Meal Planning for Beginners: The Complete Guide for Success

“Ugh, meal planning. Do I have to do that again?”  

Is this how you find yourself thinking about menu planning? If so, you aren’t alone. Many people dread the sometimes time-consuming task of planning out weekly meals.

But unfortunately, meal planning is necessary.  

Whether you meal plan ahead on a Sunday or you do your menu planning an hour before you need your meal cooked (I wouldn’t recommend the latter), you have to decide what to feed yourself and your family.

Notice I said, “sometimes time-consuming?” Meal planning can take up a lot of your time. But it doesn’t have to.  

You can reduce the time you spend planning your weekly menu for your family by finding and using a system that works for you. In addition, there are many methods and strategies to make meal planning so much easier and quicker for you.  

And I’m going to explain a few of those methods below. But first, let’s start at the beginning to answer all the basic questions related to the topic of meal planning.

Free Meal Plan Template Pdf

There are many different systems you can use to menu plan. For example, if you want to, you could just write down your meals on a piece of notebook paper every week and call it a day.

However, if you are reading this, I’m guessing you want a little extra help creating a system that can help you consistently plan your meals.  

And guess what? I have a printable menu planner that can help you.

I created a free meal plan template pdf you can print out and use for your menu planning. It contains everything you need to make a little binder to stay organized.  

Do you need to put the pages in a binder? Nope. Use the templates in a way that will help you the most. 

Here is a preview of the free meal plan template pdfs:

You can download the meal planning printables here.  

If you would rather not deal with printing pages for meal planning, you could opt to use an inexpensive planner. If you are reading this during the last couple of months of the year or the first couple of months of the year, you may be able to find a cheap meal planner at a dollar store.  

However, if you are reading this in the middle of the year and want to go the planner route, you could find an inexpensive planner like this one that’s not dated. Using an undated planner will allow you to use the entire planner instead of starting at the month you bought it.  

But if you want a free option (besides printing), my meal planning template pdf would help you start meal planning immediately.

What is Meal Planning?

Meal planning, or menu planning, is simply the process of deciding what you will eat for your meals. It involves choosing your meals intentionally while considering your daily activities, obligations, and commitments.

Many people plan for all three meals a day, while others prefer to plan for evening meals only. Think about your family’s needs to determine which meals you will menu plan for.  

What is the Importance of Meal Planning?

There are many great benefits of meal planning, which is why it’s essential. Here are the main perks of planning your meals.

Eat Healthier

Eating healthier is a direct result of meal planning, provided you make healthy meal plans. Also, making your meal plan healthy isn’t any more time-consuming or difficult than basic meal planning. The bottom line is eating at home gives you more control over how your food is prepared and allows you to know what you are putting into your body.  

Save Money

Saving money is another incredible perk of meal planning. Eating at home saves so much money. If you want to live a more frugal lifestyle to save money, menu planning will help you reduce food costs.

Reduce Dinner Time Stress

Dinner time doesn’t have to be stressful. When you get home from work, you can feel calm and be in control of mealtime. But, unfortunately, life can be stressful as it is. So why make it more stressful for yourself? Meal planning takes the guesswork out of dinnertime.

Reduce Food Waste

According to an article in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, U.S. households waste about one-third of the food they buy every year. Let’s just say you spend around $450 on food each month, which equals $5,400 spent per year. Therefore, the average household is throwing away around $1,800 in food! Think about all the other things you could do with that much money.   

How Do I Start Meal Planning?

Getting motivated to start a task and consistently completing the task over the long term can be difficult for many people. Here are some tips to help you get started with meal planning and stick with it so you can enjoy meals at home on a regular basis.

Determine Your Reason for Meal Planning

There is a reason for everything you do in life.  

You eat because you are hungry, work out to be healthier, sleep because you are tired, and work because you need money. You get the point!

Knowing your reason for meal planning is no different. But everyone’s reason for meal planning will be different. For example, my reason for meal planning is to reduce our grocery bill and save money on food costs to allocate that money toward our yearly family beach vacation.  

Your reason could be to eat healthier to help get a newly diagnosed medical condition under control. Or maybe you want to eat out less so you can save money for a large purchase you want (or need) to make. Think about your why for meal planning and use it for motivation to start and continue meal planning regularly.  

Find a System

Determining a system for meal planning that works for you is the key to long-term success. It’s your “how” of meal planning. There are tons of ways to go about meal planning. And not every method will work for you and your family.

