Love the idea of meal planning? It really isn’t as complicated as some people make it out to be. With just a few easy steps you can make the meal planning process fast and budget friendly! meal planning process
Today, I’m sharing some of my favorite meal planning tips with you!
5 Tips for Successfully Meal Planning
1. Decide what schedule works for you. Some people like to meal plan weekly while others like to make their meal plan for the entire month. Decide what works best for your schedule and family, then stick with it!
2. Keep organized! It doesn’t matter if you write out your menu on a chalkboard, an app on your phone or a piece of paper, just make sure you set up a system that you can work with. I personally like to use this meal planning notepad. However, I keep my grocery list on my phone using an app called Wunderlist.
3. Have a list of meals your family likes to eat. Keep a running database of any family dishes. You can do this on a Pinterest board, on your phone, in a recipe binder or any other way you’d like.
4. Shop online! It might sound crazy but my favorite thing to spend money on is groceries so it doesn’t take much for me to go over budget when grocery shopping. I have found that grocery shopping online saves me a ton of money! I typically go grocery shopping every two weeks, so I come up with my budget for those two weeks, go to Walmart.com and get all the items I need for our meal and any household staples. Once all the main items are in the cart, I see how much I have left over to spend. Whatever is left over, I splurge on snacks and fun items. (If you want a $10 off coupon for online grocery shopping at Walmart, email me!)
5. Plan your meals based on your schedule. If you know your daughter has soccer practice on Monday night, don’t plan to cook a huge meal. Instead, pick dinner ideas that will suit your schedule based on any activities you have going on.
What are your best meal planning tips? Let us know in the comments!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure to check out some of my other popular posts!
How Meal Planning Can Save You Time & Money
Over 20 Fast & Easy Dinner Ideas
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