Make your month a little easier and save money with monthly meal planning. Do your menu planning all at once for the whole month so that you can save both time and money. It will be easy to skip fast food when you know what you’re eating and have the grocery list dialed in.
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I know what you’re thinking….
Meal plan for a whole month? Are you crazy? I can’t plan two days, how could I possibly meal plan for a whole month? And why would you want to?
Well, my friend, meal planning is your ticket to saving food, time, and money, as well as a fair amount of the stress that occurs when you or those you love start to get hangry.
Why recreate the wheel every week when you can batch your weekly menu plans?
I save so much time and frustration when I generate many dinner ideas at one time and set up a basic structure for the weeks ahead. If you’re the family meal planner, then I urge you to try this time-saving trick!
Why meal plan for an entire month?
You can avoid food waste. Wasting food is wasting time and money. And it’s not that hard to avoid when you shop your kitchen to plan your meals.
You can keep your meal plans exciting. Planning the month at one time helps you take a long view so you don’t get bored eating the same thing week after week. You can space out your favorite ingredients so that you don’t use up all the proteins the first week and then slog through on beans and rice for the other three weeks of the month.
You can save time. Batching tasks has been said to help us be more productive and do more with our minutes. If you know you’re going to meal plan each week, why not plan several weeks at one time?
You can save money. Planning a month in advance can help you save money through bulk buying and grocery shopping the sales for things you know you’ll want in a few weeks. Likewise, you can choose meals based on shared ingredients so that you don’t let anything go to waste.
How to Do Monthly Menu Planning
Here’s the basic method for planning a month of meals at one time. It helps to print out a calendar for the month like our printable meal planner template.
Mark your calendar with special events and holidays.
Those meals will be different than regular nights, so you’ll want to plan for something special, perhaps more elaborate meals or special family favorites. Keep in mind if those meals often generate leftovers, whether prepped food or leftover ingredients from larger packages.
Take an inventory of what food you have.
It’s important to use what’s already on hand so you can save money and prevent food waste. Meal planning based on what you have is a great way to save both time and money. You might include in your inventory a few different options to use up those particular ingredients.
Plug in regular weekly theme nights and events.
Weekly meal plan themes make meal planning super easy! Consider including a regular rotation of Taco Tuesdays, Friday Pizza Night or Soup Night.
Look at the nights that have regular activities like sports practice and baseball games. Plan easy quick meals on those nights, maybe a slow cooker recipe or a 30-minute meal.
Fill in the blanks with meals you love.
Planning meals you love saves you money because you won’t be tempted to get fast food. Start adding meals into the remaining squares, alternating meatless meals with those that have meat, or varying the budget proteins from night to night to keep things exciting.
You may want to try new recipes on a monthly basis or keep to really simple meals. Consider keeping a list of meals to put on repeat during busy seasons.
Tips for Successful Monthly Meal Planning
Remember you’re not married to this plan! Be flexible based on what’s going on in your life.
Feel free to change it up as different things happen throughout the month, drawing arrows where you’ll swap tonight’s meal with another night. It’s totally fine to carry a meal over from a previous week. By the end of the month, it may look like a very complicated football play, but that’s okay!
Print out a calendar for the month or open a digital one in the app of your choice. You can use an excel spreadsheet, google sheets, or a simple calendar app on your mobile device. If you use a printable calendar, consider laminating it and using a dry-erase marker to reuse the planner.
You may need to pivot from your plan at the store in order to keep to your grocery budget. If your meal plan includes chicken and gravy, but chicken is too expensive this week, swap it for a lower-priced protein, like ground turkey and make a Shepherd’s Pie instead.
Double up whenever possible. Making a double batch of something allows you to freeze half and maximize your time in the kitchen as well as benefit from bulk shopping. This is a great way to build your stash of freezer meals.
Homemade alternatives are always a good option, especially when you’re meal planning on a budget. Consider these pantry staples you can make yourself!
Plan for leftovers. You don’t have to serve the same thing twice, but you can save time if you prep extra proteins one night to work into other meals. Such as making two roast chicken and using half the meat in chicken noodle soup and chicken pot pie a few days later.
Save your plans! If you have a month of meal plans that works well for your family, there’s no reason you can’t reuse old meal plans — especially ones your family loves.
Monthly meal planning can be a great way to save time and money, freeing up brain space and getting you organized so that you don’t have to overthink what to make for dinner.
More Meal Planning Tips
Got questions?
