The Ultimate Meal Planning Guide

I will always remember when my husband and I started meal planning. We were newly married, living in a small apartment, and I was pregnant with our daughter. Our income was approximately $30,000 a year. My income as a server at a restaurant was slowly dwindling as my belly grew, so we knew we had to make some changes, and fast. Meal planning was a game changer for us. That’s the whole reason I decided to share my process for meal planning. If it changed our lives, it might just positively impact yours. Plus, I have a little bonus to share with you if you make it through the whole process.

Just a quick note before we get started. Meal planning works well paired with a household budget so that you can determine what you can afford to spend on meals and groceries. 

Sales Ads & Coupons

My first step, and probably the easiest one, is to find a comfy seat on the couch and get out paper and pen. 

My second step is to check the ads for our local grocery store. Reminiscing as I write this, I realize that when we started meal planning, we didn’t have the option to pull it up on the app like you can now. Technology has it’s benefits. 

Anyhow, once on the app (or website) I check the ads to find out what is on sale. Typically, I am looking for main courses – chicken, tenderloin, fish, etc. I write those down as dinner options. We’ll talk about breakfast, lunch and snacks later.

Our local grocery store offers coupons a.k.a. ‘mperks,’ so, I then clip mperks for any items we purchase regularly, not items that are enticing because it’s on sale. This is important! My husband taught me not to buy things just because they’re on sale because then you’re not technically you’re spending more to “save.” 

Coupon Tip: Determine if it’s a good deal and if you truly need the item.  

Then, I write these items down with a ‘C’ next to them. I can usually find coupons to save on things we purchase often, such as toilet paper, creamer, granola bars, cereal, and coffee. 

And remember to check any printed coupons you might’ve received when you shopped last.

As we’re chatting about meals, we’ll take notes of what we want for each meal. Then, we’ll write down the ingredients we need to shop for on the shopping list. That covers dinner! 

Does this seem like a lot already? I hope it doesn’t but if it does remember: As you go through these tips remember to give yourself grace. I’ve heard it takes an average of 66 days to make something new a habit so, give yourself time.

Planning Lunch

Now, I’m not sure how you feel about leftovers, but we love leftovers. If you do, too, here’s a budget saving idea: Plan to have leftovers for lunch. Because we cook for just my husband and I (our daughter is hyper picky) will typically have leftovers. If the meal supplies leftovers you can bet, we’re taking it for lunch the next day. Some of our favorite leftovers are: chili and/or soups, tacos that we typically turn into nachos, and grilled chicken to add to a salad. 

If you’re not a fan of leftovers go back to your sales ad/coupons and repeat the steps for planning lunches. Here’s a few questions we typically ask about lunches when meal planning:

• How many meals will we eat from leftovers?
• How many lunches will we need to offset leftovers?
• What’s on sale that could work for lunches?
• Do salads or sandwiches sound good?

Breakfast Meal Planning

Breakfast is the easy one, but this is probably because we stick to the same things each week. We enjoy turkey bacon and eggs, cereal or oatmeal. Once in a while we will switch it up to do avocado toast, turkey sausage, smoothies, or pancakes. This makes shopping for breakfast a no brainer. A few things about breakfast meal planning:

• We always gravitate towards cereal that is on sale.
• Store brands are pretty tasty, too. 
• Rarely do eggs go on sale but, we recently started buying farm fresh eggs from a friend, so we have to plan ahead for that as well. If you ca find a local hobby farmer, I highly recommend purchasing eggs locally.
• If you have little ones and you’re full-time like us check the frozen food section. Frozen waffles and French toast sticks are a quick and easy way to switch it up.

Last thing on breakfast planning: be sure to add breakfast foods to your grocery list. 

Planning Snacks

I’ve been told multiple times I am a grazer. I eat small snacks between small meals throughout the day. So, based on my habits (and my daughter’s habits), I know I need to plan for snacks. 

Tip: Do you have young school-aged kids? We plan for school snacks during this step. If you answered, yes, add school snacks to your list!

Return to your sales ads to see if you can incorporate items that are on sale into your snacks this week. I can usually find pretzels, fruits or veggies, cheese and sometimes hummus on sale. 

Other Stores & The Farmers Market

My biggest tip of the day is probably this one: Shop at Aldi. It took a very large wake up call that we were spending too much money at the grocery store, to finally incorporate Aldi into my grocery shopping. This revamped our grocery shopping and spendings.

Now we shop at two grocery stores. Some people might not like the idea of shopping at two stores but, for me, the savings are worth it. Aldi is excellent for Nutella, snack packs, fruit leather, granola bars, coffee, nuts, yogurt, sparkling water, and cheese. We also enjoy their sour dough bread, vegetables, and lunch meat. 

If you’re a fan of supporting local and eating locally grown foods hit up your farmer’s market before grocery shopping. You are sure to find a few items on your grocery list. My philosophy for the Farmer’s market is: you get what you pay for & you can’t beat the freshness.

Check In Time: Are you still with me? I recognize for someone who isn’t a meal planner like myself, this might seem like a lot. So, remember, give yourself grace and follow the steps. Start with one meal. If you are still with me here’s the fun part: