If dinner times rolls around and you’re wondering what to make then this printable weekly meal planner with grocery list is going to help to make dinner time a bit easier.
Meal planning can be something as easy as picking out a few meals to make each week or it can be as elaborate as planning out 3 meals plus snacks. There is no right way to meal plan.
No matter how you choose to meal plan you’ll find that it’s a great way to help you save time in the kitchen, save you money on food purchases and save you a bit of sanity when you don’t have to play the “what’s for dinner” game each night.
Free Printable Weekly Meal Planners
These free printable weekly meal planners will help keep you on track. They print out on regular letter sized paper (8.5 x 11 inches). This makes them the perfect size to save in a binder. Just hole punch them on one side and start creating your own meal planner binder.
Saving your past meal plans can help you create future meal plans. As you meal plan you will find that there are some weeks that you want to duplicate again in the future. You’ll save lots of time by having the previous meal plan saved.
You can also add information in the notes section to help with future meal plans. Add notes on what worked or didn’t work, recipe swaps you want to try or even meal prep tips.
Click on the images below to get these free downloads as a printable pdf file. Print them on your home printer. Don’t have a home printer? It’s easy enough to print these out from office supply stores such as Staples.
I print out papers at my local Staples all the time. They have an easy system of emailing the document that you want to print to a special email address. In 30 seconds or less this will generate a code that gets emailed back to you. Enter the code into one of their printers, choose how many copies you want and they print them out. So easy and I don’t have to deal with running out of ink.
Check out your local library. Many of them will have a printer and charge a minimal fee to print things out. You may even find that you can print out a certain number of pages for free if you have a library card.
Don’t want to be bothered printing them out? Then check out the tips below to use these planners on your digital devices. Click on the image below to immediately download this free weekly planner:
Free Printable Weekly Meal Planner With Grocery List
This weekly meal planner also includes a grocery list section to add any items you need when you go grocery shopping or items that you want to include on your to-do list. You can use this section several ways:
Add items as you run out of them during the current week. You can include them on your next shopping list.
Add the items that you need to make the current weekly meal plan. You can either cut or tear off this section of the meal planner to take with you to the store. This gives you a list of items that you can cross off as you pick them up.
If my husband or one of the kids are at the grocery store I can take a quick picture of the list to send to them if they are picking up items. Click on the image below to immediately download the file with this free weekly meal planner:
TIPS FOR USING DIGITAL DEVICES:
If you use a note taking app on your Apple device, mobile device, or android tablet such as Good Notes, Noteshelf, Evernote, Apple Note, etc then you can download these files to your phone, upload them into the app and use them in there. Just duplicate the planner to use each week.
Open the file in Microsoft Office and you will be able to type text right into the planner. Just click into each box and begin typing.
Free Fillable Weekly Meal Planner
For those looking for a fillable meal planner I’ve got just the thing for you. You can download this weekly meal planner directly to your laptop, mobile device or tablet and fill it in by clicking into each section. This will allow you to type into the box. Click the image below to immediately download this free meal planner:
You can also do the same with this weekly meal planner with a grocery list. Click the image below to immediately download this free weekly meal planner:
Happy meal planning!
Tips For Weekly Meal Planning
Meal Planning and Meal Prep can help you in so many ways!
Meal planning, in its simplest form, is taking some time to plan out your meals. You don’t need to play a whole week of meal or even plan every meal.
Every meal plan looks different.
You might plan a few days at a time, plan on a weekly basis or plan out a few weeks.
Your meal plan might include only home cooked meals or you might plan to eat out on certain nights or for certain meals.
Perhaps you will only plan certain meals so you aren’t tempted to purchase takeout.
You might plan your dinners so you can come home to a hot meal that’s already cooking in a slow cooker or perhaps is ready to be cooked in the oven.
Meal planning can help you create healthy meals that all of your family members will enjoy.
A meal plan can be any of these things. You create a meal plan that works for you and your family to suit your own personal needs. The one thing that all types of meal planning has is they save you money and time.
How To Save Money With Meal Planning
Meal planning can save you money by lowering your food costs and reducing your grocery bill.
I don’t know about you but every time I make a last minute stop at the grocery store to pick up one or two items I end up with a bag or two of unplanned items. A few unplanned trips each month and I’m a couple of hundred dollars over budget.
Besides saving money on making fewer unplanned grocery store trips you can also save money by purchasing less take out and fast food.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the average family spends over $3,000 per year on take out and food away from their home! Imagine, just a few minutes of planning each week could save you $3,000! What could you do with an extra $3,000 a year?
Easy Meal Planning Steps
There are some basic meal planning steps to follow to make meal planning faster and easier. Don’t be intimidated or try to make your meal planning more complicated than it is. You don’t have to invest much time when doing your menu planning. The important thing is to tailor it to your needs.
My biggest tip is to start slow and build on your previous meal plan experience. The more you meal plan the quicker you find what works for you.
Start by planning one to three meals a week and build on that. Here’s the basic steps to use to creating a meal plan that works for you:
- Review your schedule – which meals do you want to make to fit into your schedule?
- Choose your recipes or meals style – do you want one pot dishes, meals made in 30 minutes or less, sandwiches or crockpot meals? With a meal plan you can be sure to include your family’s favorite meals.
- Decide which recipes to make based on your schedule – pick out your favorite recipes to fit into your plan.
- Make a grocery list based on those recipes and meals – start by shopping your own kitchen cabinets to use items you already have on hand. Add the items you need to your grocery shopping list.
- Shop for the meal plan ingredients – make a list. Stick to your list.
- Prep/prepare meals – you can prep whole meals for the entire week or part of the meal ahead of time or just make them as needed.
- Save your printed meal plan – I save my weekly planner page so they can be reused. I also add notes in so I can remember if there are items I want to prep at one time (chop ALL the onions for the week, cook a double batch of rice to use in two recipes, etc). It also helps me to remember if I’ve tried a recipe and if we liked it.
Here are some other pages with meal planning and meal prep information you may want to check out:
Apps for Meal Planning (Steal My Trello Board)
Cook Once, Eat Twice Meal Planning Method
Looking for more great meal planners then check out my shop on Etsy for a selection of printable as well as digital meal planners, life planners, Notion planners and more.
There are several Ultimate Meal Planners available that include a monthly and weekly meal plan calendar, several different grocery list templates, weekly meal planner template, grocery budget, shopping list, kitchen inventory list, recipe card and more. The planner is designed for a Sunday start or a Monday start. They come in different colors, different designs and various styles. The pdf format allows you to print them out or use them as a digital planner.
Please note that these printable meal planners are for personal use only.
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