DECIDE HOW MANY MEALS YOU WANT TO PLAN:
After you’ve determined your own family needs and have set your goals for meal planning using our worksheet, it’s time to focus on which specific meals you will plan. This is the next step in creating a full system for your meal planning.
- Dinners only – This works well for families who have a routine for breakfast and lunch or have lunch provided by a school or work place.
- Lunch and Dinner – Planning for both main meals of the day allows for thoughtful variation (e.g. no tuna for lunch and salmon for dinner on the same day) and is necessary for making grocery lists if you prepare lunch at home or pack lunch.
- 3 Meals a Day – Having every meal planned allows for the ultimate control over meal components, variation, and shopping and preparation needs.
- 3 Meals a Day + snacks – Every meal and snack is planned and accounted for in shopping and pantry storage. This level of planning can be especially helpful for families with multiple meal-providers (grandparents, nannies, older children).
DETERMINE THE PLANNING TIME FRAME THAT WILL BE BEST FOR YOU:
The most important factor in this step is to keep your goals realistic so you set yourself up for success. There is nothing more frustrating (especially when you’re just starting out) than not being able to keep up with your plan. Our goal is to help you set up a sustainable and effective system. With that in mind, consider which timeframe accomplishes that goal.
- Weekly – This is a great starting point if you are new to meal planning. It is a manageable time frame that allows you to get used to a system, but keeps things flexible enough to move meals around as you go.
- Bi-Monthly – If you already have a steady rotation of meals that your family enjoys, this may be the right time frame for you. Planning out when you’ll have those meals will make your shopping much more efficient.
- 6 Weeks – One of the advantages to this time frame is that it allows you to plan more seasonally. The 6-week rotation relies on a resource of recipes that will repeat pretty frequently. We have a friend who has little time for meal preparation and finds this plan is the best for her and her family.
FIND A TEMPLATE FOR YOUR MEAL PLANNING:
Finding the right format to record your meal plans will go a long way to maintaining the habit. Do you prefer to write things down on paper? Or have you made the switch to technology? Either way, there are fantastic options.
- Notepads –Meal planning notepads are usually organized by weekday, then broken down into three meals a day. Here are links to a few good options: Knock Knock (available on Amazon.com), Studio Oh! (available at Amazon.com), or Organizeher products (available at most Target locations).
- White Board or Chalk Board – This is a nice option if you want to have your list reliably located in the same spot (the front of the fridge or wall of the pantry is a popular spot) to fill in each week. You can create your own board easily, or purchase one already organized for meal planning (this one is available on Amazon). The one downside to this choice is that you can’t take it with you to the store. Visit our Pinterest site for some fun ideas.
- Web templates – If you don’t mind printing off your own meal planning sheets, there are tons of customizable options for organization. Just search online for “Weekly Meal Planner PDFs” and you’re bound to find something you like. One of our favorites is from Real Simple because it easily combines your meal plan for the week with a very clearly organized grocery list. (From Kimberly – I use this system myself. I like having the consistency in layout each week, and I keep my sheets in a file to refer back to when I am not sure what to cook. The other advantage is that my husband is used to the layout of the list as well when he does the shopping!)
- Apps – If paperless is your preference then there are countless apps that will help you generate a grocery list. In our research the apps Grocery IQ and Shopping List Free received several recommendations.
Planning is empowering. Enjoy!
