Happy New year to all of my lovely readers. I hope you made merry over the festive period and enjoyed spending time with your family. Meal planning for beginners is a step by step guide to get you off to great start this new year.
This time of year lots of people make New Year’s resolutions along the lines of getting fit or losing weight. In this post I aim to show you how meal planning will save you money. This will cause you eat more healthy meals and inadvertently you will create that healthy lifestyle much more easily.
This past year of 2020 has been a very strange one for everyone and learning new ways to live has now become the norm. In my house I have always kept a pantry and with the way things have been in supermarkets and the way people have panicked I have been more grateful than ever that I do.
Why do I use Meal Planning
Speaking with customers who have come to our farm shop, I have found that not too many people live like me. Planning your meals out once a week and shopping for that menu not only means that you have everything you need for each meal, each evening, but also that you will save money!
Saving money
Meal planning for beginners will help you to only be buying what you need so food will not be going to waste, plus you won’t be ‘popping to the shop’ every evening to get missing ingredients which not only wastes your time, uses more fuel to get there, but is also much more expensive than the supermarket.
Food waste is a big thing nowadays. People don’t pan out their meals so when they shop, they become frustrated and buy whatever they fancy at the time. Thats fine for one day, but you will find yourself on day 2 or 3 standing in front of the cupboard wondering what to cook tonight.
Meal Planning doesn’t take up too much time, maybe 20 minutes tops. Then once you have decided what to have, stick it on the fridge so that all you have to do each evening is to look at the fridge. Thats even better when you don’t have your household constantly asking “what’s for dinner?”
Now you have your menu all set up, just take a little look in your pantry or kitchen cupboards and see what you already have and what you need to buy at the supermarket for the weeks food. Write your shopping list and get it all done in one trip. You will save money in the supermarket, money on fuel and a lot of your precious time.
My Gift to You- Meal Planning for beginners Free printable
To make things even easier for you I have produced a free printable for you. You are welcome to print it out as often as you like.
There is the meal planner, this gives you boxes for breakfast, lunch and dinner for each day. All you have to do is to choose what to eat.
As an extra gift to you I have added a shopping list checklist. All you have to do is write in the boxes what you need for the week in the relevant boxes. I have given you categories to help jog your memory of things you might need.
More to come
I will be going into more details on how to save money with your shopping in another post and how to set up a good pantry, but for now I hope you try out meal planning and enjoy using my free printable.
Not only will you find that it saves you money and time, but because you are prepared each evening, you will be less likely to buy quick convenience foods that contain a lot of fats, sugars and preservatives. You will be eating a lot more healthy food and that is never a bad thing.
Lets start this new habit for the new year.
Happy 2021 my lovely readers.
See you on Tuesday
If you enjoyed this topic then why not take a look at my other blog on Menu planning 101
Sam x