Benefits of Meal Planning

When it comes to taking care of your household and your family hardly anything will have as big of an impact as meal planning.

You’ll save time, money, and even your health if you do it right with an eye toward your time and money limits while also thinking about what you need to stay healthy.

Save Time

When you plan the meals, you’re going to prepare for you and your family based on your schedules you can save a lot of time. No more spending hours trying to do something you can do in 30 minutes. Food doesn’t have to be fancy to be wonderful, healthy, and delicious. You really can fix 30-minute meals that everyone will love that fit your criteria.

If you know that you have soccer practice three nights a week and several games on weekends, you can arrange preparation and eat around what is really happening. For example, on busy nights, choose to make easy food like wraps, sandwiches, and other food that is easy to fix fast and transport with you.

Save Money

When you set up a shopping list, buy things on sale, and plan your meals based on your budget, you will save money. You may think your budget is too small to do it, but you can do it. You can, if you must, feed a family of four on 50 dollars a week if you plan and know what really constitutes nutrition. (Hint: You don’t need meat or cake)

While it’s important to be realistic about a food budget, it’s also important to be real. I mean you may think you need 200 a week, but you only have 100 or less, you’ll have to figure it out with planning. I’m here to tell you that it really can be done successfully.

Save Your Health

When you pay attention to the food you and your family consumes, you’ll tend to choose better quality food and make better choices about what is going on the plate. If you base your meals on nutrition first using your budget to fill that criterion, you will not only be healthier now, but you will avoid illness later too.

Focusing on nutrition will also pay off in terms of what your kids learn because they will continue doing it in their adult life. You can help you and your family avoid cardiovascular disease and other foodborne illnesses by taking meal planning seriously.

Eating right can seem overwhelming, but with meal planning, you can reap the benefits of saving time, money, and your health. Plus, once you have planned a few meals you can reuse your plans, so you’ll save even more time later. It’s a win-win for you and your entire family.

Meal Planning Tips

1. Meal planning helps you increase the variety of nutrition you get in your meals.

2. Don’t create so much food waste meal planning.

3. Did you know that you probably throw away 30 percent of the food you buy? Stop doing that with meal planning.

4. When you plan your meals, you tend to eat higher quality food that leads to better health.

5. Lower your stress levels by eating with your family.

6. Create a template for your food day, so you know when a meal is complete for your needs.

7. Plan some meatless meals and some one-pot meals. Mix it up.

8. Get your family on board by having a family meeting and stop being a short order cook.

9. Design leftover meals and days. For example, you can have leftovers for lunch every day if you plan quantities accordingly.

10. Save time by using grocery delivery if it fits in with your budget. Some people claim to save money by avoiding last-minute purchases.