I often find myself stressed when the inevitable evening or mid-afternoon question comes from one of my family members, “Mom, what’s for dinner?” In fact, I found myself rolling my eyes and responding, “Toast” whenever someone would ask. It became a running joke between my husband and I. However, I know how to prevent the suppertime stress and overwhelm…meal planning and prepping…it works every single time.
Getting into the habit and routine of meal planning and prepping is the hardest part.
Yet, the benefits it yields are truly remarkable. When I take the time to map out and prepare my meals in advance, I discover hidden pockets of time, save on expenses, and experience a more peaceful dining experience. Don’t we all want that? But what exactly does meal planning and prepping involve? Let’s dive into the core concepts behind these practices and explore how they can effortlessly enhance your everyday eating routine.
Meal planning is surprisingly straightforward – it’s essentially deciding on your meals for the upcoming days and week(s). I personally use my Google Calendar to jot down our meal choices for the week and the best part is I get a reminder of what’s for dinner! Of course, there are those times when I forget to plan ahead – we’re only human! Okay, this happens a lot. That said, meal prepping can be a real time-saver. This involves preparing portions of your meals in advance. Interestingly, even just the planning part can save enough time that I occasionally skip the prepping phase altogether!
During the hustle of fall and hockey season, which I affectionately refer to as our “busy season,” I make a BIG effort to both meal plan and meal prep. It’s during these times that we often pack our own food to take to the hockey rink. Yes, we are THOSE people. This not only helps us save money but also allows us to make healthier eating choices, because we can only eat so many hotdogs and brats from the concession stands.
Meal planning and prepping not only save time and energy, because who wants to work all day, pick up the kids from school, listen to them fight and complain about how hungry they all are, and then come home and make a whole big meal? But it saves money as well, and you know who loves to save money? ME!
The average amount of money saved by meal planning and prepping for a typical family is between $2,500-$3,000 per year. Now that is a lot of money! That could be used for a vacation, a nice chunk of debt payoff, or part of a nice down payment on a house or car. I will plan my meals to save that much money each year, won’t you?
When I have a plan and know what we are eating every evening for supper, I have way less stress and so does my family. The evening goes more smoothly and we all feel a sense of relief and peacefulness. We also have more time for playing kickball, snuggling on the couch, or just hanging out together as a family.
Now, let’s talk about how much it costs to eat out nowadays. We are a family of 5, two adults and three children. Our boys are getting older, so a couple of them eat adult-sized meals now. Seriously, these kids, especially our middle son, Bryson, can eat a lot of food! On average, a fast food run will cost us $60, and a sit-down restaurant, not even a super fancy one, will cost us at least $125. That adds up quickly! Ready-made meals can also add up over time. So, eating at home or on the run but with food from home saves us a lot of money.
I will be the first to admit that I don’t love cooking. It just doesn’t fill my bucket, so it is super easy and convenient for me to want to go out to eat. However, meal planning has allowed me to enjoy cooking a little (teeny tiny bit) more.
When you plan out your meals, you will want to base your meals off of food you already have in your house. If you have food that is getting close to expiring, you can base your meals around that to use up that supply of food before you have to throw it out. By utilizing what you already have at home it will save you money at the grocery store.
When you prep the food ahead of time, it will be ready to use and you will be more likely to use it and not let it go to waste. I also suggest looking at upcoming sales and basing some meals off those ingredients. You can also go online or use an app to put in ingredients you have on hand and it will give you recipes. How cool is that?
By creating a grocery list off of your planned meals you are more likely to stick to your list and save money. I also use the Ibotta app, which is a cashback app for groceries, household supplies, and personal hygiene items. Buying in bulk can also be a money saver, but this is not 100% true, so look at the price per unit of items. Shop your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer before you hit up the stores.
My boys love to help make meals, so we try to make it a family-involved process. This allows us quality time as a family and I enjoy cooking more because of this. In fact, sometimes each of the boys will take a night of the week to make a meal. Family involvement with meal planning and prepping is wonderful.
Deciding what recipes to make can also be a family effort. I suggest making meals that you know your family will eat, but also trying to make meals occasionally that will allow yourself and your family to venture out of the norm. If you have “picky” eaters like I do, myself included, we tend to stick with recipes that we know and like. Coming up with 25-30 recipes to rotate through is a good number and then adding a few other recipes to try every now and then will give you a nice amount of meals to rotate through.
Freezer meals and having some “emergency” meals in your pantry are also important to have on hand for those nights when time gets away from us. Freezer meals are also great for if you have unexpected guests to be able to pull out a frozen tray of lasagna, heat it up, and serve it without the hassle of running to the store or stressing over what to make.
You can make a larger batch of your meals and freeze the “extra” to use at a later date. We do this in my family. Investing in some quality containers for efficient storage to prevent freezer burn is a great idea. Just don’t go overboard with this! I also portion out our meals into containers for easy grab-and-go. Picking a day of the week and blocking off some time for your planning and prepping is smart. Many people pick Sunday to shop and then they go home and prep their meals for the whole week. Don’t forget to eat your leftovers, again, this saves a ton of money.
Here are a couple of tips for saving money at the grocery store:
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Number one, DON’T go to the grocery store when you are hungry! This is a huge downfall of mine. If I am hungry, even a little bit, I will buy out the store. Don’t make this same mistake.
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Use a cash-back app, like Ibotta, there are also other ones out there.
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Shop sales, but plan your meals around the sale items.
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Shop at different stores to find the best savings, only if you have the time of course
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Grocery pickup- I love ordering my food and having someone else do the shopping! I also tend to stick to my list by using grocery pickup. MONEY SAVED!
I encourage you to start with a few meals and a few days a week and gradually expand from there. Make sure you rotate your recipes so you and your family don’t get burned out of the same meals because you are eating them every couple of days. Prepping and making your meals in one sitting and freezing the extras will save you time, energy, and money. Remember to stay flexible, there are going to be days/evenings when you won’t be able to make the meal you had planned. Give yourself grace, life gets busy, but keep working toward your goals of meal planning, prepping, and saving money.
Meal planning and prepping saves me time and money every single time I do it. Again, getting into the habit and making the effort to plan your meals is the hardest part. Thinking ahead is difficult for many, I know it is for me. Take the time to compile some family favorite recipes, set up planning, shopping, and prepping days, and include your family in making the meals, you will be happy you did.
I would love to hear how you are planning and prepping your meals and how you are saving money on groceries! Message me on social media!
