6 sanity saving benefits of meal planning for busy mums
Thinking about what to make for dinner every night is exhausting, but meal planning, and the many benefits of meal planning, can turn this exhausting activity into a much easier one.
Here are 6 advantages of meal planning that I hope will inspire you to start meal planning in your home, so you find meal times enjoyable, instead of something to dread.
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What is meal planning?
Meal planning involves writing a plan of the meals you’ll have over a dedicated amount of time, for example one week.
You can do a meal plan for all of your family’s meals, for example a weekly meal plan for breakfast, lunch, and dinners, or you can do meal plan for a selected meal, for example, a weekly dinner meal plan.
A meal plan details the days of the week, and the meals you want to cook on them, which you can write out in a weekly meal planner, a combined meal planner and grocery list, on a spreadsheet, or in a plain notebook.
If you’d like to start meal planning here’s a great post on how to meal plan for the week, and another post with meal planning tips that are sure to help you meal plan for your family.
Why is meal planning important?
Why is meal planning important? It’s important because it helps you save time and money when it comes to preparing meals for your family.
Here are some of the advantages of meal planning that help with these time and money saving elements.
Reduces stress
One of the more stressful parts of making meals, involves constantly thinking about what to make.
By having a meal plan you no longer have to constantly think “what should I cook for dinner?”, or even “what healthy snacks for school can I pack in my kid’s lunchbox?” instead you know what you’re cooking, which reduces a lot of the mental load we feel as mums.
Saves time
One of the best benefits of meal planning is that it saves time.
Meal planning saves time at home because you don’t waste time every night thinking about what to cook.
Instead you think about your meals when you’re writing out your meal plan, and then you don’t think about them again.
It saves time when grocery shopping because you know exactly what ingredients you need, so you can go straight to the aisle that contains them.
It also decreases the number of mid-week visits to the grocery store, because you can buy everything you need in one visit.
Saves money
Another advantage of meal planning is that it saves money on groceries, because you don’t buy ingredients you don’t need, you’ll buy less takeaways, and you’ll buy less items that you think you’ll use, but never do.
Helps you eat healthier
A great answer to the question why is meal planning important, is that it helps you to eat healthier.
Often when hungry, tired, or short on time, we can gravitate towards snacks, takeaways, or premade meals.
However, with a meal plan, you can include healthy family recipes on it so you have all the ingredients you need during the week to eat healthier.
Increases variety
Something that I need to be better at is varying the types of food that I eat, and one of the benefits of meal planning is that you can vary the types of food you eat by introducing new recipes to your meal plan.
If you’d like even more variety in your meal plans, you can also add recipes that involve using seasonal produce.
Varying the food you and your family eat is a great way to prevent everyone being bored of eating the same meals often.
Some ways that you can vary the food your family eats is to try:
- Dinner theme nights like Taco Tuesdays, Pizza Fridays, Pasta Sundays
- Let your kids choose one meal a week
- Create a master list of favourite family meals, and choose one meal a week from it, which is what I currently do to vary my family meals
Reduces food waste
Creating a meal plan means that you buy ingredients that you’ll use, and you can also plan meals based on ingredients or leftovers you already have, which reduces food waste.
Benefits of meal planning – a recap
It may feel like meal planning is another task you have to add to your already jam packed to do list, but as you can see, there are many advantages of meal planning that will actually lessen the stress you feel when it comes to family meal times.
From reducing stress, saving you time when cooking and grocery shopping, creating healthier eating habits, and reducing food waste, the benefits of meal planning extend beyond the kitchen.
With just a little pre planning, you can spend less time worrying about what’s for dinner, and more time enjoying meal times with your family.
What’s one challenge you face when getting dinner on the table?
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