It’s September, school has started again and we are all trying to get back into the grove of schedules and routines. That is not always easy these days with so many activities that our kids get involved in.
To keep us on time for events and our evenings running smoothly, I have to be on top of our meal preparation. I usually crash and burn if I try and just “wing” a meal and throw something together right before we eat.
To make your meal planning easier and a little more organized, I have a Free Printable Meal Plan for you today. This is three matching printables for all your meal planning needs including your Monthly Meal Plan calendar, a Weekly meal plan and your Grocery list to add items as you run out in the kitchen.
Meal Planning Made Easy
Here are some easy steps and tips to make your meal planning a little more organized and finish quickly.
Get Ready
Gather up everything that you need! Grab your Free Printable Meal Plan, highlighters, store flyers, calculator, markers and anything else that you need to get your Meal plan filled out quickly.
If you have your Shopping List printable hanging in the kitchen and update it as you run out of ingredients, this will make the meal planning and list making go smoother too.
If you have been doing the Pantry Challenge and Love Your Cub Contest that I started a couple weeks ago, this is a great time to check your cupboards for ingredients that you could use that maybe you have forgotten about.
Clip and Snip
Grab your store flyers and coupon inserts from the paper and clip the coupons that you are going to use. Remember with couponing, just because it’s a great deal, if you don’t use it then don’t buy it. I am just getting to that point with coupons.
A Week at a Time
After you have clipped your coupons and know what is on sale for the week, it’s time to plan your menu. I have two different options of printables for you. The Weekly and the Monthly Menu plan.
The weekly plan is really nice if you want to break down your planning into breakfast, lunch and dinner columns. If you have kids at home with you this may be the best option for Menu Planning. There is an area for each meal of the day.
You can also use this to keep track of what your kids will be eating for lunch at school or if they are taking cold lunch from home.
Plan Your Menu for the Month
If you are like me, you have meals that you make over and over while throwing in a few new ideas here and there. I like to sit down and plan out a months worth of meals and write them on our Monthly Menu Plan.
This free printable menu plan for the month is what I use. I have mine laminated so that I can reuse it over and over.
I typically only fill on the monthly meal plan because I am on my own at lunch time and breakfast is pretty easy to make on the fly if needed.
These are just a few tips on how to make your Meal Planning a little easier by staying organized and using our Free Printable Meal Plan.
What do you use? I would love to hear about all your meal planning ideas!
Do you want the chance to win a kitchen full of groceries to make your meal planning a snap?
Enter the “Love My Cub” Contest on Facebook! Stop by and check out the details today!
Other Posts to Help You Meal Plan
Lots of Easy Dinner Recipe Ideas
Easy Recipes Crockpot Chicken Fajitas
Shannah says
September 25, 2013 at 6:30 pmGreat printables! I love meal planning because it just makes my life so much easier. Thanks for sharing these at the Pinworthy Projects Party!
Victoria says
September 23, 2013 at 4:48 pmI am definitely a weekly meal planner! I feel lost if I don’t and we end up not eating healthy. I really like your printables and they way you have them organized 🙂 Thanks for linking up with the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop, you were featured as one of my favorites last week 🙂
Jill says
September 21, 2013 at 6:12 pmYour tips and tricks make meal planning easier. I like your printable for organizing meal planning. Thank you for linking up this week to the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop 🙂
april says
September 19, 2013 at 12:30 amthanks for these great printables. I pinned it. I need to get back into menu planning and these will help so much
Manda Wolf says
September 17, 2013 at 1:00 pmGreat idea. I am trying to buy all my groceries once a month to keep us out of the store and away from impulse buys. I did it for two weeks with no problem but we will see how this month long program will work. I also bought a few Pyrex backing dishes with rubber lids to make meals up and then freeze them that way instead of going out to eat when I don’t feel like cooking I can just pull those out. They will be easier than going out to eat because I can enjoy in my pjs! I am going to make some of these sheets up and try to map out the meals to see if that helps.
faithgoeson says
September 17, 2013 at 11:38 amvery nice!