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October 21, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Is Meal Planning Worth My Time?

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Click here to read my disclosure policy.

Budget· Budget Tips· Frugal Living· Meal Planning· Saving

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“I don’t have time for meal planning.  Is meal planning really worth the time and effort to help me cut my grocery bill?”  This is a phrase I see over and over again, and I get it.  Your time is precious, and you want to utelize it as best as you can.  You’re also smart, and know that in order to spend your time meal planning, it has to be worth it.  Well, you’re in luck because I’m here to tell you, meal planning is worth your time.

meal planning worth time

What if I told you that by spending an hour each month creating a monthly meal plan, you could save your family thousands of dollars a year?  Nope, that is not an exaggeration.  Since I started creating a monthly meal plan, I’ve been able to save our family over $7,000 a year!  That’s money that we have been able to put towards orthodontist care for Bookworm, towards savings and sink funds, and most importantly, that’s money we’ve been able to put towards debt.

It’s also why I share any recipes we love.  I realize that I am by no means a food blogger.  I don’t make elaborate meals, use hard to find ingredients or expensive ingredients.  I’m just a busy mom to three kiddos, who is trying to feed them healthy meals and stay within our budget.  Since these recipes help keep us fed and allow us to stay within our budget, I hope they can do the same for you.

If you’re just taking the leap from weekly to monthly meal plans, check out how I create our meal plan for the entire month in 5 easy steps.

pinterest-meal-plan-follow

So yep, you can call me a huge fan of meal planning.  But lets be honest, I’m still human and being a fan of meal planning doesn’t mean I’m always excited to sit down and create one.  Any time I get the urge to just stop meal planning, I remind myself of these 8 ways monthly meal planning is worth my time, and it’s definitely worth yours as well.

We’re Spending Less On Groceries

Like I said earlier, meal planning is an awesome way to cut back your spending and get your grocery budget under control.  When I wasn’t planning our meals throughout the month this summer, we spent an average of $715 each month on groceries.  If I go back 3 years to before I started monthly meal planning in general, we were spending over $900 a month on groceries.  Yikes!  Compared to our current $500 per month bill, that ends up being a savings of $4,800 per year just on groceries!

We Can Customize Meals to What We’ll Eat

We’re not the type to eat massive, 5 course meals that take forever to prepare.  Casseroles don’t go over well with our family, but skillet meals are usually a hit.  For that reason, most of our meals are skillet meals, or a variation of one.  Since I know what does well in our family, and what dietary limits we have, I can customize our meal plan to what we can, and will, eat.  Plus, if you get your family involved, they’ll help you come up with meals to make so that it’s not up to you to make the entire month’s meal plan.

We Waste Less Food

And less food waste means more money saved.  Nothing drives me bonkers more than buying food and then having to throw it out because it went bad.  By meal planning a month at a time, I can pick and choose the meals from the list that will help reduce food waste.

Let’s say I have a few broccoli meals that I’ve planned to make throughout the month.  I can make them all within a week.  When I was meal planning week to week, I would get a head of broccoli for the meal, wind up not using it for some reason or another, and then had to throw it out because it went bad.

On the flip side, if I’m getting a roast for our larger weekend dinner, I incorporate some of the leftover roast into another meal throughout the week.  Since I’ve already roasted chicken, I also use the bones and vegetables that roasted with the chicken to make homemade broth.  The more I can get out of it is the less I have to buy, and the less I waste.

We Don’t Eat Out As Much

Before making a monthly meal plan, we used to eat out at least 4 times a month.  Every time we went grocery shopping, we would wind up getting lunch while we were out.  Each time we ate out, we would spend a minimum of $45 if we were eating fast food.  That’s $180 a month!  And remember, that’s just for fast food.  We would spend even more if we went somewhere we could all sit down to eat a meal.

Now that I make our monthly meal plan, I do incorporate any days that we will be eating out, but for the most part, it’s strictly meals at home.  By planning for our meals, I’m saving us $2,160 a year by not eating out.

Saves Time

Since we live in such a rural area, it doesn’t make sense for us to drive 30 minutes one way to pick up some food.  By the time we get home, we’d have to reheat the food we just bought.  And in the time it takes to go pick up the food, drive back home, and reheat, we could have had a large meal on the table.  Plus, we’re not using up gas to get to and from town just for take-out.

