Written by 6:00 am Mediterranean Diet & Nutrition • 41 Comments

Meal Planning Guide

Our one income family’s weekly meal planning guide. Tips and Tricks to planning healthy meals that everyone will love while still on a budget.

meal planning tips

Since becoming a one-income family, I would say one of my greatest accomplishments (besides raising my two little cuties of course) is my meal planning abilities. I am confident when I say that I meal plan like a boss.


How We Used to Meal Plan

When both my husband and I were brining home a paycheck, I would go the grocery store and just wander around, putting random items into my shopping cart. Sure, it was nice to be able to buy whatever sounded good at the time (hello wine aisle!!) but it resulted in a lot of food waste and countless evenings of standing in front of fridge not knowing what to make for dinner even though the fridge was stocked.

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Tips for Meal Planning

Since becoming a stay-at-home mom with only one income coming in, we had to cut that frivolous grocery shopping real quick. Over the last two years, I’ve learned some helpful tips and tricks for making the most out of your grocery budget, without feeling deprived!

Here is my guide to meal planning:

  1. Sit down and plan your weekly menu
    • Plan and write out what you intend to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner each week
    • I typically grocery shop on Mondays, so I plan my weekly meals on Sunday
    • I sit down with a glass of wine and check my recent pins on Pinterest, screenshots I’ve taken from Instagram recipes I want to try, and any recipes fro the internet I’ve saved on my desktop
    • Check the weekly grocery store ads to find out what’s on sale and adjust your meal planning around sale items (i.e. if chicken is on sale, add some chicken to your meals)
  2. Utilize similar ingredients
    • Planning out your meals and making a list will help you utilize similar ingredients later in the week
    • For example, if you have a recipe that calls for 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, you have to buy a whole bunch of parsley. Make are you plan a recipe for later that week that uses up the rest
    • Buying in bulk usually saves you money when it comes to proteins (chicken, steak, pork, etc)
    • Consider repeating proteins later in the week of your meal plan to save money at the store. If you have a chicken dish in the early part of the week, plan another chicken dish later that week. You can buy in bulk and save money.
  3. Make a List
    • Use your weekly menu as a guide and make a list of items you need to purchase
    • I developed a grocery store template that really helps streamline my grocery shopping time (if you’ve ever taken 2 kids grocery shopping, you realize this is a must).grocery list
    • I typically shop at Trader Joe’s, so my grocery list mimics how the store near me is set up..this really helps prevent back tracking!
  4. Keep parts of your shopping list vague
    • Unless it’s a very specific meal I have in mind, I typically just write “vegetable” when I need a vegetable to go with dinner
    • Once I get to the store, I look to see which vegetables are on sale, what looks the best, etc.
    • This prevents  you from having to pay 3x more for a vegetable that’s not in season or isn’t good quality, etc.
  5. Keep one day as “leftovers”
    • I always leave one lunch and dinner on my meal plan free of any planned dishes and utilize leftovers instead
    • There are some weeks that I don’t have any leftovers and have to pick up something at the store but there are other days when I have an entire meal leftover to serve.
    • There are some weeks when things come up and my husband isn’t home for dinner or we end up eating at a friend’s house etc. so that free day helps me use up the meals I originally had scheduled for that day

I also think that meal planning has to be fun or it’s going to be something you dread doing. I love looking online for inspiration or new recipes to try. To stay within our grocery budget, I usually pick 2 new recipes a week to try and then stick to simpler favorites the rest of the week. I like to make something indulgent for breakfast on Saturday mornings to celebrate the start of the weekend. Little things like special meals or theme dinners make meal planning fun and something to look forward to.

Do you have any meal planning tips?

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