“What do you want for dinner tonight?” “Ummmm, I don’t know, what do you want?”
I dreaded this conversation every day. And having to stop at the grocery store multiple times a week. It was a HUGE lightbulb moment when we decided to start meal planning for the week, and has been such a lifesaver since we started doing it over seven years ago. I will say from the get go: I still haven’t figured out how to meal prep, that’s a whole separate ball game!
Since that light bulb went off, I’ve slowly perfected my meal planning list – I have one side to work on the menu for each day, and another side to keep track of the items I need to buy. You can purchase my meal planner on Etsy.
Whether using my template or your own, here are a few tips and tricks on how I use it:
- I’ve listed the grocery items in the order of my grocery store layout. I start at the far right at the produce section, then work my way all the way to the left and end with dairy/deli. I hate having to look up and down through my list to make sure I got everything in a certain area, or WORSE: having to backtrack and go BACK to an area of the store I’ve already been to. I’m all about maximizing my time at the grocery store, so keeping my list in order allows me to get everything I need from the same sections. Disclaimer: fruits, for example, are sprinkled throughout the produce section at Stater Bros., so although I have a “fruit” section at the beginning, I also list bananas at the end because…that’s where they are!
- I pre-fill items that I purchase every week. I realized after a few months of meal planning that I was writing some items on the list every week – that seemed silly. Change/add those items to your template, so when you print it they’re already on the list! Also, please don’t judge me: I still haven’t made the jump to Costco shopping so yes, I’m sure many of my weekly items could be bought in larger quantities and in a monthly or bi-monthly fashion…but I like getting these items every week.
- I keep my meal planner nearby. Once I’ve done the shopping part, usually on Saturday or Sunday, I fold the planner in half so that only the menu part is visible. I put that half up on the side on my fridge (the only reason it’s not on the front is because the front on my fridge is not magnetic), so that I can easily check to see what we’re fixing. Some of you might have amazing memories and never have to look again through the week because you know every detail of your meal for every day…but not this gal. I can’t remember what I fixed for dinner yesterday.
- I keep track of things I need to buy next week. I hate running out of stuff. So as soon as I see that something is low or that we did, in fact, run out of something, I add it to the bottom block of the weekly meal planner (which is conveniently located on my fridge -see above paragraph). This is my “to buy” list, and these are the first things that go on my grocery list for the following week once I start meal planning the following week.
- Keep track of popular meals for the family. We definitely go through a cycle of getting tired of the same meals every now and then, but for the most part it’s nice to know what works and what doesn’t for our family. We now have some staple meals that I know I can turn to when planning meals for the week.
Meal planning has been a life saver for our family – I hope it is for yours too!
The Admin Specialist 