When the kids head back to the classroom, a lot o families also head back to the dinner table. Regular meals at home keep your budget on track and provide a place for connection. No one loves how they feel after hitting the drive through every night of the week. And dining at home is much more affordable in the long run, not to mention healthier.
But it’s easy to get caught up in the overwhelm of planning meals, grocery shopping, and of course preparing them, too. These EASY Back to School Meal Planning Hacks take very little time and pay off in spades! Decrease your spending, increase interaction with your kids, and eat healthier too.
Compose Your Meal Encyclopedia
When I was a kid, I LOVED the world book because it had ALL the facts. When it come to meal planning, you need a concentrated study, too. That’s why you should create a Meal Encyclopedia of your own. Quickly brainstorm all of the meals you regularly prepare and your family loves. Note: Don’t toss those “I’d love to make it someday” recipes on the list. These are your tried and true crowd pleasers.
You can choose to collect this information in a notebook with a pencil. Or, you can create a Note on your phone. If you’re like me, this info is likely to land in a Google Doc where I can easily share the information with others who might be curious. Having this large list will help you lean into what’s easiest and non-thinking. You may want to ask your family which meals they enjoy, too. Odds are good you’ve forgotten some family favs.
Consider Your Calendar
Before you begin assigning meals to days of the week, it’s smart to remember what you’ve got going on. Is there a meet? Practice? Meet the Teacher Night? You want your meal plan to fit your family’s flow. On bay nights of the week, you might not have time to do much more than toss together sandwiches. Nights with more margin could allow you a little more time and space to put together a more involved meal. Before you write down which meals you’ll have when, be sure you know where you’ll need to be.
Construct a Piggy Back Plan
When you put a meal plan together, think about meals that can blend into each other. Use leftovers to your advantage. Transform them into a secondary meal on subsequent nights. This works best for dishes like plain rice that can become stir fry or even used in soups the next day. Cooking large cuts of meats also lends itself well to this practice. This cuts down on your time in the kitchen and helps you decrease food (and money) waste.
Chop in Advance
If at all possible, establish a meal prep time each week. For me, Sunday nights work well but that might not flow with your schedule. Chop fruits, veggies, and some meats in advance to reduce the number of minutes spent in the kitchen later in the week. I typically like to chop up mushrooms, peppers, cucumbers, onions, strawberries, romaine, and boiled eggs. These small steps allow you to toss together meals in a snap. Ingredients like these lend themselves to dishes like fajitas, salads, pasta dishes, pizza toppings, and casseroles. You may even want to think about cooking meats – browning turkey, slow cooking a whole chicken, or grilling pork chops or chicken. Slice them and perhaps freeze them so that you can have them prepared when you’re ready.
Create Your Plan
Last but certainly not, least, you need to actually write down your plan. You can use my All New: FREE Printable Meal Planner You Can Edit. By the way, it also has a couple of columns for you to track your grocery list, too. Type it into the document or use your phone. But writing down your plan helps you move theory into action. You’re much more likely to accomplish a goal written down than one that solely exists in your head. If even after you’ve created your meal encyclopedia, you’re running low on ideas, I’m happy to help. There are over 10 ALDI $50 Meal Plans on my site, just waiting for you to check them out.
- $50 ALDI Back to School Meal Plan
- 8 ALDI Freezer Meals for $50
- ALDI Meal Plan: 7 Dinners for Less than $50
- $50 Crockpot ALDI Meal Plan
While it never hurts to get new ideas, be sure the dishes you prepare will ones your family will actually eat. There’s nothing worse at dinner than working hard on a meal that everyone turns their nose up at. Or at least it frustrates me!
Take a deep breath. Pick up a pencil. And then get to work. You can do this and it doesn’t have to suck the life out of you either. Meal planning truly was one of the key components that made our family able to pay off both $127K in debt and our mortgage.
The practice’s impact reaches beyond your wallet though. When you’re able to sit down and enjoy a meal together as a family, you can open up and share the victories and frustrations of your day. What a gift!
Our new book Your Money, Your Marriage is now available! Be sure to check out videos on managing money together on Facebook.
My book is now available: Slaying the Debt Dragon: How One Family Conquered Their Money Monster and Found an Inspired Happily Ever After. You can also check out The Debt Free Devotional
This post contains an affiliate link. That means when you get a great deal, learn about a way to save, or maybe even something for free, I may end up making a small commission. All prices are subject to change.
[…] did the same myself. AND if you don’t know where to begin, I’d recommend checking out Easy Back to School Meal Planning Hacks for some […]