Printable monthly menu calendar how to#
Printable monthly menu calendar download#

To help make this process easier, here are a few things you need to know before you get started: The idea of writing an entire monthly meal plan can be overwhelming. What You Need To Know About Creating A Monthly Meal Plan That’s when I started using my monthly meal planner to plan out my meals at home. Once we sat down and actually added up how much money we were spending on restaurants each month, I knew something had to change. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather create a monthly meal plan on a budget and have the extra money in my pocket! Before we started meal planning, we would spend upwards of $800 EACH MONTH on restaurants. I’m ashamed to admit that my dislike for cooking at home led us to overspend at restaurants each month. Throw in the fact that for 10 years I was using ALL my energy as a teacher… the last thing I wanted to do at the end of each day was stand in the kitchen and cook my family a delicious meal. Why Meal Planning Works For Our FamilyĮarlier this month I admitted on Instagram that I don’t like cooking.

Prepare for days you don’t want to cookīefore we dive into these 5 steps, let’s focus on why meal planning can be helpful for you and your family.

Writing a meal plan each month is easy when you follow these 5 steps: And let me tell you, it has truly helped make dinner time less stressful for everyone involved!

Sometimes it feels too hectic to set aside the time to plan ahead, but it helps so much in the long run.Learn how to create a monthly meal plan on a budget so that you can save time, money, and sanity! Plus, get a FREE monthly meal planner printable sent straight to your inbox so you can start budget meal planning today.įor the past few months, our family has used a monthly meal planner to make meal planning on a budget easy. Using these free printable meal planning sheets will help you get organized and feel less stressed about making dinner.Īfter you get into a routine of menu planning, you’ll notice it saves you time and money.

Hands-Free Bag Holders (useful for holding ziptop bags open when prepping freezer meals)ĭownload printable menu planner and recipe cards.

I consider meal prepping part of meal planning, but the key is creating the plan!Īlong with my printable menu plan, these are a few of my favorite tools to help me with meal planning and prepping: Menu planning does not always mean you’ll spend all day chopping and assembling a month’s worth of freezer meals. Once I figure out my meal plan, then I can meal prep, if necessary. There’s also something satisfying about being able to cross it off too. That way I can easily see what’s for dinner and when to pull out things to defrost.

I absolutely love filling out my menu plan and sticking it on the fridge.

Have a friend who would find these helpful? Please share this post with them so they can download their own set. These are for your personal use only, but you may print them out as many times as you need them. To use these free menu planner printables, you’ll need to click and save them to your computer. It also saves us money because we aren’t grabbing fast food or carryout as often. I feel more organized and less stressed when it’s time to get dinner started. Menu planning – at least for dinner – even just a few days to a week in advance saves my sanity SO MUCH. It still happens when I don’t take the time to plan some meals out ahead of time. The kids are acting crazy after school, the meat isn’t defrosted, and you are missing half the ingredients for the dish you wanted to make.ĭoes that sound familiar? It does to me, because that’s been my life on many occasions. Do you find dinner time stressful? You have limited time to make dinner and feed everyone, but you don’t know what to make.

Printable monthly menu calendar how to#

Printable monthly menu calendar download#