Have you ever found yourself trying to keep a grocery budget, eat more home-cooked meals or eat more nutritious meals to meet your health goals but then its dinner time and you don’t have any dinner plans? Have you tried weekly meal plans only to find out each Monday you forgot to plan and are stressed out again? I have. It felt like every week I was failing to plan meals, failing to stay in budget and cooking the same foods every other day. Then, one new year resolution, I decided to do better at meal planning and try monthly meal planning. Meal planning for the entire month helped me keep a the stressful last minute, hungry, expansive, unhealthy meal decisions away. Keeping a monthly menu gave me the freedom to shop ahead, try new recipes and have less food waste in our house. Here’s how my planning process on monthly meal planning.
- Meal Planning for a Month Vs. a Week
- How To Meal plan for a Month
- What Happens When My Schedule Changes?
- Free Meal Planning Templates
Meal Planning For A Month Vs A Week
Most people I know plan weekly meal plans or don’t plan and all. When I was trying to plan my family’s meals a week at a time I kept struggling to actually get it written out done each week. There was always a day or two that I’d be struggling to think of something last minute because I failed and getting a menu plan written out in time.
January of 2024 I decided to try planning my meals for a entire month. I planned the whole month out and it took so much stress away! I thought that if I had a hard time planning a weekly menu then monthly meals would be worse, but it was easier.
New Recipes
When planning the month I was able to be more consistent and more creative with new recipes with my meals. When meal planning for a week at a time I would find myself trying think of different meals for each week. If we had it last week I though I couldn’t plan for it again the next week because we would get tired of eating the same foods all the time.
As I planned a month out I was able to see how often I was repeating meals and how often I was adding in new meals more clearly then when I was planning for a week. I no longer felt guilty keeping the same easy quick meals ever Tuesday and Wednesday (our busiest evenings) because I was being more creative on all the other nights.
Staying in Budget
As I meal planned monthly I found I was able to make a more accurate grocery shopping list. I was not longer buying food because we might eat it but because we planned to eat it on a specific day of the week. I was not buying food that would go bad and it reduced my food waste in our house by a lot.
At the beginning of the month I would plan my meals based off of what foods we had in our house at that time. If we have rice, I made sure it was on the menu. If we have left over chicken or an abundance of potatoes, those foods made it on the monthly menu. Then I would make my shopping list. Going over each meal and making sure I had everything I needed for the entire month on my grocery list. I would brake up the produce into 2 weeks and shop for the second part of the month in another two week to keep fresh produce in the house.
This planning process kept me from spending money on items that we would not eat. I was also able to plan creative meals using the ingredients we had or that I knew would not be expansive to purchase. Without last minute trips to the local grocery store we have been able to keep our food budget.
How To Meal Plan For A Month
To meal plan for a month may seem daunting. You may be tempted to think you can’t do it because you don’t know what or where you will be on 3 Friday’s from now. Or you might have had a hard time thinking of 7 different meals how am I going to think of 30?
Here are my 3 tips for for successful meal planing. Plan by base ingredients, create a master list of family favorite meals, meal plan with ingredients you already have.
Plan your meals by base ingredients
The base ingredients are the foundation of your meal. Just to name a few… pasta, rice, potatoes, chicken, fish, ground beef… You can make many different recipes with these bases. For each day of the week I choose a base. (Your list may look different with a lot more meat, we eat mostly vegetarian in our house)
- Mondays – potatoes or soups
- Tuesday – Rice and beans (Taco Tuesday)
- Wednesday – Picnic sandwiches (we don’t eat at home on Wednesdays)
- Thursday – Rice and fish
- Friday – Salads and meat
- Saturday – Random/special meals
Again, I do not stick to this perfectly, I am not a slave to this list. I mix things around all the time but this weekly base ingredient list gives me something to work off of if I can’t think of anything else to make.
Here an example of meals that go with each category or base ingredient.
- Potatoes – Baked potatoes with baked beans and cornbread, Mashed Potatoes with lentil stew, Shepherds Pie, Potato soup…
- Rice and Beans – Tacos, burritos, nachos, bean bowls…
- Rice and Fish – Shrimp stir fry, shrimp scampi, shrimp saganaki (greek dish), balsamic glazed salmon, honey mustard salmon, crispy fried cod…
- Big Salads and Meat – Taco salad, greek salad with lamb or chicken, Italian salad with pizza or chicken, sweet broccoli salad with stake…
- Pasta – Lasagna, spaghetti and meat balls, alfredo, pesto, pasta salad, lemon pasta…
I hope these lists help you see how you can take base ingredients and think of many different meals to eat throughout the month. Keeping it simple with lots of verity.
