Meal planning is a real time-saver and can help you eliminate unnecessary stress in your life—who doesn’t want that?! By creating a weekly meal plan you can start your week off on the right foot!

Here’s what we’re covering in this post:

• The Benefits of Meal Planning
• Meal Planning Tips
• How to Meal Plan
• Easy Meal Planning for Two Hack

I’ve always been a planner, and creating a weekly meal plan is a staple in my weekly routine, even more so since I got married. Having a weekly meal plan saves me and my husband so much stress and time!

Creating a meal plan for your household doesn’t have to be a time-consuming and complicated process, in fact, I keep my menu planning quite simple!

So let’s get started! Here’s how to meal plan.

The Benefits of Meal Planning

Eliminates Stress

How many times have you been asked the dreaded ‘What’s for dinner?’ Or maybe you already decided what to cook but then you realized you don’t have all the ingredients you need?

You’ll always have an answer to ‘What’s for dinner?’ and all the ingredients you need on hand when you plan out your menu. No more digging through the pantry and trying to piece together the ingredients you have to make some semblance of a meal.

Saves Time

How many last-minute time trips have you made to the grocery store to pick up an ingredient you thought you had at home?

Meal planning solves that! When you plan out your weekly menu you put everything you need for those meals on your weekly grocery list—no more last-minute trips!

Saves Money

How many times have you gone to the grocery store without a list only to end up wandering through the aisles picking up whatever looks good (hello, ice cream) and forgetting items you need (I guess stale bread will have to do this week?).

Creating a weekly meal plan can help you save money! When you have a specific grocery list of ingredients to buy for your weekly meal plan you will know exactly what aisles you need items from and can more easily avoid impulse purchases.

Not to mention, meal planning on a budget is easy to accomplish when you have your menu planned out ahead of time. You can incorporate what’s on sale into your grocery list and use up ingredients you already have at home.

Related: 15 Things I Learned in My First Month of Budgeting

Meal Planning Tips

Meal planning is the best—it helps my week go so much smoother, and it will do the same for you! Here are a few of my favorite tips to make meal planning easier for you.

Keep it Flexible

When choosing your recipes for the week, make sure you plan some quick meals along with the longer ones so you have options.

You don’t need to assign specific meals to days of the week, in fact, I recommend that you don’t.

When you’re planning simply choose a few recipes to make for the week. When dinner time rolls around you can pick whichever one you’re in the mood for and you have enough time to make that day.

I typically have quite a few Instant Pot recipes on my meal plan because it’s so convenient to have quick options; however, I also like to have more time-consuming recipes like a classic oven-baked lasagna or Indian butter chicken from time to time. Both can be incorporated into one week’s plan, simply choose to make the longer recipes on days when you have more time.

Make Extra

I’ve never understood why people cook one serving at a time. I mean it makes sense for something like scrambled eggs, but when you’re spending 30+ minutes cooking dinner? You could spend that same amount of time and have twice as much food prepared.

If you ask my husband what his favorite thing is for dinner, he would probably say leftovers. Whether you’re cooking for one, two, or six, it’s easy to double a recipe so you have leftovers to eat for lunches or for a leftover night on a busy weekday.

If your tupperware is looking a little worn and needs replacing, here are my favorite glass tupperware containers and my favorite plastic tupperware set.

How to Meal Plan

What Meals to Plan

Before choosing recipes for your weekly meal plan, look at your weekly grocery store ad and see what’s on sale. By choosing to use meat, produce, and other ingredients that are on sale you will save a lot of money each month.

You should also take a few minutes to look at the items you have in your fridge, freezer, and cupboards to see what needs to be used. Make a mental note of anything expiring soon, and try to find a recipe that will use those items.

By shopping the sales and using ingredients you already have, you will not only prevent unnecessary food waste but also save money on your grocery bill!

Where to Find Recipes

Pinterest is your best friend for finding recipes! I’m constantly pinning new recipes I want to try. I recommend creating one board for all of your recipes and then creating sub-categories to make it easy to find them later.

I have mine sorted by cuisine type (ex: soup, pasta, sandwiches) or cook type (Instant Pot, Crockpot, etc.) which keeps them well-organized. Honestly, Pinterest is a life-saver for meal planning. It’s like going to a restaurant where there’s a picture for every item on the menu. (If a restaurant like this exists, please let me know. Help a girl out!)

After you’ve made a recipe from Pinterest you can add personal notes so you’ll remember any tweaks you want to make next time. I often add notes to cook for an extra minute in the Instant Pot, add a different ingredient, or double the recipe.

Keep it Varied

Don’t get me wrong, pasta is amazing and I could probably eat it every day (happily, might I add), but I also love having a variety of meals during the week.

I recommend incorporating different types of meals into your plan. I prefer to have some sort of meat or protein, a veggie, and a carb with every meal. Y’know, balanced diet and all.

Choose at least one recipe with each kind of carb and start your meal plan there. I usually pick a potato, pasta, bread, and rice-based recipe and then fill in with other meals I want to make that week.

If that doesn’t make any sense, I’ll break it down further. Here’s an example weekly meal plan:

• Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Chicken, and Broccoli (Carb: potato)
• Shrimp Alfredo with Salad (Carb: pasta)
• Zucchini Black Bean Burritos (Carb: bread)
• Teriyaki Chicken & Veggies (Carb: rice)

Since I’m meal planning for two I usually pick 4-6 recipes for the week, depending on our plans for the week, and we have leftover nights once or twice. This works really well for us!

Easy Meal Planning for Two Hack

It’s common to use printed schedules or whiteboard calendars for meal planning. While that works for many people, I prefer to keep everything digital so it’s easy to access from my phone (by me or my husband).

When I first started meal planning I used the notes app on my phone. My note page consisted of three sections: the weekly meal plan, meals I’d like to make soon (or items that need to be used soon), and meals I’ve already made.

After I make a meal I move it from the weekly meal plan section to the top of the ‘meals I’ve already made’ list. By keeping everything written down I have a whole list of favorite repeat meals (noted with a ⭐️) and a recipe history to reference when I’m in a meal-planning rut.

After you choose your meals for the week and put them in the meal plan section of your Google Keep note you can paste in the link to the recipe. This makes for easy and convenient access for everyone!

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If you haven’t tried meal planning before you definitely should! By planning out your menu you will save yourself and your family unnecessary dinnertime stress and last-minute grocery runs, and you’ll save money by incorporating items that you already have or ingredients that are on sale into your weekly meal plan.

It’s easy to start meal planning, not at all complicated like some people make it out to be! No need to create a daily schedule, simply choose the meals your family would like to have for the week. They can come from a recipe card, cookbook, or, my personal favorite, Pinterest!

You can easily create your weekly meal plan (and shopping list) in a Google Keep note to allow for convenient access to anyone you share it with. This method of meal planning has been a real game-changer for me and my husband, and it can do the same for your family!

Have you tried any of these meal planning tips? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you!