Meal Planning 101

Have you thought about how much money you spend weekly on eating out? How about when you don't plan your meals for the week? Lets break it down using the example of a household of two for the work week:

Breakfast: $ 6 a day ($ 30 *2)

Lunch: $ 10 a day ($ 50*2)

Dinner $ 25 a day ($ 125*2)

For a work week, that equates to $ 410 weekly. We can quickly add to this expense by incorporating the weekend days. That could be another $ 80 a day, pending that there is no date night. I have not began to add any alcoholic drinks to the mix!! Just imagine a household of two spending roughly $500 - $700 weekly without planning!

Where Do I Start?

One week at a time! What exactly do you like to eat? How do you want to eat these items? Write it all down. So gather these items:

• A Pen

• A Notebook (blank paper will work)

• Favorite Recipes (or proteins you may like)

• List of Vegetables that you would eat

Different Days for Different Types of Meals

What I mean by this is don't be "boring." Some individuals (Like Myself) cannot eat the same thing over and over again. I become burned out and I want to binge back into old habits. My Method involves breakfast being similar. The next is a breakdown of MWF (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) vs TR (Tuesday & Thursday). See the example below. Preparing your meals this way saves time, efforts, and you aren't really eating the same meals each day.

Plan the Week's Meals

Once you’ve decided on a method to make meal planning easier, it’s time to plan the specific meals for the coming week. Here’s the simplest way to do it with pen and paper:

• Make a grid with columns for the days of the week and enough rows for the meals you need to plan for – breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

• Fill in the first meal. Note where you found the recipe, so you don’t have to search through cookbooks or hunt the Internet for it when it’s time to cook.

• On the another blank piece of paper, list the ingredients you need from the store for the meal, leaving off what’s already in the fridge or pantry. This is your grocery list. Divide this list by where things are located in the store if it makes shopping easier.

• Repeat until you’ve planned every meal.

• Post the menu on the bulletin board, on the refrigerator, or in a common area, so everyone knows what’s for dinner.

• Take the list and go shopping.