3 Tips On How to Save Money By Meal Planning

Before I realized I could use meal planning to save money, meal planning always felt overrated and unnecessarily hard for me. When life was extra hectic, and I was emotionally exhausted as a parent to a child with special needs, I couldn’t think about meal planning. 

But I was also stressed out about dinner every single night anyway. Now, I’m still exhausted, but my daughter’s relatively stable health has dramatically reduced the mental load. That has freed up some brain space so I can focus on our finances. And meal planning has become a big part of that intentionality.

Meal planning and intentional grocery shopping have helped reduce our grocery budget for a family of 4 from $1,200 a month to $550, with a few caveats. The $1,200 figure included dog food and diapers, while the new budget didn’t. Note: those numbers were as of 2021.

I reallocated those expenses to “pets” and “household items” to better understand exactly how much we spend on groceries. We did not spend $650 on dog food and diapers, though, so most of the savings are from meal planning.

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Let me repeat that:

Meal planning has been a big part of my family’s debt-freedom journey. All that money we wasted on unnecessary groceries or eating out now extra money that goes toward extra debt payments.

Meal planning to save money, step-by-step

I teach my meal planning method in Money-Saving Meal Planning, a quick & easy course that includes helpful lessons & over a dozen printables to help you find the meal planning practice that works for your brain/family/life. 

1. Meal planning reduces food waste

The USDA estimates that American households waste roughly 30-40% of the country’s food supply. If you threw out (literally tossed in the trash) 40% of your take-home pay, your sanity would be questioned, right?  So why is it OK to waste 40% of the food you buy? A lack of meal planning will surely contribute to this problem. Cooking or buying a meal every night and never eating the leftovers wastes food. 

The first thing to do if you want to see less food waste is to use up every food item that enters your house. A meal plan is the best way to do just that. I personally only plan for dinners because our breakfasts don’t vary much, and lunch is either simple or leftovers. Unfortunately, that means I throw out some food, which usually is neglected fresh produce like green beans, fresh fruit, or spinach. 

If you’re really intentional and focused, it’s possible to almost eliminate food waste. When my kids are older, I hope to move in that direction. Toddlers just don’t care about mom’s goals, so I do my best. 

I found that writing down meals & leftover ingredients, using the printables found in Money-Saving Meal Planning, helps me make the most of leftover ingredients. It’s also helpful to plan your lunches so you know when you can eat leftovers vs. when you need to buy lunch things. 

Plan for leftovers

If you have a plan for those leftovers (eat that leftover chicken!), you’ll waste less food and likely cut your food bill. Know how much food your family will eat and how much each recipe on your meal plan will build. You should also have a few quick and easy options on hand as a backup meal if the food doesn’t stretch as far as anticipated.

I know some of the options in my collection of recipes aren’t ideal for healthy eating and may not make for the most nutritious meals. But let’s be real: when the day falls apart, my kids are hungry, and bedtime is near, I need something quick, easy, and available. 

Below is my family’s favorite recipes that we usually have on hand.

Easy Hash

Yield: 6+ servings

My husband introduced me to hash, a recipe his family has made for years. We like to make it on nights where we need to use up ingredients in the fridge or our planned dinner doesn't work out. We usually have most of the ingredients on hand, but it's a super adaptable & customizable recipe so you can make it your own and clean out the fridge.

Print

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 3 c potatoes (sliced, hash browns, breakfast potatoes – anything works)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 pound meat – ground breakfast sausage, diced kielbasa, sliced steak, or other leftover meat
• 1 garlic clove, diced or pressed
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 c shredded cheese of choice
• OPTIONAL:
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 1 bell pepper, diced (other peppers can be used)
• 1/2 pound asparagus spears, woody ends snapped off
• 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 15 oz can black beans, drained & rinsed
• other random leftovers

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add potatoes & allow to cook for a few minutes. The cut of potato determines the cooking time (sliced potatoes take longer to cook than prepackaged hash browns or breakfast potatoes).
2. When potatoes are about 1/2 cooked, add the meat. Stir & cook for another few minutes.
3. Add vegetables, stir & cook. Season everything with salt & pepper to taste (see notes for additional seasoning suggestions)
4. Continue to cook until everything is fully cooked. Add additional olive oil as needed to keep from sticking to the pan, stir infrequently.
5. Top with shredded cheese & cover with lid to melt.