You can also make a goal is to choose a protein, vegetable and starch/grain for each meal.
Proteins
- Meat
- Eggs
- Fish
- Beans
Vegetables
- Broccoli
- Salad
- Green beans…
Starch/Grains
- Breads
- Pasta
- Rice or quinoa
- Potatoes
- Sweet Potatoes
Add one of each of these three food categories to each day and you will have a healthy meal plan.
examples:
Chicken – rice – roasted broccoli and cauliflower
Pot Roast- Potatoes – Carrots
Ground Beef – pasta – Salad
Create a list of family favorite meals
When meal planning for your whole family its always helps to know what everyone likes to eat. Another list that might be helpful is of what your family does not like. How to you find out your family’s preferences? Ask. When you sit down the meal plan ask your husband and kids what they would like to each this month. Fit their meal ideas in where they make since to you. If you have younger kids who only want pancakes and chicken nuggets for dinner, you can also take note on which meals they finished and what meals are a struggle to finish. If they ask for seconds, its a keeper.
Here is a list you can download for free of lots of different meal options. Keep this list near your meal planner or on the refrigerator to help you when planning out the month. Once you’ve tried a meal and you notice your kids love it or hate it, rate it on your list. Give it a star, or cross it out. This way the next month you will be able to remember how to bring meals to the table the whole family can enjoy.
Meal plan According To The Ingredients you have
To help you save money, cut down on food waste and get the idea’s flowing for meals, look not to Pinterest, but in your cabinets, refrigerator and freezer to see what you can make with what you have first. Check the back of your freezer, find that bag of frozen green beans or that can of kidney beans that’s been in the pantry for months. Minestrone Soup, perfect, you can use both the green beans and kidney beans in that recipe.
I’m all about stocking up on bulk items to save money and be prepared. But when you stock up, don’t make the mistake of not using those items. Continue to use what is on your shelf now instead of always buying more just to make what sounds good in the moment.
What happens if my schedule changes?
Its true, we often don’t know everything about our social calendar a month in advance. But planning meals that far in advance is not a hindrance but a help.
When you plan meals for the whole month we can first look at the family calendar and see what days we know will will be gone for most of the day. There are times when I know we will be out doing one thing or another. So I either plan to meal prep the day before, plan to make extra of something earlier on in the week to eat leftover that day, or plan a slow cooker or crackpot meal.
But, when something comes up unexpected and your planned meal won’t work for you that specific day, you can trade it with another day’s meal. I first ask myself, “can I make this in the crackpot?” If the answer is “no” I find another meal that is on my plan, that I already have the ingredients for, that will work in the crock pot.
Another trick I use is to have extra pasta and sauce in my pantry for days when I was unable to make anything in time or when my husband has to make dinner. Quick meals like that, not on your meal plan, is great to have in your pantry when your in a pinch.
Don’t be a slave to your meal plan. We plan ahead so we have freedom, not bondage to the plan.
Free Meal Planning Templates
Now that you know the benefits of monthly meal planning its time to get organized. Personally I like to use a calendar for my meal planning. I keep it on the side of our refrigerator so everyone can see what’s for dinner. This is super helpful for my husband as he sometimes gets nervous when it looks like I’m making a super healthy meal. He gets to look at the menu and see although we are having lentils today we will be having pizza tomorrow and he has hope.
Some people keep a binder with their grocery list and chores list in, some people just write out a list on a scrap paper and keep it in the kitchen while other keep the list on their phones. There’s no right or wrong on your own organization preferences. As long as it helps you.
What you must do is write out your full plan. Again, start with whats in your cabinets now, using the base ingredients to come up with a variety of recipes. Don’t be afraid to repeat recipes on a specific day of the week. Pick days you know you will be home all day to try new recipes. Then finally make your grocery shopping list that revolves around your planned menu.
With that being said here are few free printable templates that you might like.
Edit For Yourself in Canva
Ready To Print!
More meal planning tips and tricks
I know I didn’t cover everything on the subject of meal planning so comment below if there more tips or ticks to meal planning that my readers could benefit from. I would love to hear from you all the success you have had in your own meal planning.
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