Reduces Monotony

I don’t think there’s much worse than going to make a meal for the 5th time in the last 3 weeks.  That kind of stuff is the fastest way to get people in my household to stop eating meals.  By monthly meal planning, I know that the only meals I’m repeating are ones that make enough for leftovers, or ones that I put on the meal 5 times throughout the month.

Eliminates Stress

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten home and haven’t known what to make for dinner.  And it’s always inevitable the kids will ask what’s for dinner at some point.  My kids have never taken “food” as the answer either.  When I don’t meal plan, I wind up spending time scouring Google and Pinterest trying to find a meal that fits our diets and matches what we have in our pantry.

Creating a monthly meal plan eliminates all this.  You know what meals you’ll make throughout the month, you pick up what you need to make those meals, and you always know the answer to “what’s for dinner?”

Makes Shopping Easier

Ever want to get in and out of the grocery store without spending a ton of money on items you already have at home?  I’d love to do that too, and this is about as close as I can get.  Since I’ve already created a meal plan for the month, I can pick and choose what to make for a specific week based on our schedule and what we have on hand.  Everything else we need goes on the list.  Buying that tenth bottle of barbecue sauce is a thing of the past.  Or as close to that as I can get.

So there you have it.  Eight reasons why I think meal planning is worth your time.  Are you convinced yet?  Believe me when I say that monthly meal planning has been able to help us save lots of money each year, and I guarantee it’ll do the same for you!

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Only you can determine what your financial goals a Only you can determine what your financial goals are. If that means you're adding money to your savings account, or contributing to your retirement, while you are paying off debt, then so be it!⁠
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The trick to meal planning is to make it predictab The trick to meal planning is to make it predictable. But predictable doesn't mean the same thing week to week. You could have a chicken meal, a soup meal, a pasta meal, a leftovers meal, a family favorite meal, and so on.⁠
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I can only hear about my extended warranty I never I can only hear about my extended warranty I never purchased so many times. 😣⁠
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March Debt Paid numbers are in!⁠ .⁠ House: $51 March Debt Paid numbers are in!⁠
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Extra Payment: There isn’t one this month since we were $25 away from zeroing out the budget for our February 15th monthly paycheck. That $25, and monies left from our January 15th paycheck, covered our OOP costs for Hubs’ filling. We also have some savings goals coming up that need to be met, making our debt payments a little lower for the time begin.⁠
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The battle for who can charge what tonight is abou The battle for who can charge what tonight is about to begin. 😬⁠
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A needs his wisdom teeth taken out. I've talked a A needs his wisdom teeth taken out. I've talked a bit in our February Budget Check-In about how much of this I think we'll owe, and you can check that out on my YouTube channel if you're interested, but I wanted to say here...⁠
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It was a lot of money for us at the time. Our kids were 6, 2, and 3 months old. I don't think we even had $500 in savings, and I just left a part-time teaching job because it wasn't paying the part-time daycare bill, so paying our portion in full was just a dream I didn't think was achievable.⁠
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Nearly 10 years later, we are still paying off our debts. Student loans suck. But I see this bill as a reminder of how far we have come. Seeing a bill like this doesn't stress me out like it used to, and I know we can easily create a plan that can get it done and out of the way.⁠
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It's almost payday! Here's how our variable budget It's almost payday! Here's how our variable budgeting categories are working out for the pay month.⁠
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Food is looking good this far into our paycheck, probably because miscellaneous - which includes eating out - took a hit with unexpected purchases. Pet is low for this time of the month, and Household is spot on.⁠
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Fuel looks like it'll be lower than last month (yay for weeks of snow days & delayed school starts), and Therapy had one more appointment than initially planned.⁠
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Automating your finances makes saving money and bu Automating your finances makes saving money and budgeting more convenient, and therefore easier on you. Out of sight, out of mind, right?⁠
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What's one thing you can automate this week to make your finances easier?⁠
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Me? I'm going to set up our sinking fund transfers to automate every payday (the 15th of every month). Our bank set up a feature on their app where we can schedule savings transfers now, and I'm going to take advantage of it!⁠
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Oh my word... our miscellaneous category has gone Oh my word... our miscellaneous category has gone a smidgen overboard this month!⁠
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I foresee a goal for March's paycheck to at out less than twice. That's where this category went awry. $99.16 of it went to eating out. 😑 Some of it was avoidable, but not all of it. Having to drive to multiple appointments in one day during snow squalls and rearranging our whole day was one of those unavoidable instances.⁠
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