To determine your meal planning system, you’ll need to answer a few questions:

How many meals will you plan? All three meals per day, two meals a day, or just your evening meal?

How often will you menu plan? Once a week, biweekly, or once a month (see more info on that below)?  

How often will you grocery shop? Weekly, every other week, or once a month?

Where will you write down your meals? In a binder, on a piece of paper, in an inexpensive planner, or on a small chalkboard you can hang on the wall?

Once you answer these questions, you will have developed your system for meal planning. If your system doesn’t work, try tweaking it until you find the best way to meal plan for your family.

Start Slow

If you are a beginner at meal planning, it’s crucial to start slow to avoid becoming overwhelmed. You could strive to meal plan for 3-5 nights per week at first. Plan meals that are easy to make, so you don’t have any excuses for ordering takeout.  

Once you have been consistently meal planning for a few nights per week, strive to plan for more nights. Setting yourself up for success early on can lead to consistency in the long term.   

Make it a Routine

After you decide how often you will meal plan (weekly, biweekly, monthly), you’ll want to try to make meal planning part of your routine. Set aside time every week to get it done.  

So, for example, if you will be meal planning weekly, determine which day you will do your menu planning and which day you will do your grocery shopping. Then, add it to your calendar to become part of your daily tasks.

Helpful Tip: If you absolutely hate meal planning or you have tried it and you just can’t seem to figure out a system that works for you, you should take a look at $5 Meal Plan.

$5 Meal Plan is a meal plan service that sends you weekly meal plans right to your inbox and the grocery list for the meal plan already done for you!  

All you have to do is check off the things you already have and head to the grocery store to get the rest.

Most of the meals work out to be around $2 per person.  And it’s only $5 a month!  

So if you would like to check it out, they have a free 14-day trial you can sign up for here.

What are the 5 Basic Steps of Meal Planning?

As I said earlier, menu planning doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Meal planning essentially has five basic steps from start to finish. Here are the five steps that make up meal planning.

1. Take Inventory of What You Already Have

Look around in your pantry, fridge, and freezer, and write down what you want to use in your menu. Identify food that could spoil if it doesn’t get used. Be sure to incorporate leftovers into your menu to avoid having to toss them.  

2. Plan Your Meals

Get out your meal planning template, binder, planner, notebook, or whatever you decide to use to keep track of your planned meals and start filling in your menu. Look at the busy nights and plan quick and easy meals on those nights. Leftovers would be an excellent option for busy nights. Keep a list of your family’s favorite meals to help you fill in the days. Use theme nights if you have difficulty thinking of new or different meals.   

3. Make Your Grocery List

Go through your meal plan and write down your shopping list. Then, write down everything else you will need for the week (or for the length of time you are shopping for).   

Here is my favorite grocery list hack:

Create a typed-up grocery list template consisting of all of your frequently purchased items. Allow space to write things in for other items you rarely need to purchase.  

Keep this list to half a page if possible and hang the list on your fridge. Then, if you are running low on something, immediately circle the item on the list.  

When you are ready to make your grocery shopping list for your meal plan, circle the items you will need for your planned meals. Then, circle anything else you need from the store, such as snacks, breakfast foods, fruits and vegetables, and food for lunches.  

4. Go Shopping

Now that you have your shopping list, you are ready to head to the grocery store. Choosing a specific day to head to the store will help make it part of your routine.  

If it’s a busy time of year for you, try ordering groceries online for pickup or have them delivered. I’m a huge fan of Walmart’s Grocery Pickup and have been using this service for several years. It is a time-saver, and I highly recommend it.  

5. Cook at Home

The last step of meal planning is cooking your meals. There are ways to make cooking at home easier. Plan the simple meals for weeknights. Save the meals that require a recipe for the weekends when you have more time. In addition, make sure you have the proper kitchen tools and gadgets to make cooking a breeze.   

What are the 3 Basic Rules in Menu Planning?

All meal planning gurus out there have different basic rules for menu planning to follow. Here are the three rules for meal planning that I live by.

Rule #1: Check Your Calendar

For meal planning success, you must look ahead to see if you have any prior commitments you need to plan around. For example, if your kids have sports practices on certain nights a week, you’ll want to plan quick meals for those nights.  

Or let’s say you will be working overtime, and you know you will be exhausted when you get home. Maybe a frozen pizza would be perfect that night, so you can throw it in the oven and then go sit down and put your feet up until it’s ready.  

