Meal Planning 101

Aside from our mortgage, we spend the most money on feeding our family of six. That probably comes as no surprise to you. With one simple habit, our family has been able to drastically reduce the amount of money we spend on food. I now have a printable grocery list template so you can make the same changes for your family.

This printable is one of many from our eBook, An Organized Life, which will give you the framework to create productive habits that will simplify your life. **Click here to learn more** 

Believe it or not, it took me years to figure out and (mostly) commit to the simple act of meal planning and creating a functional/detailed grocery list.

I was guilty of going to the grocery store without a plan or a poorly laid out plan. I ended up with groceries, but not everything I needed to make a meal, meat that wasn’t defrosted and limited time to pull together a meal for our family. This led to a lot of eating out, extra grocery store trips, wasted time and money.

It took practically every night of the week being booked for me to finally get serious about meal planning.

The first step to successful meal planning is to pick a day to plan and a day to shop. Try to stay as consistent as possible. I often meal plan and then after the kids are tucked in bed the husband will run out with my very organized list. He is able to shop efficiently because the ground work has been laid. Just another bonus to a great shopping list!

I find the best way to create a grocery shopping list is to grab a calendar and figure out what you are eating when. This is the best way to avoid wasting food, and to make sure that all the ingredients are prepped. There are boxes along the top of the shopping list to put your meals. This works great for reference as you compile your list and as you shop.

It completely stinks when: meat goes bad because you didn’t use it in time, you realize halfway through the day that you should have the slowcooker running, something isn’t marinated or you realize dinner takes an hour to cook and you have soccer, open house and dance.

Next I go through my meals, adding ingredients to the appropriate box. I’m sure to check my pantry, spice cabinet and fridge/freezer before adding an item to my list to avoid excessive spending.

After the ingredients for dinner are on the list, I go through breakfast, lunch and snack options we will need for the week to complete my shopping list.

If printing off a shopping list every week seems excessive, consider laminating your grocery list or putting it in a page protector to make it reusable. We use this laminator and it so easy peasy I want to laminate ALL THE THINGS. (affiliate link)

AN ORGANIZED LIFE WAS DESIGNED WITH BUSY FAMILIES IN MIND

• An Organized Life will give you the framework to create productive habits that will simplify your life.
• Effective ways to meal plan and grocery shop to save you money.
• Planners, calendars and organizers to maintain a busy family schedule and make sure you meet your top priorities and goals.
• Printables to create accountability in your household.
• A framework to manage your money.
• A template to make your goals a reality.
• Available in two sizes, which means you can put it in your planner or hang it on a clipboard for your family to see.

AND SO MUCH MORE!

To learn more about the printables designed for busy families, click here.