan for all three meals, or just dinner. You can plan for just a week, or an entire month. You can use tried and true recipes or expand your repertoire.
However you choose to do it, meal planning shouldn’t feel like a huge, dreaded chore. It should be something that works for you – something you may even find enjoyable.
Why meal plan?
Why not? Meal planning not only saves time, it saves money. It can mean less money spent on take out, fewer trips to the grocery store, and less time and stress trying to figure out “what’s for dinner?”.
Knowing exactly what you will have for a meal and having the ingredients ready is a life saver. Planning meals around what you already have on hand and what’s on sale can save a heap of money. Plus, meal planning gives you the ability to choose quick and easy meals for the days you won’t have time to cook.
How to create a meal plan that will work for you
The possibilities are endless! Start here and experiment to figure out what works best for you.
1. Make a list of meals
Where to get meal ideas:
Family favorites. Ask each family member to list their top three favorite meals you make at home.
What do you usually make? Write down meals you’ve made over the past week or month.
“Emergency” meals. Find recipes for easy meals with ingredients you always have on hand.
Favorite cookbook. Flip through your favorite cookbook and pull out some ideas. If you don’t have one, I recommend keeping one on hand. Choose a cookbook that has basic recipes, with basic ingredients. You know, recipes that won’t require you to make last minute trips to the store.
Why keep a cookbook when you can find any recipe online? Internet distraction is a huge time suck. When I go look for a recipe online, I look through several websites, read the reviews, compare ingredients, etc. The cookbook saves me time.
Recommended Cookbooks
Check out websites. If you have extra time and you need ideas, particularly ideas to use specific ingredients, check out Allrecipes or Supercook. Other good recipe sites include Food.com, Delish, Epicurious, and Yummly, just to name a few.
2. Organize your list
Organize your list of meal ideas in a way that makes sense to you. You can organize it by the preparation time, category (pasta, soup, casserole, slow cooker, etc.), meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) or favorites.
3. Keep recipes together
Keep the recipes for each meal on your list in one place. If they’re online, bookmark and organize the links. If they’re in a cookbook, note the page number on your list of meals. Keep recipe cards in one place, so they are easy to find.
I have a photo album where I keep my favorite, most-used recipe cards. That way I’m not searching through a pile of other recipes to find the one I’m looking for.
4. Plan your meals.
Look at the week ahead (or month, if you prefer) and choose meals for each day that jives with your schedule. That’s the secret to successful meal planning – plan for the days you won’t have time to cook and have backups for the days you just don’t feel like cooking (spaghetti, anyone?).
Put meals on the calendar for each day. Or, simply make a list of what you will eat on each day.
I don’t use a calendar. On Sunday I sit down and make a list of what we will eat Monday – Sunday. And I allow for some flexibility. If I really don’t want to make chili on Monday, I’ll pick a meal from later in the week and make that instead (and make the chili later).
It’s okay to have the same, or similar, meals from week to week, especially if they are meals everyone enjoys. We have pasta at least once a week. And we usually have tacos at least every two weeks.
Sometimes, having a set rotation of meals makes life easier. That way, you don’t even have to think about it. Some people make Monday pasta night, Tuesday taco night, Wednesday stir-fry night, and so on.
Once again, this is something to experiment with to find what works best for you.
5. Shop
Take stock of what you have on hand, look through all the ingredients for the meals on your meal plan and then head to the store to get what you need for the entire week (or beyond if you plan further out).
Check the sales before heading out. I actually check the store flyers and plan meals mostly around what’s on sale and then fill in with the things I need that aren’t on sale. Since I make the same basic things on a monthly rotation, I usually know what to buy without looking at the recipes.
Bonus meal planning tips:
Save future meals by making extra and freezing the leftovers for one of those “emergency” days. We make extra food at dinner and use the leftovers for lunches the next day.
Prep ahead for the busy days. Always be thinking one day ahead and prep as much of the next day’s meal as you can the day before. I do this when I have really crazy weeks with almost no time to cook. Chop veggies, cook a double batch of ground beef, or shred extra cheese to make meal prep faster and easier.