Checking your calendar to plan your meals intentionally is the backbone of successful meal planning.

Rule #2: Don’t Plan Meals that Require Recipes During the Week

Keep meals extremely simple for your weeknight meals when you are busiest. For example, don’t plan a meal that requires a recipe during the week. Instead, save those meals for the weekends when you have more time to cook.  

Planning simple menus for weekdays will help you complete the prep, cooking, and cleaning up so much faster. You could also do some meal prep on a Sunday to help streamline your weekly meals even more.  

Wash and chop lettuce and veggies and store them in green containers to pull out during the week for quick side salads. Pre-cook ingredients that take longer to cook for meals, such as grains and dried beans. Assemble casseroles, so all you have to do is put them in the oven after work. 

Freezer cooking is also an excellent strategy to conquer weeknight mealtime. Freezer meals aren’t difficult to prepare. Prepare a double batch of your favorite meal, wrap it tightly after cooling, and place it in the freezer for future use.

Rule #3: Always Have a Back-Up Meal Ready

No matter how thorough you think you are when planning your meals and making your grocery lists, there will be times when you cannot cook your scheduled meal.  

Ingredients get forgotten. Life happens.  

To be prepared for these instances, try keeping a few back up meals on hand. Back-up meals are meals that you typically have the ingredients for or that have a long shelf life. These meals should be kept handy for those just-in-case moments.  

Some examples of back up meals are:

• Grilled cheese and tomato soup
• Pasta with marinara sauce
• Frozen pizzas
• Cheese or chicken (try canned chicken!) quesadillas
• Deli meat sandwiches
• Canned soups
• Tuna salad or egg salad sandwiches (or served over lettuce or with crackers)
• Hot dogs and mac-n-cheese
• Big salads topped with hard-boiled eggs, rolled lunchmeat, and cubed or shredded cheese

You get the idea! Come up with a couple of back-up meals to keep on hand in case you need them.  

How Do I Make a Healthy Meal Plan?

As I said earlier, making a healthy meal plan isn’t more time-consuming than making any other meal plan. To make a meal plan healthy, incorporate healthy foods and avoid foods high in fat, calories, and preservatives.  

Here are some tips to make a healthy meal plan:

• Avoid pre-packaged and prepared foods (E.g., boxed meals, frozen prepared meals)
• Cook from scratch so you can control the ingredients
• Choose healthier ingredients for meals (E.g., whole-wheat pasta instead of regular pasta, brown rice instead of white rice, use olive or avocado oil instead of vegetable or corn oil, etc.)
• Plan well-rounded meals from the five food groups
• Focus on the proper portions of food

If you want to improve your eating habits, creating a healthy meal plan is the first step to changing your diet. In addition, focusing on healthy eating is a great way to improve your overall health and well-being. 

How Do I Plan a Menu for the Week?

A great way to get started is to menu plan for one week at a time. Focusing on one week can be less overwhelming than trying to plan for two weeks or a month. If you want a step-by-step guide, check out my post on how to make a weekly meal plan with grocery list.

To plan a menu for the week, you’ll want to check your fridge, pantry, and freezer for food you want to use in your meal plan. Then check your calendar for any hectic nights.  

Begin with planning meals for busy nights. For example, assign leftovers in your fridge or freezer for those nights. Or, a day or two before the busy night, plan a meal that yields enough to feed your family twice so you can eat the leftovers from that meal on your busy night.  

Once you have the busy nights planned, go back and fill in meals for the other nights. Try to keep it simple during the week and treat yourself to a more involved homemade dinner on the weekends when you have time to make and enjoy it.  

How to Meal Plan Once a Month

If you’ve mastered the weekly meal plan, you may want to up your meal planning game to planning for four weeks at a time. It takes a little extra planning, but it will be so worth it in the end because you won’t have to meal plan again for four weeks.

The method is the same as weekly meal planning, but you fill in meals for the entire month. Again, it’s helpful to have a list of your family’s favorite meals to pick from when filling in your monthly meal plan. 

Don’t throw any of your monthly meal plans away once the month is over! Instead, use them to look back at to get ideas for future meal plans if you have difficulty coming up with meal ideas.  

What are the Types of Meal Planning?

There are so many different ways to create a meal plan. Successful meal planning involves choosing a method that works for your lifestyle.  

For example, if you have kids active in extracurricular activities, you may find it challenging to meal plan once a week. You may find it easier to fit meal planning into your schedule every other week or once a month.  

