I Tried Meal Planning and Here's What I Learned

Last Updated on August 13, 2017 by Karen

Do you meal plan? Meal planning provides so many benefits, including helping you save time and money, while making it easier for your to eat healthier, and more!

What’s for dinner? Or lunch? Or breakfast? That’s the question I’m faced with every day. As someone who enjoys cooking, I’m just as guilty of cooking the same meals over and over again, wasting food that I can’t use up, and resorting to eating out because the fridge is empty or I just don’t feel like cooking.

Meal planning was an entirely new concept to me. Having been diligently meal planning for months now, I can say that meal planning is here to stay! Read the last section below on how I meal plan.

Here are four things I learned:

You can save money with weekly meal planning

Before meal planning, I go to the grocery store almost every other day to pick up ingredients as I decide on what I want to make that day. By planning a whole week’s worth of meals (which you can plan around weekly deals and sales), you make only one trip to the store and purchase everything you need on the list, instead of making multiple unplanned grocery trips.

Whether you’re cooking for two or for a family of four, you save money on groceries when you don’t have to make multiple trips to the store. How many times have you gone grocery shopping and have bought random items that you don’t actually need?

Recommended reading: These 7 Grocery Hacks Will Help You Save Money

Meal planning reduces food waste

Meal planning prevents food waste. By purchasing only what you need to make a meal, you will have far less food waste. Before meal planning, I would cook dishes every day at the spur of the moment. I would have so much ingredients leftover which I wouldn’t know how to use up. A bunch of parsley here, a half used block of cheese there, plus lots of barely used condiments just sitting around in the fridge. Since you know exactly what you need and how much you need when you have a meal plan, that helps to reduce food waste.

You save prep, clean up, and grocery shopping time

People spend a lot of time thinking about what to make each night for dinner or even wander at the grocery store trying to come up with a meal. With a weekly meal plan, I know exactly what I’m making and what I need to buy, so no time is wasted at the grocery store.

You can be efficient with your cooking too. If you’re making two dishes that require grilled chicken breast, wouldn’t it save time if you only had to prep, cook, and clean up once? By planning your meals ahead and spending some time to prep one day a week, your cooking will be more streamlined.

Eating healthy becomes so much easier

One of the greatest benefits of weekly meal plans is that you can create healthy meal plans for you and your family. With weekly meal planning, you’ll be less likely to grab a pizza or rely on takeout on busy nights. Instead, you’ll have a healthy meal planned and ready for you to make.

How do you l create a weekly meal plan?

That’s the question you’re probably wondering. To get my meals planned for the week, l take my favorite recipes from $5 Meal Plan, my own recipes, as well as dishes I want to try from Pinterest.

Creating a weekly meal plan is simple, and its even easier if you use a meal planning service because they do all the leg work for you, including step-by-step cooking instructions and grocery list. $5 Meal Plan could be a great service to use if you’re like me and struggle with meal planning on the weekends and getting a healthy dinner on the table every night.

$5 Meal Plan – the weekly meal plan solution

$5 Meal Plan provides custom menu resources to help you organize your weekly meals. After subscribing, you receive a weekly meal plan with delicious, budget-friendly meals that can be made for less than $5 dollars.

The meal plans costs just $5 a month (less than a cup of latte!), yet it saves you so much time, money, and the stress of having to spend hours each week planning your meals.
The main menu for each week includes five dinner entrees with sides, one breakfast, and one lunch. You’ll also get a random treat, either a dessert, snack. or beverage.
Once you’re a member, you’ll also have access to past menus, so you can swap out a meal with something different that week if you want.
The weekly menus include one freezer-friendly recipe, one slow cooker recipe, and one 20-minute recipe. On average, the preparation takes me no more than 20 minutes and there are no complicated steps or cooking methods at all!

Click here to download a free sample meal plan.

Interested in trying it out?

Want to try $5 Meal Plan but don’t know if you can commit to it long term? If you sign up using this code, you’ll get a 14-day risk free trial (you can cancel your membership at anytime).