There are so many benefits to Meal Planning. It can save you a bunch of money. There is no wondering on what to make for dinner that day. You can look ahead and make sure things are planned and bought and organized for that day, week, and/or month.
Most people usually plan a menu for the week. Some do a meal plan for 2 weeks. This month I thought I would do a full month of meal planning. For the month of February our household has taken on the challenge of NO EATING OUT FOR THE WHOLE MONTH! It will be challenging for us because Wednesday Nights are usually our grab and go nights because of Wednesdays being our crazy busy night of running.
Doing a full month of meal planning was a bit of a challenge for me because I wanted to make sure there was a variety as well as those busy nights that needed to have easy quick meals. I knew the process was going to take some planning, and boy did it. It actually took me about a week to get everything organized enough to make a meal plan for a whole month. BUT, I think I have accomplished a wonderful thing. Here is how I underwent the Challenge.
The first thing I had to do was make a list of the usual suspects that get made for dinner around here. That was a challenge in its self. Here are different meals that we eat regularly. This step is kind of nice to have on hand so when you get in a rut, you can go through and see what meals you have in your back pocket waiting to be cooked or even things you forget that your family likes. 
So the next thing I did for this month long meal planning challenge was I printed out a calendar and filled in the first draft of the meal plan. (You are actually looking at more like the 3rd or 4th draft here. And I wasn’t going to do a blog post about this, but Tomithy encouraged me to post my struggle. LOL) I started filling in the calendar with dates that I knew we had things planned. (Mom’s Birthday Dinner, Super Bowl Party, etc…) Then I planned the meals on those nights that we are REALLY busy to make sure the meals were easy. Then I looked at the calendar and planned those weeks where I can make one main dish and use it in several nights. (Roasting and chicken and getting 2 meals or pulled pork and making several meals from that) Then it was time to fill in the rest of the mess.
Now that I had an idea of what was planned, I then filled out this fancy calendar for the individual weeks. To me, this just made sense. I had a weekly reminder of what was planned for meals. It wasn’t a huge mess of information on a calendar to cause confusion. And the best part, everyone knew what was planned for dinner. I didn’t have to figure everything out that day.
I only planned Lunch (on Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and Dinner meals for the month. I figured that I would fill in breakfast during the week with eggs and breakfast bars for the kids. No need to REALLY plan that. And dessert is usually picked on a day to day basis depending on the cravings we all have.
The next step after everything was planned was inventory and grocery shopping. We usually have a pretty big stock of food here in the house and inventory is done pretty regularly to make sure what I have and what needs to be used. Then comes the list for grocery shopping. I did a major list for shopping last weekend to make sure I had MOST things for the month. I didn’t want to have to shop every week for groceries. But in all honesty, I am sure there will be SOMETHING that I forgot to buy.
I know a MONTH LONG MEAL PLAN is a huge task to take on. But with our challenge for February being NO EATING OUT, I felt the only way I was going to be able to succeed at this challenge was to make sure I was organized. I want to challenge you to make a meal plan. Maybe not for a full month, but for a week or 2. It really does take some stress away for the up coming week and the grocery bill will go down with making a list and sticking to it. What are some of the meals you enjoy making?
Here are the menus for the next month.
0 comments on “Meal Planning for a MONTH!?!”Add yours →