Notes

Additional seasoning suggestions:

• Italian herbs
• chili powder
• ground mustard
• paprika
• season salt

Use whatever flavors your family enjoys

2. Meal planning reduces impulse buying

I do most of my grocery shopping online these days. If you’re lucky enough to live in an area where your local grocery store offers online grocery shopping (either pick-up or delivery), DO IT. Not dragging young children through the grocery store is amazing, and it has also helped me save money. It’s not much money, but with grocery prices shooting for the moon, every cent counts! 

As I create my bi-weekly meal plan, I have the grocery app open. When I see something I need to buy, I just add it to my cart. I don’t even bother creating a shopping list; everything is added to the cart as I make my meal plan. 

If you do need to write out a list, especially if someone else is helping with some of the grocery shopping, a meal plan + shopping list printable from Money-Saving Meal Planning will help make life just a bit easier. 

Online grocery shopping keeps you from walking down every aisle, looking for more things to buy. The displays do not tempt you (or your kids) at the checkout counter. You don’t have to try to sneak your kids past the ice cream or cookies. Even if you’re shopping in person, it’s much easier mentally to say “no” to anything not on the grocery list. ” “It’s not on the list” is also a good response to kids’ random requests. And you spend less time shopping. 

3. Eating Home-cooked Meals More Often & Dining Out Less 

Know how often you eat out and see if you could do that less often. A weekly meal plan takes into account your eating out frequency. That way, you don’t buy more ingredients than needed to build delicious meals at home. It gives you an idea of how much you should have on your food budget. Far too many people spend unhealthy amounts of money yearly at restaurants, but that won’t be you if you meal-plan right. 

Having a plan for dinner and (hopefully) having the ground beef or rotisserie chicken (great for quick, healthy sandwiches) thawed. It will make it less likely to stop for fast food or order take-out on your way home. Every little reduction in temptation makes it easier to stick to your goals and healthy meals. 

Even if you don’t completely follow your meal plan, having easy, quick, and healthy options also helps you resist the impulse to grab takeout or dine out. Cooking from scratch is the cheapest way to eat, but easy freezer meals are a close second. Dining out is the most expensive meal option and not always the healthiest.

BONUS: Meal planning reduces stress

Who doesn’t dread the late afternoon scramble to figure out dinner? In my house, I usually have a hungry toddler loudly following me around, a dog begging underfoot, and a kindergartener yelling in the background… So thinking isn’t easy. 

Thinking of different meals where I don’t need to rush to the store is almost impossible at the end of the day in the chaos. That’s usually the point where I give up and order in from a restaurant. 

For me, the hardest part of meal planning is thinking of what to make for dinner. Getting that task out of the way for a week or more all at once relieves a good portion of the mental load of feeding my family. I also like to remind family members that if they don’t like what’s for dinner, they can contribute recipe ideas to the meal-planning process next time.

TIP: Use online grocery shopping for meal planning to save money

COVID times have changed how I shop. Since my daughter and I are both high-risk, I have only been inside a grocery store a handful of times in the last year. Instead, my husband does our Costco shopping, and I buy smaller quantities using Walmart online pickup. 

When shopping online, my meal plan lets me search for specific items and only buy those. I can also quickly see how much I’m already spending and reevaluate if needed rather than being surprised at the checkout. 

Online grocery shopping can make finding sales and the best deals more difficult. However, the savings of meal planning and online shopping have outweighed the value of coupons or a higher grocery bill for me. Meal planning to save money is less of a headache than clipping coupons or watching sales flyers. 

The nice thing about Walmart grocery pickup is the price match substitution policy. If you order a cheaper store-brand item that is not available, they will substitute a name-brand equivalent for the cheaper price. You may also get a larger size or equivalent quantity of a smaller size, and you’ll always get the same or lower price. 

Some other grocery stores do not offer this policy for pickup orders, which means you have to pay close attention to the receipt. In one instance, I purchased 3 boxes of Lara bars on sale. The store didn’t have enough boxes, so I received an equivalent number of individual bars at full price. The price difference was nearly $15, so I called for a refund once I got home. 

learn more!

If you’re ready to really dive into meal planning & make it your thing, you need Money-Saving Meal Planning. Don’t waste time Googling printables & tips; get it all in one place and ramp up your money-saving skills today. 

If you don’t already, what is stopping you from meal planning?