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Looking for some quick meal planning tips? Here are three easy meal planning tips to help you eat at home more often and save money!
Today I wanted to share a few quick meal planning tips in case you are struggling with eating at home.
I go through seasons of being very diligent about making meals and eating at home, and other seasons where I’m tired of all the meals I know how to make and I much more tempted to go out to eat than cook. Sound familiar?
Here are three quick tips that might help you get a fresh perspective on meal planning!
3 Quick Meal Planning Tips to Help You Eat at Home More Often & Save Money
Here are three easy meal planning tips to help you eat at home more often and save money!
1. Keep a running list of new meal ideas to try.
You can keep a list in your notes app on your phone, a written list on your fridge, or print new recipes and keep them in a binder whenever you see a new dinner idea you want to try.
Then, when you are all out of ideas for what to make for dinner, you can go back to your list of new meal ideas and pick something new to try out.
I follow a few cooking blogs and will save emails of recipes I want to try in an email folder, too. This past weekend, I went through a few of them and printed some new recipes to try out in the next few weeks.
2. Repeat meals that are quick, easy, and that your family loves.
It’s fun to make new meals and find new recipes your family loves, but it can take more time and energy, also. So, don’t be afraid to frequently repeat those meals you know your family loves that are quick and easy – especially if you are in a super busy season.
You may not be eating the most exciting meals each night, but you’ll feel satisfied knowing your family is eating great meals and that you are saving money by eating at home more often.
3. Try theme nights meal planning
When I feel stuck with meal planning, using a theme for each night is a great way to have a starting point or template to work from.
Instead of trying to come up with seven dinners to make each week off the top of your head, you can make a “theme” for each night and base your meals off of that.
For example, Sunday: sheet pan dinner, Monday: Italian night, Tuesday: tacos or nachos, Wednesday: pizza night, Thursday: chicken and veggies, Friday: slow cooker meal, Saturday: grill something.
When you have these “themes” as a meal planning template, it’s much easier to come up with a dinner idea for each night.
I hope these quick meal planning tips give you some fresh inspiration to make your meal plans, so you can eat at home more often with your family and save money. Keep things simple and easy!
Need more meal planning help?
If you are often stuck wondering what to make for dinner, these weekly meal plan ideas will be a huge help!
It may also be helpful to make a list of your family’s favorite meals to use as inspiration and ideas when you sit down to make your meal plan.
My Meal Planning Starter Pack has some great resources, including a favorite meals list you can use, to help you conquer meal planning. Check it out on sale here!
Here are some more cheap meal ideas to help you make your own frugal weekly meal plan:
20 Things to Eat on a Tight Budget
Easy Two Week Rotating Meal Plan on a Budget
10 Pantry Meals: When the Menu Plan Doesn’t Happen
Theme Nights Meal Planning: Easy Dinner Ideas for Every Night of the Week
You might also enjoy:
>> Psst…. Want a year of affordable & simple meals planned & shopped for you??
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