Have you ever asked yourself how can meal planning save your budget?

Does this sound at all familiar? It’s 7:00 pm and you just got home from picking your daughter up from dance and you just dropped your son off at basketball. The phone is ringing, the baby is crying and your husband wants to know what’s for dinner. You have nothing planned, the meat is frozen and you already had pancakes the night before. There is a fast food restaurant just around every corner so you decide that on the way back from basketball you will swing through the drive-thru and pick up some burgers, fries and drinks. For $32 you feed your family a meal full of nothing nutritious and you have spent ¼ of your grocery budget for the week.

With some simple planning this situation can easily be avoided. Meal planning is easily accomplished and can save you lots of money and feed your family healthy food.

There are several ways to plan your meals.

Most weeks in my house I have a chart of the wall with each day listed and what I am planning for dinner each day. I make my plan based upon 2 things: what is on sale at the grocery store this week and what I have on hand.

Another idea is to make a rotating schedule based upon what your family likes. Include your family in this plan. You can take a few minutes to devote to meal planning. Be sure to plan enough meals for a 2 week or 4 week rotation just by making a simple chart. Wouldn’t having a monthly plan help you at the grocery store? You would know exactly what you were eating and you would know exactly what to buy. This way when you see things on sale or you come across a coupon you can quickly decide if it’s worth it to you.

Have you ever thought of having “Taco Tuesdays?” If you’ve watched the LEGO Movie I am sure you know about Taco Tuesday! Every Tuesday you can have tacos. I am sure you can come up with a few “theme nights” of your own. My kids have come up with these ideas: “Meatball Monday” and “Waffle Wednesday.”  Of course they don’t have to be fancy themes.  Your meal planning could just be based on things like Chicken, Beef, Pasta, Crock pot, BBQ, etc… You know what your family’s needs are.  Plan for leftovers too!

For me knowing what we are having and having it documented and posted somewhere that everyone can see is super helpful.  I have found that when it’s planned and written down, we stick to it.  My son who struggles with anxiety really liked it when he knows what is going on and this applies to meal planning too.  AND if you are lucky enough your spouse and children might be able to help you!

One more note about meal planning.  If I have a plan for meals it really helps me to be able to do  a little prep work throughout the day.  Then there is really no going back, because I refuse to waste the food!