Do you meal plan? What method works for you?
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, at no additional cost to you, I’ll receive a commission if you buy products through these links. See the full disclosure here.
Centsibly Rich is a participant in the Amazon Services, LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
We have tried this a few times without much success, we did the crock pot freezer meals for a few weeks and I thought some of the veggies were off flavor/texture wise.
Since we will be extremely busy over the next few months it might be time to give it another try, not having a plan after work leads to the same meals over and over!
I think just having a large list of go-to meals that you enjoy is helpful, even if you don’t go any further with it. And then make sure you have, on hand, ingredients for several of the meals.
Helpful post! One of my goals this spring is to get in the habit of meal planning. We only plan about 3 meals a week, and I would love to do more. We definitely find ourselves not wanting to cook every night, so I want to build up our freezer stash so we can heat something up quickly instead of buying takeout!
Thanks, Rachel! I don’t like to cook every night either. Having a stash in the freezer is great for this (or even a decent frozen pizza will do). Most weeks, I batch cook. Last night, Alan grilled steak, so I had him grill extra steak to have fajitas tonight. All I have to do is saute the peppers and onions, 15 minutes to the table!
I’ve been wanting to be more consistent about my meal planning lately, as I’ve gotten way off track! In the past, I had a rotating two month menu that I used loosely to plan meals each week. It worked pretty well, until I got super busy and resorted to quick meals. One thing that I currently use that has helped me is to include dinner plans on my Google calendar. It’s easy to drag and drop them to different days of my plans change.
Great suggestions-I’m going to do better this week!
Good luck this week, Kathryn! It is harder to meal plan when life gets busy. I like having a few quick emergency meals – like frozen pizza or a quick pasta/sauce on hand. I also try to prep a bunch of food for the week on Sunday – yesterday I made a rice casserole, soup, and chopped enough veggies to snack on for the week. It gives me a good start to the week and a back up in case I don’t get dinner cooked. Using the Google calendar is a great idea! It’s so easy to change it. (I use this to plan blog posts.)
I’ve also been in the camp of those who have meal-planned and budgeted sporadically for as long as I can remember. We would be really strict for a few weeks and then slowly go back to ‘winging it’ for dinner and eating out for lunch. When we got serious about our financial journey, we realized we were spending an extra $600+ per month on food. The strategy that has led to a more sustainable life for us is to build in a little slack with the budget. We generally meal plan for 2-3 dinners per week, make a big batch of something for lunches, and allow ourselves a date night out on Friday or Saturday. We also each take $20 cash as discretionary spending throughout the week. We still save around $500 per month, and don’t have the pressure of a super-strict budget. Great tips, thanks for sharing!
Ryan
What I love about this, Ryan, is you’ve found a system that works for you! You’re still planning ahead and saving, but at the same time it isn’t restrictive and you don’t feel deprived. Love it!
We used to be better at meal planning but lately we’ve been doing it less and less. I’d like to get back to the point where we at least have a loose meal plan for the week. One thing we do is look at the grocery ads before we plan so we can incorporate sale items (especially proteins) into our weekly meals. We also like to work from a menu of meals to try to rotate things so we’re not eating the same meals all the time.
Looking at those grocery ads and making the plan around them is a great way to save money. My meal plan is almost always a “loose” meal plan, Gary. I almost never stick to exactly what I write down. Sometimes I get lazy, sometimes I don’t have time, and, sometimes, I just don’t want to eat what was on the list. But, I usually have a few quick back ups for those days.
I find meal planning very helpful–and not as time intensive and I think some people fear it is. Like you, I make a list of meals for each day of the week, taking into consideration days that I might have more or less time to cook, etc. Often I end up switching things around based on a variety of factors or just my mood, but it helps to have a plans and the ingredients for 6-7 meals available.
It sounds like we do something similar, Kalie. You’re right – it doesn’t have to take much time at all. I probably spend 10-15 minutes a week planning (and this includes looking at the grocery store ads).
