Meal Planning 101: How I Learned to Plan for a Week in Half an Hour
Do you ever feel like you just can’t get the hang of meal planning? Like you’ve tried every trick in the book and it still takes you far too much time, comes to far too much money, or ends up getting thrown out halfway through the week or month when a curveball gets thrown at you?
I first started meal planning shortly after I got married almost 5 years ago, and it has taken me until now to properly feel like I know what I am doing. I have made every rookie mistake out there, and paid for it in time and money. I have got endlessly frustrated, banged my head on the keyboard over and over, and spend a collective amount of time on it that I am too ashamed to add up!
I have tried planning one week, two weeks, a month at a time. I have tried planning based around set meals, meat, fish or legumes, and attempted to learn what’s in season over and over again each year. I have tried using budget recipes, budget ingredients, even the occasional meal planning service.
And in those 5 years of experience, only 2 things have worked over and over (and 1 short-term). I am in a really great meal planning groove now and I rarely get frustrated over it any more. I wanted to share my 2 solutions with you, but I also wanted to include a disclaimer before I do so:
Contrary to what many people may try to tell you, meal planning is very personal.
I mean it. What works for one person may not work for another.
But now I’ve got that out of the way, I do believe there are some meal planning tips that work for pretty much everybody, you just have to apply them in your own way!
So what are those 2 solutions that have been working oh-so-well for me?
Frugal Real Food Meal Plans
How much + what does it include?
It may sound like a tongue-twister, but this meal planning service is the only one I have found to be a meal planner I could realistically use long-term. There are lots of choices out there, and you are of course welcome to search around and find what works for you, but Tiffany’s meal planning service is, in my experience, the best “bang for your buck”. For less than £8 (less than $10) a month (seriously – £1.80/$2.30 a week!!!), you get a full meal plan complete with breakfasts, lunches and dinners along with shopping lists, recipes and cooking + prep instructions all sent to you in one handy printable pack! It couldn’t be easier.
What’s the catch?
If, like our family, you are trying to stick to a low sugar lifestyle and cut back on refined carbohydrates, then the recipes will not all suit your needs. I usually find I need to spend about 20 mins to half an hour with the meal plan going through the recipes and marking out a few substitutions of ingredients, or even swapping in a couple of my own or other low sugar recipes. It takes me 5 mins or so to just go through and mark where the free sugars (including honey, maple syrup, dates and fruit juice) and dried or canned fruit are, and where there are perhaps more carbs than we tend to consume (we stick to the choosemyplate.gov USDA recommendations of about 1/4 of the plate being wholegrains rather than the previously recommended 1/2 plate of carbs in any form). There are not usually many recipes to adjust, but always a few. I either substitute very simply rice syrup for honey/maple syrup and xylitol for sugar (and try and use less of each of these things), leave sugar out entirely, or just substitute the whole recipe for one I know is low sugar already (sometimes easier!). Then I spend 15 mins or so adjusting the shopping list accordingly by going through the ingredients in each recipe I am taking out and subbing in my new ones. Even with these adjustments, however, I have found that this is still the easiest, cheapest and generally the best meal planning service to use when on a healthy, low sugar diet.
What’s great about it?
The cost. The tiny amount this costs you each month is easily saved by the budget meal plan. The other thing I love about this is the variety. Every month brings new, exciting recipes, lots of variety in the diet, and doesn’t leave you stuck-in-a-rut cooking the same old stuff over and over. I LOVE variety, to the point where sometimes my husband has to ask me repeatedly to make something again because I’ve moved on to a new recipe already, and Tiffany’s meal plan allows me to cook creatively and not eat the same things week in, week out. I love that about this meal plan.
My tried-and-tested meal planning tips
After having made every mistake in the book and struggled with meal planning taking me f-o-r-e-v-e-r and costing too much for many years, I finally feel like I have a way of meal planning that really really works for me. It takes me far less time (on average about half an hour these days) and I am so excited about it that I felt I needed to share it with others. So I have put together an ebook about it: 5 Steps to an Epic Sugar Free Meal Plan.
How much + what does it include?
If the monthly payment for the Frugal Real Food Meal Plans service is still a bit too much, too long-term or just doesn’t fit for you now, then this may be a great place to start for you! For £5.99 ($7.59) you get a 19-page ebook with my 5 top tips for successful meal planning, as well as 5 bonus “healthy eating” meal planning tips. You also get 3 FREE printables to go with it: a week’s meal plan template, a freezer inventory and a pantry inventory.
