Before we started meal planning, we would spend upwards of $800 EACH MONTH on restaurants. I’m ashamed to admit that my dislike for cooking at home led us to overspend at restaurants each month. Throw in the fact that for 10 years I was using ALL my energy as a teacher… the last thing I wanted to do at the end of each day was stand in the kitchen and cook my family a delicious meal. Why Meal Planning Works For Our FamilyĮarlier this month I admitted on Instagram that I don’t like cooking. Prepare for days you don’t want to cookīefore we dive into these 5 steps, let’s focus on why meal planning can be helpful for you and your family.Writing a meal plan each month is easy when you follow these 5 steps: And let me tell you, it has truly helped make dinner time less stressful for everyone involved! There may be fewer complaints if they know they had a say in a few of the meals.Learn how to create a monthly meal plan on a budget so that you can save time, money, and sanity! Plus, get a FREE monthly meal planner printable sent straight to your inbox so you can start budget meal planning today.įor the past few months, our family has used a monthly meal planner to make meal planning on a budget easy. Ask for suggestions from your family for meals they want to eat for the month. That way you don’t spend all of your prep time searching for that fabulous recipe. When you create your planner, spend some time collecting the recipes or write down the page numbers. The purpose of a meal plan is to make the dinner decision time less agonizing and to help you with your grocery shopping. If you don't feel like making Hamburgers, switch them with another night. If you order pizza, move the planned meal to the first week of the next month. Save it on your desktop or print it out and put it on the fridge or the inside of a cupboard. Put your menu plan where you will see it.I am constantly printing or tearing out pages of new recipes, but if I don't put them on my meal plan, I never make them. Add recipes that you want to try to your planner.You can serve Lemon Chicken twice, but the second time, serve it with potatoes instead of rice pilaf. Or Meatballs can be used for Sweet and Sour and then later in the week for Hoagies. For example, BBQ chicken on Wednesday can become BBQ chicken pizza on Friday. You can vary the sides or the appearance, but left-overs save time and money. I like this method, because then I can incorporate seasonal foods and my menus for July are distinctly different from the ones for December. Then, you can bring it out a year later and have something to work from. Or, at the end of the month or week, file the planner away until the next year. You can make three months worth of planners and then rotate them throughout the year.
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