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One of the things that made my life easier is learning how to make a meal plan as a stay-at-home mom
The less I planned for the necessities of the day, the more chaos I had to deal with
I don’t plan everything
I love having free choice time and independent time with my kids
But meals happen every day and require shopping
So planning ahead makes life a lot easier
There are tools and notebooks that you can get, but I keep my tools very simple
To start your meal planning journey, you will need:
- A notebook
- A pencil (I use an erasable pen)
- A source of recipes
It is that simple!
Of course, you will need the tools and ingredients required for the recipes, but that isn’t technically part of the planning process
I like to buy a few notebooks during the back-to-school sale every year since they are super cheap
I also hate pencils so I use erasable markers
Lastly, I use the internet and social media to gather recipes I want to try and I save the ones we like
Once you have what you need…
It is time to get started!
Why should you consider meal planning as a stay-at-home mom?
As a stay-at-home mom who has done meal planning and just ‘winging it’…
I can say that meal planning is amazing once you get it down.
Meal planning is not as in-depth as meal prepping
There are many benefits to meal planning!
The first benefit is that it doesn’t take a lot of time
You aren’t preparing the food ahead of time, you are just planning what you are going to prepare every night
No more last-minute panic when you realize it is 30 minutes until dinner time and you have no idea what to make
Another benefit is meal planning saves you money
You go to the store with a list of things you need for the week so you are less likely to buy a bunch of items you don’t need
There is no last-minute rush to the store when you realize you don’t have enough of anything for tonight’s dinner
There will be times when you make a mistake, but it will be far less often than if you were just winging it
How do you get started meal planning as a beginner?
Getting started looks a little different depending on where you start
If you want to meal plan but you have never cooked before, start with planning one meal a week
Once that isn’t hard anymore, expand to two or three times a week
And so on
If you already cook every night, you can just right into planning for the whole week!
Just make sure to plan for the days when cooking is harder
I do this by planning easy meals for the days I’ll be really busy
Meal planning is pretty simple
The hard part is actually doing it
I am very guilty of being too tired to plan the week on my meal planning day and regret it all week
There ends up being a lot of “oh crap” days where I realize it is an hour until dinner and I don’t have anything defrosted
It doesn’t take very long
Figure out what day you’ll plan and do it
Then follow the plan when it is time to shop and when it is time to make dinner
The more you do it, the easier it gets
Example meal plans
Meal plans are 100% customizable, but examples are always helpful when you start something new
I usually just use a notebook and create something like this:
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| Chicken Pasta | Tacos | Grilled cheese w/tomato soup | Nachos | Zucchini pasta | Wet burritos | Pizza |
I know what Wednesdays and Thursdays are busy
So I put quick and easy meals on those days
Tacos and wet burritos are a family favorite so I add them pretty often to the meal plan
Once you are at the end of the week and ready to go shopping again, just create a new plan!
This can be done if you only shop once or twice a month too
Just expand how many days you plan at once and that’s it!
Another thing that may make weekly meal planning easier is to have designated days
Do you notice I put tacos on Tuesday?
That can be a weekly thing!
It doesn’t have to be the same taco
But it can make planning easier when you already know that you are making tacos
One of the biggest struggles when learning anything is having too many options
There are too many things to choose from!
Choosing meals for meal planning is no different
And there are a lot of possible meals to choose from
So if choosing is a struggle, make designated days to lower the choices and make planning smoother for you!
Let’s walk through how to make a meal plan as a stay-at-home mom!
