How I Meal Plan

Meal planning is vital to saving money and essential to my household routine. Knowing what I am going to make every day takes the stress off me and I don't find myself at 4:55 panic stressing over what I am going to feed the family.

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I am going to break down my process for you. In total I would say it takes me 2 hours to complete from start to finish. You don't have to do all at once, you could break up the steps and spread them out throughout the week and focus on them during your planning time. I personally prefer to do it all in one planning lesson.

Step 1.

I print out my meal planning sheet. You can get the same one I use here for free. I like to plan 2 weeks at a time since I grocery shop every two weeks. Once I have my two sheets printed out I move on.

Step 2.

I open up my Google Sheets document that I use as my grocery list. You can get the same one I use in both Sheets form and PDF form here. Once my Sheet is open I get to work.

Step 3.

First I attack dinners. I put on the meal sheet the ones I already know how to make by heart. When I add a meal to planner I immediately add the ingredients to my shopping list. Now to fill the empty days I go to my Google Drive where I have saved some of our favorite recipes. I used to print them out, but I like being able to have them on my phone whenever and wherever I am.

Step 4.

Repeat for breakfast and lunch. Write what you are going to make adding the ingredients to your shopping list immediately.

Step 5.

Snacks. I truly loathe snacks. I got a Sam's membership just for bulk snacks that's how much snacks we go through. But recently I have stopped buying snacks for convenience and have made the decision to make snacks apart of a well balanced diet. If we are going to eat them they should be good for us. So I make a list of the snack choices for those two weeks. Just know if you go this route snacks will need to be meal prepped so they can grab and go throughout the week. Remember to immediately add your snack ingredients to the grocery list.

Step 6.

Household stuff. I go ahead and add any household stuff I need to the grocery list.

Step 7.

This one is the most time consuming for me and you may want to stick to it but I put us on a strict budget so I can get my inground pool, meaning, I need to know where every single penny is going so the extra can go towards my pool.

I pull up my Walmart app and start searching for my groceries. Once I found the item I add the price to my grocery list. I go through and do this for every single item in the quantity that I need it in. Then I add it all up to know what my approximate list will cost. I say approximate because taxes confuse me and sometimes I change my mind on brand or size when I get to the actual store.

I want to add a note here about Walmart. If you don't have Walmart+ you are seriously missing out. I can get most items I order next same and some even same day. Free shipping that ACTUALLY arrives within 3 days from your purchase (I'm looking at you failing me Amazon) My favorite part is the free grocery delivery. This saves me so much money. Sure I could run 5 minutes down the street to my market if I need something but guaranteed I will buy something that is not on my list, meaning money not needed to be spent. With free delivery I can order only want I need no extra spending. If you don't have it you can check it out here.

Step 8.

I print out my actual menu that I post on the fridge so everyone, including me can see what we are having for that week. This also has the snack list on it so they know what is available to grab and go. You can get my exact menu in PDF form or as a Canva template here.

You may not see the need in taking every single step or doing it exactly my way but I hope this gives you some insight into how I create the weekly menus that I post. As always if you have any questions please let me know!