Top 5 Benefits of Meal Planning

Do you dread wondering what’s for dinner every night? Do you find yourself wasting money on take-out, fast food, and restaurants? Are you struggling with your weight due to these calorie heavy meals? Are you spending all your extra money on take-out, fast food, and restaurants?

If you answered yes to any of the above…then you need to read about the benefits of meal planning.

So now you are thinking that meal planning is too time-consuming. Think again. Meal planning can be easy. There is no need to over-plan or stress about it. The benefits of meal planning can make your life so much easier.

The Top 5 Benefits of Meal Planning are:

1. Saves Time
2. Saves Money
3. Improves your Health
4. Less food Waste
5. Organization

Meal planning doesn’t have to be hard. Make it easy.

List all the recipes that you like.

Pick the day of the week that you will do this. I prefer Saturday morning..so I can shop on Sunday. But you pick what works for your schedule.

Make sure to look at the upcoming week. Do you have any evening events? Plan around these events.

Write down the menu…yes I love to write things down, but you can use an app if you like.

Write out a grocery list.

Go shopping.

Come home and prep any items that you can ahead of time- Cut veggies, cook chicken, cook-up rice. Any item that can be made ahead of time, will help you out on busy weeknights.

Check out this video about a beginner’s guide to meal planning.

Things to learn from meal planning is to be flexible. Always plan for leftovers. Leftovers are my favorite. Cook once and eat twice!

You will have time to help your kids with homework, exercise, and catch up on TV shows. Wouldn’t it be great if your evenings were less stressful? Especially on really busy weeknights.

You don’t have to make something new every week. Just change up the same recipes. Simplify…don’t over complicate things.

But first let’s go over the benefits of meal planning.

Saves Time

People always think that cooking at home takes so much time. I’m here to tell you that one of the great benefits of meal planning is saving time. People think that it takes too much time to shop, cook, and clean up. I’m here to tell you the truth.

The truth is that spending time one or two days a week to plan out your meals will save you so much time. If you plan ahead, you will prepared when you get home from work to feed your family quick meals.

By planning ahead, you will have free time to spend with your family. You will finally have the time to take that walk after dinner. Be sure to check out my post about all the benefits of walking.

You will have time to help your kids with homework and catch up on TV shows. Wouldn’t it be great if your evenings were less stressful?

Saves Money

The next benefit to meal planning…and my personal favorite since my blog is all about money…is saving money.

Planning out your meals will save you the money that you spend eating out. Eating out is so expensive, especially nowadays. Even fast food is crazy-expensive. And don’t get me started on how unhealthy it is.

You will also save money at the grocery store. If you spend time meal planning, you will only be buying items at the store that you need.

If people would write down how much they spend eating out, they would stop eating out… it’s insane. Be sure to check out my blog post on creating a budget. One of the things I preach is writing things down. It makes you accountable and makes it real!

Improves your Health

Improving your health is another amazing benefit of meal planning.

When you eat at home, you know exactly what you are eating. When you eat out, you have no idea what is in the food. When you cook at home, you control your ingredients.

Meal planning will also help you with portion control. When you prep your meals, you know how much you are making and how many people the meal will serve. Restaurant portions are huge. They are full of fats and salt… and god knows what else.

If you do find yourself eating out…split a meal, order a small plate or appetizer, and drink water. But I think that eating out should be saved for special occasions.

Less food waste

Another benefit of meal planning is less food waste. Do you ever find yourself throwing out food from your fridge or pantry? Meal planning can eliminate food waste. If you have a set meal plan then you will be using all the ingredients that you buy.

Meal planning will help with food waste because you will be writing down your meals and grocery list. Again this is why I love to write everything down. Accountability!

Organization

Are you wondering why organization is a benefit of meal planning? Well remember that you will be writing everything down. Only buy what you need.

By doing this, you will be keeping an organized pantry and fridge. You will only be buying ingredients that you need. Check out this great article about keeping an organized pantry.

Organization will happen automatically. Getting in the habit of meal planning will force you to be organized. And remember this will save you time and money.

I hope that the benefits of meal planning have you excited to get started. This is not supposed to be complicated. Try it out. See what works for you and your family.

Try out some batch cooking and store these items in your freezer. Some great ideas for batch cooking can be casseroles, lasagnas, meatballs, and soups. It is so nice to be ready for dinner in less than 30 minutes. All it took was some prep ahead of time.

Think about all the money you will save. Use all that free time to plan your next family vacation. These benefits are amazing. Let me know what you think.