Meal Planning Tips

Meal planning is an easy way to save time, money and aggravation. Whether you plan your menus for the whole month or just the next week, putting in a little bit of time one day toward planning upcoming meals can pay off in several ways. For one thing, you can make sure that each meal is balanced, because you’re not scrambling to scrape together whatever you can find.

A number of menu planner templates can be downloaded, covering weekly, semi-weekly and monthly timeframes. Personally, I plan a week at a time to give myself more flexibility, but if you prefer to go to the grocery store less often, you can plan farther out. More than a month, though, is probably unrealistic. The following meal planning tips can help you make the most of your time and money.

Inventory what you already have. Check to see what you have on hand in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer. Are there meals you can put together with what you already have? Maybe you have most of the ingredients needed for a meal, but just need one or two additional items. It’s also cheaper to buy just one or two items instead buying an entire meal’s worth of food because you didn’t know you already had some ingredients.

See what’s on sale. When you’re planning meals for the next week, look at grocery store circulars to see if there are items on sale that you can build meals around. The same meal a week later will cost more if major ingredients are no longer on sale.

Stretch main ingredients. If you plan grilled chicken breasts for one meal, plan another meal that uses chicken breasts as the main dish so that you can buy a larger package of chicken. Buying family-size packages is usually cheaper per unit.

Avoid emergency trips. As you plan your meals and see what items you already have, put anything you need on your shopping list. This will help you avoid getting caught short while you’re cooking and having to make an emergency trip for something you don't have. Emergency trips cost extra gas and often extra money since you might need something quickly and have to settle for the closest store and not the one with the best prices.

Build in “leftovers” days. You’re unlikely to have every morsel of food eaten at every meal. So, if you’re cooking on Monday and Tuesday, and you know you’ll have leftovers from those meals, make Wednesday a leftovers day. Plan leftovers nights for evenings when you have other things going on and won’t have time to cook anyway.

Consider your schedule. Make sure you plan labor-intensive meals for days when you actually have time to cook them. If you won’t get home from Jimmy’s soccer game until 8 p.m. on Friday, that might not be the best night to plan a meal that takes an hour to cook. You’ll probably give up and just grab fast food!

Check your plan each night. A quick glance at the menu for the next day will tell you if there are items you need to set out the night before, like frozen meat, or do advance prep for, like marinating. Meal planning won’t do you much good if you get ready to cook and your ingredients aren’t ready!

Post it where everyone can see it. Put your meal plan on the refrigerator or some other place where everyone in the household can see it. If no one knows you’re planning pizza for dinner, they may eat it for lunch, and then they won’t want what you make.

Some families like to have a set schedule – Monday is taco night, Fridays are spaghetti and Dad always barbecues on Saturday. That can make planning easier and less time-consuming. But some people want more variety. Just find what works for you family and your schedule so that meal planning makes your life easier and less stressful, as well keeping your wallet laughing.

Frugal Grocery Shopping

Wholesale Clubs

Making Foods Last

Frugal Food

Jump from Meal Planning to the Laughing Wallet home page