My mission is to help more people save more money on food. Leave a comment below and we’ll chat about it.
This post was originally published on November 3, 2012. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Ray Taylor
January 2022 Update:
Since retirement/disability, my wife and I are on a very fixed fixed income with month to month income and expenses. I have began monthly meal plans and picking twelve to fifteen recipes known to have $2-$2.50 per serving yields, based on five to six servings per recipe (60 or so per month, freezable) and equally inexpensive breakfasts, lunches, snacks, etc. So far, so good! The past two months were kept under a $300/mo food budget target and with everyday foods and splurges that included seafood, beef, pork loin, chicken, pasta, fish and other entrees and sides that aren’t overly processed. Monthly planning works!!!
Antonio
I really didn’t take this. It looks like that one is literally one meal per day, per month. This means that you are going to eat the same thing for lunch and dinner? Or just one meal per day? Can someone actually explain me this thanks ?
Jessica Fisher
These are meal plans for dinner only. Many people do a lot of repeats for breakfast and lunch, so I didn’t include that process in the post. You can certainly plan three meals a day for the month, but for many, I think that’s unnecessary detail.
Christina S
I think I have done almost every type of meal planning. Daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly,… Right now in the season our family is in I am loving the Kitchen Winners Circle Menu plan. Minimal work for me and my binder makes it easy if anyone else should decide to take a turn cooking supper.
Jessica Fisher
Yay! So glad to hear that you are all WINNING in the kitchen!
Roberta Moore
I made a 2 week menu for years when the kids were at home. We lived in the country & couldn’t just pop into town. Even my children knew to ask be fore they ate, making sure it wasn’t food that was on the menu. But now I want to make healthier meals and that doesn’t work if you don’t have a plan. Write the menu out as you make your grocery list. But don’t hesitate to change a meal on the menu, it’s your plan. Cook extra when you do cook, freeze for future use, even if it is just the meat. It will make a difference in how your family eats and balance your meals if you follow the menu.
Jessica Fisher
Great rules of thumb!
Pat
The pantry challenge and Kitchen Winners Circle got me back to meal planning again. After our vacation this summer the thought out plan went out the window! I always had ideas just didn’t write them down. Having a plan now is good. I only started with a 2 week plan and hope to get back to monthly for February.
Jessica Fisher
Yay! Glad to hear those resources are helpful!
Tammy
I just went through and inventoried our pantry, refrigerators, and freezers. Just being able to see what we had, what needed to be used promptly, and coming up with a plan – even for three days to start – was a huge help. Yes, I have already swapped some of the meals, but being able to plan – and see what items I will need to purchase on pay day to complete certain meal items – is a huge help. I look forward to planning meals for the remainder of the month – and hopefully continue the practice. Even if we have to swap meals, I’d prefer that to forgetting I had planned “X” for dinner one night and then completely forgot about it. It will be a work in progress, but one that I think will be very advantageous for our hectic schedule.
Jessica Fisher
great job!
Teresa
Little late to the party here but one thing that I think needs to get added to the discussion about meal planning is overlap between meals. When you’re cooking for a crowd, this might be less important, but when you’re cooking for one, you need to find ways to use the same set of ingredients in different and creative ways. I can’t buy lettuce and then plan a single salad in plan, it all goes bad then! I need to make sure that I have side salads with several meals, plus maybe BLTs for lunch all week, and maybe some salad wraps. Or I cook up a batch of stew beef and make a several-meal stir fry, and put the rest in beef pot pies for the freezer. I find that’s the hardest part about planning for a whole month; I’m not creative enough to think through all the different uses for ingredients One or two weeks is about right. That way, even if I have leftovers, they’ll still probably be good and can get rolled back into the -next- meal plan and be used up properly.
My biggest barrier to monthly meal planning is that I don’t always know what I’m going to feel like eating. I really like having a couple of options available to me, instead of being locked into meals, because things change, and my preferences may shift from day to day sometimes. When I planned I might’ve been on a tomatoey preference day, but then find out that I want light fish-vegetable meals for a week straight! Flexibility to respond to cravings is a must in my meal plans.
Jessica Fisher
Great point! Using common ingredients in your meal planning is key to saving money and avoiding waste.
Jessie
I started a new version of the monthly plan by choosing 2-3 meals a week that repeat each month. The empty days get new meals added in each time I meal plan. I can stock up on those ingredients and also get variety; it’s a win win 🙂
Jessica Fisher
Sounds like a great strategy!