How To Weekly Meal Plan Easily

Have you ever struggled coming up with a meal plan? Or even worse, sticking to one? Here’s 7 steps to weekly meal plan easily, and to stick with it!

1. Check your schedule.
2. Take inventory.
3. Make the master list.
4. Make the master staple list.
5. Choose # of meals and fill into planner.
6. Print out or save any recipes you don’t have.
7. Make your grocery list.

Benefits to Weekly Meal Planning:

If their is one thing I would recommend to work into your schedule, its to meal plan! There are so many benefits, and to be honest, I can’t think of any draw-backs. Except maybe that I’m not eating out anymore, nor reaching for those freezer meals. Here’s just some of the amazing benefits to weekly meal planning!

Saves time.

Once you get the hang of meal planning, you won’t even have to work it in to your schedule because it will make extra space within it. You save so much time throughout the week because everything has been planned and organized even before you go into it. Your groceries are stocked for exactly what you need which means you aren’t running to the store every second day. The best thing is, once you get your system down it only takes max 15 mins of planning to have your week running smoothly!

An added bonus is that you’ll save so much time at the grocery store because you already know exactly what you need.

Healthier.

The easiest and best way to automatically eat healthier is to cook and eat from home. Resturaunts and take out, those freezer and instant meals are all highly more processed and often filled with a lot of ingredients you don’t want. Another great thing about eating from home is that you get to control every single ingredient that goes into your body!

Saves $.

There is no doubt about it, if your looking to save some money, or make extra space in your budget, meal planning is the easiest way to go! If you go to starbucks and get a sandwhich for $4 and than a drink for say $3 plus something sweet $2 and a bag of chips to go with it $1. Your looking at, at least a 10 dollar lunch! I won’t even go into the expense for eating out at a restaurant for dinner!

With meal planning you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner for 2 people for the whole week and only be spending at most 75 bucks! Of course their can be some exceptions depending on your location or special dietery restrictions/needs that make that number go higher. However for most cases I think you could definitely have a $75/wk budget.

Reduces waste.

With meal planning, comes a more specified and defined grocery list. You are buying the things you need for that week, and not extra. Plus as you go throughout your week making these meals, the ingredients are than being used up. There is little to no waste when meal planning properly, because their is just no reason to. This in turn also saves you money because you aren’t throwing out food every week!

Break Down Of How To Weekly Meal Plan Easily.

1. Check your schedule.

This is where a lot of people go wrong and are unable to follow through with their meal plan. Checking your schedule and being aware of whats going on in the coming week is essential to an effective meal plan. You need to be aware of your needs before your able to meet them.

Are you going to have a busy week ahead? Maybe you need to pick some simpler meals, or have some prepared beforehand. Have you been invited over for dinner one night this week? Or maybe you are hosting? You may need to plan less/more. Are their some mornings or afternoons where you’ll be gone for most of it? Perhaps put on a crockpot dinner so that it will be ready for you when you arrive home.

Their are so many options out there for meals that can fit to any need!

2. Take inventory.

Taking inventory of what you already have on hand saves you time and money. Although not absolutely essential to meal planning, it helps to keep you from wasting food or doubling up on items you already have. Plus you’ll save some extra cash at the checkout!

Simply go though your pantry, fridge, and other primary areas where you store food and jot down what and how many of the items you have.

The process to taking inventory is very simple but may look a little different depending on your family size. If you have a larger family, a pantry and fridge inventory checklist can be very helpful. It will help you keep track of what you have on stock, and provide a quick reference point while meal planning. If its just you and your spouse, a quick check through the pantry and fridge is probably all you need. Especially if you are cooking almost every day, you’d be pretty aware of what you have on hand already.

3. Make the master list.

I love this part because it takes out all of the hard brain work that can come with meal planning. In my opionion the hardest part to the whole meal process is: Coming up with them in the first place!

What is a list of meals?

A list of meals is simply all the meals written down on a piece of paper that your family enjoys. When you are meal planning, you can than pull from this list to plug into your week.

If you are new to meal planning, an easy way to get a list going is to ask your family. What are their favorite meals? Write them down, and start from there. As time goes on you will be trying out new recipes and discovering new staples items. These can than all be added to your master list. Pinterest is also a super power when it comes to meal planning and coming up with new ideas!

In the beginning I had a hard enough time coming up with a week of meals, but now, because I have so many staples to choose from I could quite easily do a month of meals at a time and still keep lots of variety! The great thing is, once you’ve developed enough meals, you can put them on an endless monthly or bi-monthly rotation. This will take out almost all the meal planning neccessary!

I go more in depth and also share about my specific method to making my meal list below in the post.

4. Master staple list.

This list has the same idea as the master list of meals but covers all the other items that might not necessarily be covered in the recipes.

What is the difference between the Master list and the Master staple list?