Useful tips! Our day to day meal planing doesn’t change drastically. We now have it optimized so we only need to shop for groceries once a week. It saves us both time and money. Having some easy meals on hand for emergencies is also key. We often get tied up with projects and its nice to have an easy home cooked meal available so we don’t have to get take out 🙂
Thanks, Mr. Crazy Kicks! I’ve started just shopping one day a week for the past 2 months – and love it. It forces me to think out all meals (including breakfasts and lunches), but it also saves me a ton of time. And, if I am missing something, I either substitute or do without until the next week. Nothing disastrous has happened because of this. Our go to quick meal is eggs – either omelettes, fried or scrambled – I just make sure we always have eggs on hand. Just wish I had those chickens. 🙂
I love meal planning since I got a couple of different meal plans that even include a shopping list and fit our budget. It’s only dinners, but it works and there’s enough different meals that we haven’t really gotten bored of them yet. I do end up spending about 6 hours one day to create 20 meals that we freeze and then crock pot in the future. Makes it very easy to know what to make since we just grab a meal and pop it into the crock pot each day. We try to also keep staples in the pantry for off nights like spaghetti and sandwiches, but for the most part, we are good to go.
I have always been intrigued by freezer meal cooking. While I do cook double and triple batches to freeze now and then, I’ve never actually frozen more than a couple of meals. Maybe I should give it a try! 🙂 Sounds very convenient. Thanks for stopping by, Steven!
My wife and I normally meal plan 4x a week. We always try to get in seafood twice a week, normally on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Normally the other two nights revolve around some type of chicken and whatever veggies are in season 🙂
It’s definitely cut down on eating out and really helped out the budget 🙂 Thanks for sharing!!
It sounds like your family has a nice rotation down and have found a method that works well for you. Anything that cuts down on eating out saves money! 🙂
I’ve always wanted to be good at meal planning but I think I’ve just given up. lol! I have gone with one big meal a week and trying to make it last, then substituting the rest of the week with super simple stuff like eggs.
I do this too, Tonya. On Sundays, I make a double batch of an extra meal or two so I have something ready for the busy days or for lunches. Eggs are my go-to quick, healthy meal!
This is a good reminder for me. I’ve let meal planning slip over the last while. I think it’s been a case of laziness: Not wanting to use up energy meal planning . . . which leads to using even more energy (and money) scrambling at the last minute. I love that photo album idea. OK, I’ll get back on track : )
I love my photo album. I never have to wonder “now, where did I put that recipe?”. I admit, many of my meals aren’t based on a recipe anymore since I’ve made many of them for years, but I still use my photo album and bring out the cookbooks for inspiration every couple of weeks. Hope the meal planning goes well, Ruth! 🙂
Wow, you are meticulous with your recipes – nice photo album archive 🙂 We have been meal planning for little over a year now.
The refrigerator looks clean – it is not loaded with stuff which would expire and be tossed in the trash. It has reduced our food wastage significantly and also reduced our grocery bill a good chunk.
Thanks, Michael! It’s great you’ve been able to reduce your food waste – and your grocery bill! I’ve noticed since I stopped chasing all the great deals at 3 different stores, we waste much less food and I spend less time shopping. Win-win! I think my January no spend month may have helped me with my food hoarding issues. 🙂
I organize my recipes by season! Seasonal produce can help us save, but more importantly it adds great flavor to our meals and variety to our year.
We are focused back on these basics again as we try to trim our grocery budget. One of the steps I take in meal planning is to check the fridge BEFORE I make my meals list for the week. Is there a bell pepper hanging out from the week before that needs to be used up? Do I have a little extra of another perishable item from the prior week.
Thank you for writing about the basics and helping me refocus on the fundamentals!
Ooooh, great idea, Melanie! 🙂 Love the idea of organizing by season! Sticking with the seasonal produce makes life easier and meals tastier/cheaper.
Checking the fridge before making the meal plan is a great way to go. I do the same. I also try to get creative or have a leftover night when there is too much food in the fridge and I don’t want it to go to waste. Sometimes that means we each have something different for dinner. Tomorrow one of us will have a burrito, one mashed potatoes with roast beef, and two of us will have omelets with veggie leftovers. I hate to see food go to waste!