Here are five popular types of meal planning methods:

Type 1: Weekly (Fully Scheduled vs. List of Meals for the Week)

Meal planning once a week is a popular method. But it takes commitment to set aside time every week to get your meal planning done. Nevertheless, weekly meal planning is a great way to start menu planning.

If you opt for weekly meal planning, you can schedule your meals for specific nights of the week. The other way to make a weekly meal plan is to produce a list of meals you want to have that week and decide which dinner to have each day, depending on what you’re hungry for.  

Type 2: Biweekly

Another way to menu plan is every other week. Biweekly meal planning is an excellent option if you dread having to meal plan every single week. Also, you could try shopping for groceries every other week to save yourself time and money.  

Type 3: 2-Week Rotating Meal Plan

A 2-week rotating meal plan is when you create two different biweekly meal plans and alternate them. An alternating meal plan helps prevent meal boredom because you can plan your meals so you don’t eat the same thing twice within four weeks.  

Type 4: Monthly

The fourth type of meal planning is monthly. I consider monthly meal planning to be four-week intervals instead of planning meals for the actual number of days in the month. 

My reasoning behind this is that it’s easier to grocery shop every two weeks when planning meals for four weeks. Therefore, the extra days within the calendar month that fall outside those four weeks would be considered part of the following four-week meal plan.  

Monthly meal planning can be one of the most time-efficient ways to meal plan because you only have to do it once a month. For example, you only have to check your food inventory once a month, write your meals once a month, and if you want, even grocery shop once a month!

Type 5: Theme Nights

If you are struggling to think of meal ideas for your meal plan, consider using theme nights to help guide your meal planning. Assign a theme to each day and write down a meal associated with the theme.

Here are some theme night ideas:

• Pasta night
• Tex-Mex night
• Fish night
• Meatless night
• Sandwich night
• Leftover night
• Casserole night
• Grill night
• Slow cooker night

I have included a list of theme night ideas and side dish ideas in my free meal planner template pdf if you want more themes.

You can download my free meal planning guide here.  

How Do I Meal Plan on a Budget?

Finding ways to plan your meals around your budget is a fantastic way to save money on food. You can do several things to help you create a meal plan on a budget. Here are my favorite tips for saving money while menu planning.

Plan One Meatless Meal Per Week

Meat can be the most expensive part of a meal. So by cutting meat out of your meal plan at least once a week, you will save money on your grocery bill.  

Incorporate Leftovers Into Your Meal Plan

Repurposing your leftovers to avoid food waste or intentionally cooking enough food to feed your family twice is a great money-saving strategy when it comes to meal planning.  

Grocery Shop Less Frequently

Heading to the store for groceries less often will help you save money. Limiting the number of times you go to the store will help you be more intentional with your grocery list. You’ll avoid impulse buys which will help you stay within budget.

Use Ibotta

Ibotta is a cash-back app for groceries that is free to download and use. You can use it at many different stores like Walmart, Target, Costco, Whole Foods, Kroger, and more!

You just add the grocery offer to your account in the Ibotta app, take a picture of your receipt, and they deposit the money into your Ibotta account.  

If you don’t have Ibotta yet, you can sign up here.

By signing up through my link, you can receive up to $20 in welcome bonuses!  

Use Cheap Ingredients

Planning meals that use cheap foods will help you make a meal plan that comes in under budget. You can make sure you buy the most inexpensive foods by shopping at cheap grocery stores (E.g., discount grocery stores).  

Buying food in bulk is another excellent way to decrease the overall price of food. In addition, watching for rock bottom prices for your frequently purchased food items will help you save money. You will create cheap meals when you use cheap (or discounted) ingredients.

What is Reverse Meal Planning?

Reverse meal planning is simply creating your menu from the food items you already have and then filling in the rest of the days with other meals. It involves checking your “inventory” of food in your pantry, freezer, and fridge and using up what you have on hand before planning meals you will need to purchase food for.

Reverse meal planning is the strategy I recommend for menu planning because it helps to reduce food waste and saves money. So if you are looking to decrease your spending on food, reverse meal planning is the way to do it.  

Final Thoughts on Meal Planning

Meal planning does not need to be a complicated or time-consuming process. However, menu planning is essential because it provides many benefits for you and your family. If you want to start meal planning, use these tips and strategies to help you succeed with eating at home more and cooking delicious family meals.