Simple Steps To Save Money Meal Planning

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Do you ever get to mid-afternoon and realise you haven’t thought about dinner?

You look through the fridge and cupboards, can’t find anything you fancy, and end up ordering a takeaway instead.

Hopefully that’s not just me!

Or maybe you find yourself doing expensive top-up shops because you didn’t get everything you needed during your main shop.

Meal planning can help.

It’s one of the simplest ways to cut your grocery spend and reduce food waste. And once you get into the habit, it can make deciding what to have for dinner much easier too.

Related reading: 13 Easy Ways To Drastically Cut Down Your Grocery Spend >>

What Is Meal Planning?

Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Meal planning simply means deciding what you’re going to eat in advance, then shopping for what you need.

You can plan every meal and snack, or just focus on the meals that tend to cause the most problems.

Personally, I mainly plan evening meals. Breakfast and lunch are easier to cover by keeping a few basics in the house, whereas dinner tends to involve more thought and is where we’re more likely to waste food or resort to a takeaway.

If planning every meal works for you, though, you may be able to save even more.

How To Start Meal Planning

This might not work for everyone, but what we’ve done is written down a list of all the meals that we have regularly and built that up so we’re not constantly repeating the same meals too closely together.

Now we have this ‘bank’ of meals, we can easily look to that for inspiration, and add to it when we have new ideas.

Step 1 – Check Your Supplies

The first thing that I do when meal planning is look through the fridge and cupboards to see what we already have and see if there’s anything that needs using up.

If there is, I plan meals around that, so we don’t end up throwing things away.

Step 2 – Choose Meals

After that, choose the rest of your meals for the week. This is where we just pick from our list. You obviously don’t have to have a list but it’s just something that I find makes it easier.

I’m one of those people who will just stand there saying I can’t think of anything to do for dinner, so it works for me!

Each week (or whatever interval works best for you), map out which meals you’re planning to have and add them to your planner.

A notebook will do, or you can find loads of meal planners on Amazon if you want something reusable – I like magnetic ones you can stick to your fridge or you can get whiteboard style ones so you can just wipe off and update each week.

Make sure you note days when you’re going to be out so you don’t end up meal planning for days you don’t need to!

You don’t need to have each meal on the exact day you’ve written it down for – it’s no fun to be completely inflexible! You do need to make sure to check the dates on food though, so that if you do shift things around the food doesn’t go off before you eat it.

Step 3 – Write A Shopping List

You can then use your completed meal plan to write your shopping list. If you know exactly what you need to buy for each meal, this stops you buying unnecessary extras in the shop and will reduce your food waste.

Don’t forget to add snacks to your shopping list too, so you don’t add things spontaneously in the shop and spend more than planned.

Before you add anything to your list, have a quick check of the fridge, freezer and cupboards. It’s easy to buy something you already have hiding at the back.

Related: 20 Everyday Spending Habits That Cost More Than You Realise

Step 4 – Shop!

When you go shopping, stick as closely as possible to your list. You’ll have everything you need for the meals you’ve planned, which should mean fewer expensive top-up shops later in the week.

Try a cheaper brand

You can also save more by experimenting with cheaper brands. Try swapping one or two branded products for supermarket own-brand versions each week.

If you don’t like the cheaper version, simply switch back next time. But you might be surprised by how many things taste just as good for considerably less.

One of our best swaps has been Weetabix for the supermarket own-brand version. It’s much cheaper and we genuinely don’t notice enough difference to justify paying more.

Step 5 – Batch Cooking

This isn’t essential for meal planning, but another thing that can help save time and money is batch cooking. Bigger packs of things such as mince are often cheaper per kg than smaller packs.

Make up a big batch of whatever it is you’re doing (things like Bolognese, chilli and even soup work really well), divvy it up into portions and freeze.

Reusable freezer-safe containers are handy for portioning up batch-cooked meals, particularly if you label them with what’s inside and the date.

A slow cooker can be useful for batch cooking too, especially for things like chilli, soups, stews and Bolognese that you can portion up and freeze.

Batch cooking also gives you days where you don’t have to cook, so it’s win-win. Just defrost, reheat and you’re done.

Make meal planning work for you

Meal planning doesn’t need to mean having every meal mapped out perfectly. Even planning four or five dinners for the week can make grocery shopping easier and help reduce those last-minute takeaways and top-up shops.

Give it a try for a few weeks and keep track of your grocery spending. You might be surprised by how much difference such a simple habit can make.

And if a meal doesn’t happen on the exact day you planned it? Just move it. The whole point is to make life easier, not give yourself another set of rules to follow.

Related Reading:

• Cheap, Easy Meals for Frugal Families
• Easy Ways to Cut Down Food Waste
• 13 Easy Ways to Drastically Cut Your Grocery Spend
• Pantry Staples to Always Keep on Hand to Save Money

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