What’s the catch?
As I said at the start of this post: meal planning is a very personal thing. I cannot 100% guarantee that what works for my family will work for yours. But these are the top tips I have learned from making many mistakes over the years and collecting the best advice I have come across. These steps make sure that I regularly find meal planning to be easier, quicker and cheaper than ever before, and I believe that for the majority of people, these ideas will also be really really helpful. For £5.99, I think that’s a pretty good deal!
What’s great about it?
Again, the cost. This cost is a one-off. There is no further spending. There is no monthly fee. And, if I may be very un-humble for a moment, you are getting quite a lot for your money! I have also been careful to make this ebook applicable to many different styles of meal planning. Although the free printable is for a weekly meal plan (how we plan!), I do not specify whether you should be planning a week, two weeks, a month or any specific way, because I believe this is something very personal that will be different for different people. That makes this ebook accessible to many, as it gives tips that can be applied whatever your meal planning style or family’s eating habits!
I Quit Sugar 8-Week Program: a temporary solution (UPDATE: The IQS 8WP is closing – the final program starts 1st April, so for your last chance to take part, sign up here)
So this is not an affordable option to be doing constantly, but the 8-Week Program is something I find is worth the money from time to time (or just as a one-off if you’ve never done it before) as a “reset” and the only meal plan that I don’t need to change at all from a low sugar point of view.
How much + what does it include?
For £89, you get 8 weeks of meal plans and shopping lists that cover all meals, as well as experts on tap, an exercise program, ambassadors to advise and encourage who’ve been there, done that, and a life-changing new way of eating that can hugely benefit your health. For all of that, I can’t help but feel that the £11 a week is completely and utterly worth it, but I recognise that this is not something most people can afford to do regularly, so it’s more of an occasional way of having your meal plans all done and dusted with few changes necessary!
What’s the catch?
Although completely and utterly worth it despite this, I have mentioned before on this website that the 8-Week Program is designed for one person to do, and while it can be done very successfully as a family, it sometimes does take a little tweaking. I find that it still takes less than half an hour to change appropriately, but while the IQS team insist it’s as easy as multiplying the shopping list and recipes by the number of people, it isn’t really if you want to keep it as a budget, minimal prep meal plan as it is designed to be. So when the shopping list states 1 whole chicken that you cook at the weekend to last you the week, we don’t go and buy 4 chickens and cook them all. I find it best to get 1-2, cook them and use them in some recipes, and then sub in different meat, fish or legumes in the other recipes, or just multiply everything by 2 for the 4 of us and just plan the lunches separately so we aren’t always doing the “cook once, eat twice” part of the Program where you have the leftovers for lunch. Despite this, I do still feel that the amazing way the Program changes your health, diet and attitude to food is completely worth it, but as I’ve said already, perhaps just as a once-a-year or once-in-a-lifetime thing rather than every 2 months (unless you have the money in your budget and want to – then be my guest!).
What’s great about it?
In my mind, three things: the experts, the community, and the life-changing health-boosting sugar-quitting long-term benefits. The Program gives you access to over 50 experts in the fields of nutrition, medicine, psychology, alternative therapies and fitness, and I believe this is a massive plus for the duration of it. You would often pay more than the entire 8-Week Program costs to access just one or two of these experts personally (there are 17 trained nutritionists alone, including Angelique Panagos from Channel 4’s Sugar Free Farm), so being able to ask them whatever is bothering you for 8 whole weeks is well worth the cost. I love the community feel to the Program as well, and have discovered some really lovely, inspiring people and new websites through the forums. You feel massively supported throughout the Program in a way you just wouldn’t trying to do it on your own at home! And finally, the benefits I have experienced in my health and attitude to food thanks to the 8 weeks has left me and my family reaping rewards for over 2 years now, and I believe that it will keep doing so for many many years to come!
Why bother with any of these things?
You are of course very welcome to sit down with a pen and paper, a stack of recipes books and a few hours to hand to do this the old-fashioned way, as I used to. But I have found that for a few pounds a week, a month or as a once-off, the time and money (and health!) saved for me has been well and truly worth it. So by all means, close this tab and go back to the way that you feel works for you, but if you are struggling at all with meal planning, and feel like there must be a better way, then please do have a glance through some or all of these options – they may just be the best 5 mins and pennies you have ever spent on meal planning!
