How to Create a Meal Plan that Works for you

I know what you’re thinking, meal planning sounds like it will be tedious and time consuming, but I promise you that once you have got started, you will find that it is an easy way to save money and time with a little forward thinking.  Once you have found the time to fit meal planning into your schedule and it has become second nature, you will wonder how you ever managed without doing it!

How to get started

The first step to making a meal plan is to look in your fridge, freezer and cupboards and plan meals using things you already have.  You can be creative with recipes to use things up by searching for recipes on Pinterest.  Check out my meal planning board for some great, family and budget friendly ideas!  Once you have done this, fill in the gaps for the rest of the week or month and at the same time, write out a shopping list for any ingredients needed.  Anything in the fridge that looks like it won’t be used in time, freeze to use later if appropriate and add it to your plan.

I use notes on my phone and a simple table showing day and date and then what the evening meal will be.  I sometimes plan out a week at a time, or the whole month.  There are benefits to doing it both ways.  When I do a monthly plan, it is far easier to minimise the repeats and see the month as a whole.  Conversely, when I plan a week at a time, it is easier to plan my shopping out for the week.  I also use the notes on my phone for my shopping list, but you can use Amazon Alexa or even just a paper list if you prefer.  I like to use my phone because I can easily add when I remember that I am out of something, but use whatever makes most sense to you and you will stick to using. Find a time that works for you. For me, it is a Sunday evening. I can sit and make a plan and also do my shopping list or click and collect order ready for the upcoming week.

Make it easy

Don’t think that just because you are meal planning and prepping that you can’t use convenience foods.  You absolutely can and if your family likes them and they are within your budget, use them.  Don’t be a martyr.  Yes, cooking from scratch can save a lot more money, but if your kids love potato waffles, fried eggs and baked beans (which mine absolutely do!) or a frozen pizza and oven chips, add it into the plan!  Even jar sauces are totally appropriate to save you time.  We are trying to save money here, not make ourselves miserable.  As time goes on and you get accustomed to meal planning and budgeting, you may well see these things as an unnecessary expense and start making your own.  I will admit that I make most things from scratch, as that is my preference, but I just cannot make a lasagne white sauce that tastes right to save my life, so I buy it in a jar.  Same with curries.  We have 3 different preferences in our house and I refuse to make madras, korma and tikka masala from scratch every curry night! My family love homemade pie and I enjoy how easy it is to throw together and use up leftover veggies.

Here is an example of my meal plan for the next two weeks.  This is my genuine plan and you will see that I have some convenience options such as fish and chips from the oven and waffles egg and beans, as well as meals made from scratch. This is as complicated as it gets for me! While I like to save money, I also like to make things as simple as possible.

Tips for the time poor

I know that sometimes cooking is just so hard to try to fit in and the last thing you want at the end of a busy day is to slave away in the kitchen for hours on end.  Make your life easier by utilising the tools you have available.  Do you have an hour on a Sunday that you could use for meal prepping?  You can easily make several meals at once to save you time and energy on busy weeknights.  For example, you can easily make bolognese sauce, put together a lasagne for the freezer and a chilli using the same base sauce.  You can make dump bags for the slow cooker, that you prep and put in the freezer. Then you can just grab out the night before and pop into the slow cooker in the morning.  An example meal that works well for this is chicken fajitas.  Pop the chicken, onions, peppers and seasoning in the slow cooker on low, then when you get home, just grab some wraps, salad and condiments and you are good to go!  You can even get slow cookers with timers and delay functions such as this one, which, if you are concerned about leaving it on all day while you are out, can take away some of that worry.

Save even more money

I like to plan for leftovers too, so I batch cook bigger portions and freeze for a later date.  This means that I can grab a meal from the freezer when I can’t be bothered to cook or plan to use it for a day that I know I will have less time.   You can also use the leftovers for an easy lunch.  I work from home, so I can plate up extra portions and leave in the fridge to heat up for a quick lunch the next day and also often plan a second meal using up leftovers from the previous day. I always make a chicken pie the day after we have a roast chicken for dinner.   It uses up the extra chicken and my children love the homemade pie so it’s a win for me.  If you are really struggling financially, or even if you just want some really cheap recipes in your rotation to save even more cash, I fully recommend Cooking on a Bootstrap.  I love Jack Monroe and have tried a number of their recipes.  The lentil dahl, falafel and bean burgers are particular favourites of mine for lunch.  There are also recipes for when you have literally ‘nothing’ in and they also suggest substitutions to ingredients. Also check out my blog post about other easy ways to save money right now.

Take it further

If you have gotten used to planning your evening meals, why not also plan your lunches and breakfasts?  I usually have a variety of cereals, porridge, bread and waffles for weekday breakfasts and plan a fry up one day at the weekend. This is easy to plan when you know who generally has and likes what.  Why not give these fab breakfast cookies a try for a quick grab on a busy morning?

Planning kids lunches if they are at school is really easy.  They either have a packed lunch or a school meal.  If packed lunch, you can buy packs of snacks to cover the week.  Don’t feel like you have to create a beautiful bento box lunch like you see on TikTok, a sandwich, yoghurt, crisps, a piece of fruit and a biscuit bar is fine.  Or jazz it up with a lunchable.  You can even make your own (I do), cut ham slices in 4, cut cheddar cheese, pop in some crackers and Oreos or similar if you feel fancy and you get a far better value lunchable.  Sistema make a snack box that is brilliant for this, but it doesn’t seem to be available on Amazon anymore, sadly.

Take a little time now to reap the rewards that meal planning can bring. I guarantee you won’t be sorry that you did!

Have you tried meal planning? How does it work for your family? Let me know in the comments.