Making Meal Planning Work for You

Planning your meals ahead of time is a great time and money saver, but few people do it successfully.

The first step is to evaluate to maximize your savings. Take a full inventory of your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Check out the grocery ads in your newspaper or for free online, and pull out any coupons that you have around. Use your list of what you have on hand plus the great deals of the week to pull recipe and round out meals.

Create a planning page that has a spot for every meal and every snack for every day. First fill in any slots you know you'll be eating out, at a party, dining with a friend etc. Next fill in the menu using your ideas from the sale and on hand items. Fill in any other slots with frugal or favorite meals. Remember to plan to use leftover on your menu. They can be used for lunches the next day, dinner later in the week or maybe just a side dish. Again make sure you plan for snacks each day.

Use your completed meal planning page to create your grocery list. Check your inventory to make sure you are not buying unneeded duplicates. Pull any coupons that you can use for the week and place them with your grocery list. Adding a notation on your list will help you remember that you have a coupon for that item, and need to buy a specific brand or size.

Sticking with the menu plan at this point can be the hard part, but there are ways to help prevent this. Do as much prep work at the beginning of the week as you can. Clean and chop vegetables needed for meals and snacks. Place smaller potions is in containers, so they'll be ready for snacks for to go in a lunch box. Mix any beverages such as frozen juice, iced tea, or Kool-Aid. Many items such as breads, muffins, and pancakes can be baked and then frozen, so they'll be ready mid-week.

Not everything can be done ahead of time, so make a to-do list for each day of the week based off of your meal plan. To-Do list items could include putting meat out to thaw, putting meat in a marinade, checking to see if new drinks need to be mixed, or letting bread rise overnight. This will allow you to check items off instead of ending up in a rushed panic, because you can't fix the planned meal.

Does this sound too structured for you? I would encourage you to give the whole method a try, as it will increase your dinner time success and help lower stress. If you still don't like such a particular way of planning meals, I do have another idea just for you. Instead of assigning a particular meal for each day, make a list of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks for the week. Cross them off as you make them to get through them all. Remember to plan for the correct number of meals you'll be preparing. Prepping ahead of time will still increase your success with this method. Now enjoy the fruits of your labor with a less stressful week of wonderful home cooked meals.