Simple Tips to Use a Monthly Meal Calendar

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I have learned a lot in my 34 years, and the biggest thing is that we have to decide what to eat every day, which is EXHAUSTING! I wanted it to be simple but it took me awhile to figure out some tips to help meal plan.

It is not just about planning what to eat and ensuring you have time on those days to make your meals but also about the price of groceries nowadays. 

Thinking back to being a kid and didn’t have to have a plan what to eat, Mom and Dad picked out the menu… It was so easy! When I moved out and in with my now husband (again, high school sweethearts!), we didn’t have a plan for meals. We got food that we liked and just figured we’d have it during the week with no real plan. This also contributed to overspending and more food waste.

As time went on, I did get better at planning out our weeks. I even planned out breakfast and lunches for work. However, this was time-consuming and I would spend my Thursday and Friday evenings creating meal plans for the following week. I’d search my Pinterest, cookbooks, and TikTok for ideas on new meals.

We started planning that certain days of the week would be theme days to help, i.e., Monday is frozen pizza, Tuesday is taco Tuesday. It is helpful to know that I don’t have to plan much for those days just making sure we have what we need but it does get old quickly.

I saw a video on how someone planned out their whole month of meals and how easy it was. I know some websites will generate a month of meals but I feel like I would still have to go through it and fix certain meals or days.

So I printed a blank calendar and filled in the days for the month. Now it was time to brainstorm recipes. We still do theme nights during the week to help but I also like to try new recipes.

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Get all your recipes in one place

I decided to go through my Pinterest boards, TikTok saved videos and cookbooks. I made a list of where the recipe was from and if we tried it and liked it or if it was a new recipe to try. Having them all written down in one spot is more efficient than trying to go through each thing. This was time-consuming to put together but worth it because it saves a lot of time each month.

Now, we’ve got our recipes list and a blank calendar… time to fill it in!

Think of all the days you have events that would disrupt your meal plan.

Once I have the dates of the month filled in, I go through my calendar and write in any event or obligations we have that will change our dinner plans for that day. Do we have dinner with friends, a birthday dinner to go to, soccer practice to interrupt the evening. If you can plan for those days as best as possible it will help narrow down the best meals to make.

Use theme nights

On to our theme nights. Each week I plan for frozen pizza on Monday, Mexican Tuesday, and take out Friday. We do budget to have a night a week to not cook at home. There are some weeks we have events where we do eat out more then once but it isn’t often. I like to plan Fridays being our no-cook night because it’s the end of the week and who wants to cook Friday night anyway?! There are so many options for theme nights. Here are some different themes if you’d want to try:

  • Meatless Night
  • Pasta Night
  • Charcuterie Night
  • Italian Night
  • BBQ Night
  • Burger Night
  • Breakfast for Dinner
  • Asian Night
  • Slow Cooker

Time to fill in the rest of the month.

Don’t forget to plan for lunches for work or school

I go through all my recipes and see anything that immediately jumps out to me. I usually plan for the time of year we are in as well and will plan seasonal recipes. Once it’s all filled in for dinners, I plan the workweek lunches. My husband will let me know if he’s feeling anything for that week but I typically have a few staples I rotate for my work week lunches.

Monthly meal calendar example. This is our meal plan for September.

Planning for a whole month has helped our food budget greatly, and leaves a little room to plan ahead for holidays or stock up on staples.

I go grocery shopping once a week and planning the month saves a lot of time when making out the grocery list. Make sure you go through your cabinets to make sure of the ingredients you need.  I typically shop on Saturdays then spend 1-2 hours on Sunday meal prepping lunches and produce for the upcoming week.

I find that spending around an hour to plan out a month of meals saves so much time each week. If we have an event come up where we won’t be sticking to the meal planned for that day, then I save that meal for the next month. Also, if I come across a meal that I want to try and not forget about, I will write it on a sticky note and keep it with my grocery list.

This isn’t easy to try and transition your routine into something like this. There are times when life gets too busy and you struggle with planning meals. If you can find the time to set up all your recipes in one place to make it easy to access then it won’t take long to create your monthly meal plan. I know it will be recipes my family will eat and will save time! We stay under budget this way and there are some weeks in which I can add more items to prep for holidays or our small stockpile.

I hope this helps! It has made my life easier and I’ve become more time efficient because of it.

Check out this free download of the calendar I made. It’s easy to edit or print it out and you can write in your meals! Leave a comment if you liked this post! Check out more posts here.

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