How Meal Planning Can Save You Time and Money
It’s Monday night. You open the refrigerator and realize there is nothing to make for dinner and your hungry husband will be home in an hour. You rush to the store and have no idea what to buy and then end up spending $100 more than you planned. Sound like you? You need to start meal planning!
Meal planning was super overwhelming to me at first, but now I actually look forward to it! It’s fun looking for recipes and it takes so much stress out of my week when I know what I am going to be making for dinner every single day.
So, Why Should You Meal Plan?
It Reduces Stress
Imagine all the stress that would be taken off of your shoulders if you knew exactly what you were going to make tonight. Even if you don’t realize it, not knowing what to make for a very hungry (and moody) family can cause a lot of stress.
When you know exactly what you are making and exactly what you need to buy when you go to the store, it takes away more stress than you even realize. You also won’t have (as many) nights where you realized you forgot to unthaw something from the freezer the night before because you know what you are going to make the next day.
No more “What are we having for dinner babe?” “Oh uhh… yeah I don’t know. Take out?”
It Helps You be Creative
Instead of having spaghetti or tacos every single night, you can plan to have something more exotic for dinner every once and awhile. If you’re like me, you love to try new meals. I find it to be super fun to plan on making a fun, new dish!
Meal planning can also help you eat healthier! You won’t have to take last minute trips to the pizza shop down the street. You got it planned, girl!
It Saves You Time and Money
I hate grocery shopping… and I don’t think I have ever met anyone who doesn’t.
When I meal plan I know exactly what I need to buy so I can go right to what I need. It saves a ton of time! You also don’t need to go to the grocery store every day. I only go grocery shopping once a week and sometimes even once every two weeks. I can get my shopping done and forget about it!
It also saves you money because you know exactly what you need for the week. Plus you will have less food that goes to waste! It’s a win win!
Meal planning = more time, more money, more creativity, and less spoiled food
Are you ready to get started?
How Do You Meal Plan?
When I first started meal planning, I would just write down the days of the week on a word document and write out what meals I wanted to make.
But then I came across this gem!
This meal planner is FREE, customizable, and it completely changes the game of meal planning!
Here is what you do:
- Collect all of your favorite meals and write them down on little sticky tabs
- Then stick the tabs in your desired meal idea pages (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, or drinks)
- You can also have subcategories (grains, pastas, veggies, etc.)
- When you are ready to plan your week, you go through your binder and assign the desired sticky tabs to your weekly meal planner
- You then make your grocery list and go shopping
- Then you live stress free!!!!
Yes, this binder is amazing, yes it’s free, yes it’s amazing, yes it’s customizable, and yes, it’s free.
I highly recommend you go print off this binder right now and start using it. You will not regret it!
Did you get the Ultimate Menu Planner by Carmona? How has meal planning changed your life?
