#Dinner menu calendar template how to
#Dinner menu calendar template free

The rest of the meals I make are ones that my family has enjoyed in the past. Save them so you can go back and find the recipe later. Once you know what food you have on hand, it’s time to search for easy recipes to try! Head over to Pinterest where you can search for recipes by ingredient or diet. You won’t regret having a back-up meal ready to go! 4. Be prepared with frozen chicken nuggets and fries. Have a few frozen pizzas or lasagna on hand. Instead of picking up take-out or ordering a pizza, make a plan for these types of days! The day will come when all you want to do is come home, lay on the sofa, and order pizza. This tip might be my favorite! Here’s the truth…there are going to be days when you just don’t feel like cooking. Be prepared for the days you don’t want to cook. For instance, we always have breakfast for dinner or our favorite Crock Pot Ranch Chicken. In fact, it’s totally okay to repeat recipes every single week! Make meal planning on a budget easy by choosing a few recipes that everyone in your house enjoys. No one expects you to make something once and never cook it again. Pick out a few easy recipes that you can repeat during the month. If possible, plan recipes around what you have in the house so that you can save on food at the grocery store! 2. So take note of everything you have that you can use during the month. Go through your pantry and freezer to check what you already have on hand.Ĭhances are you have food that you need to use up before it expires.

How To Write A Monthly Meal Plan On A BudgetĪre you ready to make your life easier, save more money, and start meal planning? Follow these steps to make meal planning easy and doable! 1. Ordering your groceries online not only save your budget, but will also save you a ton of time! If you’re over budget, simply take items out of your cart. You’ll be able to see exactly how much you’re spending before you checkout online. If you tend to overspend at the grocery store, then consider ordering your groceries online.

Order your groceries online to save money.

Heck, you don’t even have to serve a 3-course meal! The key to budget meal planning is to prepare simple meals with few ingredients. Like, stupid simple! You don’t have to serve a 5-course meal. Simply choose which days you want to go out to eat and mark it down on your monthly meal plan. Pick days that you’ll go out to eat! Just because you’re trying to follow a monthly meal plan does not mean that you aren’t allowed to go out to eat every now and then! In fact, you can still go out to eat as many times as you’d like.You can plan out 2 weeks of meals, or even a week at a time. When I first started filling out my monthly meal planner, I thought I had to plan out the entire month in one sitting.

You don’t HAVE to plan out every single meal.

To help make this process easier, here are a few things you need to know before you get started: The idea of writing an entire monthly meal plan can be overwhelming. What You Need To Know About Creating A Monthly Meal Plan That’s when I started using my monthly meal planner to plan out my meals at home. Once we sat down and actually added up how much money we were spending on restaurants each month, I knew something had to change. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather create a monthly meal plan on a budget and have the extra money in my pocket! Before we started meal planning, we would spend upwards of $800 EACH MONTH on restaurants.

I’m ashamed to admit that my dislike for cooking at home led us to overspend at restaurants each month. Throw in the fact that for 10 years I was using ALL my energy as a teacher… the last thing I wanted to do at the end of each day was stand in the kitchen and cook my family a delicious meal. Why Meal Planning Works For Our FamilyĮarlier this month I admitted on Instagram that I don’t like cooking.

Prepare for days you don’t want to cookīefore we dive into these 5 steps, let’s focus on why meal planning can be helpful for you and your family.Writing a meal plan each month is easy when you follow these 5 steps: And let me tell you, it has truly helped make dinner time less stressful for everyone involved!

Learn how to create a monthly meal plan on a budget so that you can save time, money, and sanity! Plus, get a FREE monthly meal planner printable sent straight to your inbox so you can start budget meal planning today.įor the past few months, our family has used a monthly meal planner to make meal planning on a budget easy. Please read my disclaimer for more information.

#Dinner menu calendar template how to

#Dinner menu calendar template free