One of the easiest ways to save time and money is by doing a little weekly meal planning. Evenings tend to be busy enough without the added stress of figuring out what's for dinner.
Every week I sit down, look at what is on sale that week and what I have at home to use for meals and make my weekly meal plan. If I know I have some shrimp at home already then I might make sushi in a bowl. If I see ground beef on sale I know I will plan a taco night. It only takes about 15-20 minutes to go through my pantry, look at the sales and plan my meals but it saves me so much money.
I also can plan around any activities that week, so if I know we will be late at a swim meet I can do a crockpot or instant pot meal or sandwiches instead of ordering carry-out. By planning easy meals on busy nights I am less tempted to skip cooking and go out to eat. If you are trying to lower your grocery budget and spend less money weekly meal planning can be a great way to help you accomplish your goal.
To help, I have created a weekly meal planner printable. It's easy to use a weekly meal plan to keep track of what meals you want to make and what is going on that week. It makes life so much easier and lowers your chances of going out to eat or carry-out. If you haven't tried meal planning before I highly suggest you try. With just 15-20 minutes a week, you can be saving your family more money and avoiding food waste.
If you want to start meal planning just grab the meal plan below. You can get started planning meals your family love. You can get and print the free weekly meal planner printable when you sign up for my (free) mailing list. I will send you the weekly meal planner printable plus a few easy ideas to get started on meal planning.
Make the frantic evenings a thing of the past with the meal planner.
Weekly Meal Planner Printable
Carol says
great idea!
Sarah @The Teacher's Wife says
Super cute printable!! Thanks for sharing!
Lbevill says
Thank you so much for this list. Thursday needs an "s", however 🙂