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I’ve always been a little obsessed with saving money. It’s not the worst thing to be obsessed over I suppose! The easiest place to save some money is on your weekly shopping list. The easiest way to make sure you trim your food bill is to start meal planning for the week. This helps me stay (semi) organised throughout the week if I know what I’m cooking and when. It means I can plan my days around dinners.
To help you with your meal planning, I have created the free Money-Saving Meal Planner for you. It includes templates for your shopping list and a weekly meal planner to help you make sure you stick to the dinners that you have planned. Meal planning is a great way to save time and money. It can also be a good incentive to be healthier. This makes food shopping easy and hassle-free. I’ve also included some great batch cook recipes for your leftover nights! Click below to download the free Money-Saving Meal Planner to make your grocery shopping quick, easy and hassle-free.
What is Meal Planning?
Meal planning is when you plan what you are going to eat for the week or month. This includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Meal planning is a way to keep track of what you are eating, as well as what you are buying at the supermarket.
The Benefits of Meal Planning for the Week.
- Helps you to keep track of what you are eating
- It allows you to see what you do not need to buy that may be a regular on your shopping list.
- Meal planning for the week can help you cut the cost of your shopping trip
- You know what you are cooking each night
- Helps you to be more organised with meals, which can lead through to the rest of the day.
- If you’re on a budget, meal planning helps to stick to it
- You are less likely to order fast food
See My Sample Meal Plan!
I decided to create an example of my meal planning for the week, so you could see how easy it is to do. As you can probably see, a lot of the meals appear more than once when I’m meal planning for the week. This helps to control how much food I buy at the supermarket. This is the exact template from the Money-Saving Meal Planner Bundle you can download for free. There are instructions on exactly how to use is included. I always include how many portions I’ll use and how many portions will be leftovers, so I can try and save a bit of extra money and buy less each week.
Related: Grocery Shopping, How to Keep it on Budget with a Growing Family.
How to utilise your leftovers when Meal Planning for the Week.
- Aim to have leftovers twice a week, this gives you a break and cuts your shopping bill down.
- Bulk cook as many meals as possible, this is a great time and money saver
- Leftover fresh ingredients? make soup, curry or chilli with them.
- Freeze everything you can, you can also freeze a lot of fresh ingredients and herbs.
Do you have any great meal planning tips? Let me know in the comments below.
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