Now that you’ve seen an example week, now let’s walk through my process
I do this process step by step
Well, except steps one through five
I make note of recipes that my family enjoys, categorize them, and label them when I try new recipes
My food budget doesn’t change often
And it takes a long time to go all the way through a notebook
But for your first time, please start at the beginning
The first five steps are foundation steps
They may need to be adjusted sometimes but will not need to be done every time
1. Make a list of all the foods that your family likes
The first thing you are going to do is make a list of all the meals that your family enjoys
Maybe write down some foods you want to try too
By creating this master list, adding meals to their days becomes a lot easier
My brain suddenly forgets everything my family likes the moment I need to meal plan
So having this list makes everything easier and smoother
I like to add a new recipe every week to my plan
Once we try the recipe, I will decide if it will be added to this list or not
So this step has a lot of upfront thinking, but it grows naturally every time you try something new if you remember to add the new recipe every time you find one
2. Separate the list into meal categories
Once you have a list, separate them into categories
You can choose the categories that are important to you
I separate our food into budget, clean up, and speed
Choose your categories based on your life and what gets in the way of dinnertime
This step is optional if you don’t have any restrictions
But it can help if you make meals for people with diet restrictions sometimes
You can put recipes into a “dairy-free” category and only add from that category when you are cooking for people who need it
3. Make a monthly budget
Budgeting is both hard and very valuable
It is the best way to keep control of your money!
Without a budget, overspending is really easy to do
Especially if you get a bigger check than you normally do
This will also help you group recipes with similar ingredients to save money and reduce waste
4. Label your food list with type, speed, and expense
This is optional but I like to do it to save time later
If I need recipes that are fast and easy, I already have them labeled
Label them however makes sense to your family
I label mine with meat type, speed, and expense
If I have a lot of chicken, I look at the chicken recipes
If I am low on my monthly budget, I look for low-expense recipes
And so on!
5. Get a weekly calendar (or use a notebook like I do)
It is finally time to start your planning!
The last foundation step is to get some kind of weekly calendar
You can use a notebook like I showed above
Or you can use a dry-erase board
Whatever works for you!
6. Think about your to-do list. What days are busy and what days are not?
Next, mark the days of the week that are busy
What days are you gone a lot?
I add my shopping day to busy days because they take a lot out of me
7. Add quick meals for the busy days
Once you have your busy days marked and your easy meals categorized
Now you just put them together!
Choose what easy meals you want for each busy day and fill them in
8. Add other meals for the non-busy days
Now add other meals to your non-busy days
These are the days when you have enough energy to cook at the end of the day
Add meals to the rest of the open day slots
9. Make a list of all the ingredients you need for the week
Once you have all the meals for the week chosen…
Write down everything you need for them
Include things like foil and non-stick spray
Anything you have to buy ever should be on the list (even if you think you have it)
10. Look in your pantry and cross out what you already have from your list
Now that you have the list of everything you need for the week, go through what you have and cross out the things you don’t need to buy
This prevents you from buying things when you already have too much at home!
I did that a lot before I “shopped” at home before shopping at the store
Another thing that may help the monthly budget and waste is reverse shopping
This is where you need to track everything you have in your house and use that list to choose meals
Then you just need to fill in the gaps
This saves money and reduces waste by a lot!
11. Look at costs and make sure that it aligns with your budget
This is a good time to double-check your budget
You now have a list of all the things you need to follow your meal plan
You can look at the store app for prices
(hint: you can just shop there too so you don’t have to do it in the store)
Or you can estimate
Just make sure you always round up with estimates so you don’t go over budget
12. Make adjustments if needed
If you find that your plan is out of budget, you can make adjustments
You can switch meals or adjust your weekly plan depending on what makes sense
We don’t have an even budget every week
We spend more during the first week of the month and the third week of the month
So adjust however makes sense for you
13. Buy the ingredients you need
Now you have a full plan
You can either use pickup with the list you made while checking prices,
Or you can go grab what you need in the store
Just make sure you have everything you need for the week!
14. Make the meals you planned each day!
Now that you are fully prepared, you just need to follow the plan!
There are times when I switch meals between days, but I always make all the meals I planned for the week
Conclusion
Now you know my method to how to make a meal plan as a stay-at-home mom!
My way is not the only way or even the best way for everyone
But it has worked great for me and my family for many years!
I encourage you to try for a while
Making a new habit can be a slow process
Many people say it takes 21 days to create a habit, but I don’t believe that
Some habits can take a day or two
While others can take a year or longer
It just depends on you