The master list is a list of meals, and the ingredients necessary to make them. The master staple list are all the items that fall through the cracks of your meals.

Think of things that you always have on hand but aren’t necessarily for a specific meal recipe. For example, I have cream written down on my master staple list. I love cream in my coffee and use it everyday. Therefore it is a staple on my grocery list even though I don’t always use it in my recipes. Other items written down are: cheese, milk, onions, garlic, eggs, fruit. Because they are items I like to have on hand and use quite frequently even without a designated meal for them. I also like to have salad throughout the week, so I always have standard veggies like carrots, tomatoes, and lettuce to throw into a salad.

5. Choose # of meals and fill into planner.

Now that you have your master list of meal ideas. You can go through and pick out however many you need for the coming week. I generally choose just 5 meals/week. This allows 1 day for leftovers and on sundays we usually just do something simple like pancakes or french toast. I also only plan dinner meals because thats what works for us. We aren’t really breakfast people and I usually make large portions for dinner to than use for lunch. If we need to we have some quick stables always on hand to tie us over.

If you have young kids, or need lunch on the go, plan all the meals or snacks you generally need in the day in this step. Make your plan to suit you. A lot of people go out one day a week, or only plan 4 meals because thats all they need to. This can be as flexible as you want it to be.

6. Print out or save any recipes you don’t have.

This is a simple step but very helpful for writing down your grocery list .

How you choose to keep track of your recipes is up to you. I print out all the recipes I use on a regular basis because I prefer having things on paper, and it saves me from having to open my phone all the time with messy hands while cooking. I can also go back and forth between recipes while meal planning to determine exactly what I need easier. But do whatever is best for you. I recommend at least saving them on your pinterest board or other app for easy reference.

The princible here is that you are doing as much prep work as you can, to have your meals run smoothly through the week. Having your recipes already on hand, or where you can easily find them is just another helpful step along the way. There’s nothing like being already to make dinner but than have to endlessly search for that one recipe you intended to use!

7. Make your grocery list.

This is where its helpful to have easy access to all the recipes you have planned to use that week!

1. Grab your inventory checklist (if you have one), all the meals you have planned, and your schedule (or whatever you use to write down your meal plan).
2. Go through each recipe and write down the items needed as well as the amount.
3. Add all of the staple items you need.
4. Any other miscelaneus items that aren’t categorized.

That’s it! You’ve now succesfully completed your meal planning for this week. Just head on over to the grocery store and you are ready for smooth, less stressed week!

The Master List Method.

What is the Master List Method?

Its all your family meal favorites and other tried and true recipes compiled into one master list.

When you have a list of meals already in front of you that you have made before, it changes the whole meal planning ball game. You don’t have to do all the hard brainwork of searching for a new recipe and than having to make it for the first time, everytime your wanting to make a meal at home. If you asked me its the simplest and easiest way to meal plan!

How does it work?

There are a couple of different options. One way is to just simply write all the meals down together on one long list. Or, theirs a second option and also the one I prefer to use because it categorizes all my meals. I have them all sectioned according to their main protein. This way I can easily work my way through, picking one item from each category. It also ensures that I’m always having variety in my plan.

Some meals can fit into more than one category. For example: Dijon Chicken and potatoes. That could go under Poultry or potatoes. Easy way to fix this is to just use the main protein. For this recipe I put it under Poultry.

Here is my free printable template:

Where do I start?

The easiest way is to go around to each of your family members and ask what their favorite meal is. Add them to your list. This can also go to extended family as well. Maybe ask your mom, or aunt to give you some ideas!

Another great way to find new meals is through pinterest. I literally use pinterest to find ALL of my recipes. It has an endless sortiment and you can choose categories to help narrow your search.

Having theme nights are also really helpful for filling in the gaps in your week. For example: Taco Tuesday or Meatless Monday. They also work really well to just keep on rotation. You could have a ground beef taco one week and than a chicken taco the next.

Once you’ve compiled your list, keep it with your meal planner for easy reference when you meal plan!

Tips to Making Weekly Meal Planning Easy.

1. Have your meal plan list easy to spot or grab. If you have a large family, writing out the weeks meal and posting it on the fridge is a great way to let your whole family know whats on for dinner! I write all my meals in a seperate section in my schedule book. This works great to because I’m always referring to it so it just makes sense for me to have my meals there to.
2. Use the master list method referred to above.
3. Keep your old weekly meal plans. You can easily referrence back to them, or even completely copy a weeks plan thats already a few weeks old. It also helps against repeating a recipe you just used the week before. Unless of course, you want to!
4. Make the recipes that use the most fresh ingredients at the beginning of the week. This will help make sure you aren’t having to throw out any produce.
5. Utilize your crockpot or prepare freezer meals in advance when you are busy for most of the day.
6. If your just starting with meal planning, or wanting to try out new recipes, pinterest is your best friend.