How Menu Planning saves Money, Health, and Sanity
Planning meals can be a serious money saver. Homemade meals cost very little compared to eating out, and the chances of eating a homemade meal are much higher if mom has a plan!
Meal planning also helps moms to serve healthier food, because without a plan, it is much easier to slide back into bad habits-like serving cereal 3 times a week for supper. Not that anyone I know has ever done that. 🙂
Meal planning can also minimize the before supper chaos that looks something like this:
Child 1: I’m hungry
Child 2: Me too!
Mom: Ok. (Although she is thinking that she has no idea what is for supper, and she is doubtful that she has enough time to figure anything out.)
Child 1: When is supper? What are we having?
Mom: Um, well I bought some healthy food, but I haven’t had time to figure out what to do with it. Um……. (The stress level is beginning to seriously rise and mom considers ordering pizza).
Having a meal plan can make this type of stress go away! But, I know that not everyone benefits from the same type of meal planning. For me, I often plan what we are going to eat for one meal, and I don’t plan for the others. Because we cook extra when we do cook, and we eat those leftovers at the next meal.
I often even eat leftovers for breakfast-usually it is much healthier than a traditional breakfast anyway.
If you are like me and only want to plan one meal like your dinners, you may find that my basic dinner planner will help you. This type of planner is also great for beginners on the clean eating journey. Because if you only can handle planning and cooking one healthy meal a day, it is still better than none!
Click here to get this basic type of planner.
One More Free Printable 🙂
I have another meal planner with a different layout. It doesn’t include Saturday and Sunday which might be perfect for you if you want to eat leftovers or eat out on the weekends. It is also different visually-I know that sometimes a certain layout will make more sense to me than another layout.
There are spaces for every meal that will be eaten during the week.
Click here or the graphic below to download this planner.
If you need ideas of what to cook or if cooking everyday seems a little overwhelming, check out my Super Quick, Healthy, and Cheap Meal Plan. There are some tips and tricks on the meal plan to help make healthy meals come together quicker and easier. And of course the meal plan has easy healthy recipes!
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