My Meal Planning Process

I have used many different systems for meal planning over the years, and I like to change it up often. I have found it super helpful to keep the weekly menu posted for the rest of the family. Plus now that the girls can read I don’t have to answer the question “what’s for dinner?” over and over again.

This is our current meal planning board. It is a weekly whiteboard with a corkboard at the bottom that I had left from my classroom. I never liked that it started on Sunday while our meal plan always started on Monday. I found this Martha Stewart Standard Dry-Erase Planner Decal at Staples that fit PERFECTLY over the top and all was right with the world! Tip: it will erase better if you peal off the protective clear coat, I won’t tell you how many months it took me to figure that one out!

We try to keep meals simple. I only plan for dinner and keep staples on hand for breakfast and lunch. I split the weekends on our menu board since there is overlap from one week to the next. I do my meal planning on Saturdays and schedule a grocery pick up for noon on Sunday so we can pick them up on our way home from church.

First, I look at the schedule for the week to see who will be home for dinner and what events we have going on. For the nights I’m gone, I make sure to ask Hubby what he wants to make for dinner. Then, we start the PAINFUL process of asking everyone “what do you want for dinner next week?”

As we near the end of summer and going back to work full time I’m starting to get back on track making freezer meals. During the school year I try to make at least one meal per week that I can double and add to the freezer for those busy nights.

Next I go through any recipes needed to create the shopping list. Most all of our family favorite meals are in our family recipe binder (see more about our family recipe binder HERE).

For my shopping list I use a shopping list template that I made. During the week I have it hanging next to our meal planning menu board on the family command center so we can easily add items to the list throughout the week. I made this when money was extremely tight and we had to stay on a strict grocery budget. (Get a download HERE) It has a place to mark if there was a digital coupon available and then while I would shop I could keep track of the price to make sure we were staying on budget.

However, now I use grocery pick up and LOVE it. The cart keeps the total for me as I add items and also shows if there is a coupon available. So the last thing to do is check out.