My stress-free monthly meal plan

Meal plans are one of the best things a person can do to help increase household efficiency and save money at the grocery store.  Knowing what you are going to cook for your meals saves time and helps you plan ahead for the day.  Having a set meal plan helps you narrow down what is needed at the grocery store.  You go in with a plan and list to help keep you on track. 

But there is a downside to meal plans.  Some people might find it stressful to have to plan out each meal for the week or even a month.  It can seem daunting and in order to make it truly successful, you need to know your plan for the entire week.  But how does a meal plan hold up if you have something come up the night before or the morning of a meal that takes an hour or more to complete.  My meal plan process accounts for all of this and only takes 30 to an hour to plan with 45-55 meals planned out. 

I don’t do a set day by day meal plan.  I am an analytical, detail driven person but once I sit down and try to figure out all of different variables I begin to stress out because of all the different variables my brain goes through, i.e. when am I going to be able to leave work on Friday, do we have to go to the grocery store because the Wednesday circular shows a huge meat sale, etc.   So, I had to find a way to compromise my need for a plan with my need to account for any daily situation.   

My solution is really a simple one.  First I grab some cook books (if I need some inspiration) and a notebook.  I grab a calendar and count one meal for each work day and two for each non work day.  We always have food for breakfast and if we sleep in, we might just skip it.  This gives me a beginning basis on how many meals I need to prepare.  I start listing all of the meals that we want during the timeframe in the notebook with the number of meals it will cover beside it.  For around 45-55 planned meals, the amount of prep takes around 30 minutes to an hour and that includes making the grocery list. 

An example would be: 

Spaghetti: 5 

Chicken Roll-ups: 2 

Pizza: 7 

After I finish with my list, I start on my grocery list, going over what is in my stockpile and what we will need to buy for the month or for the week. 

Why does this method work so well for us?  Well, when we plan our meals around our busy times and days.  The month before our wedding, we had nothing but simple, easy meals that I was able to make in big batches so we could have leftovers.  The amount of stress this reduced and the time this saved is really amazing when you look at how much time it actually takes to cook a meal.   

We are also not set on having something we aren’t really in the mood for and there are a set number of choices for when we are indecisive.  I like the ability to choose what I want.  As long as it is on the list and isn’t marked through, it is game.