5 Ways Meal Planning Will Save You Money

If you feel like all of your income goes straight to your stomach, you might need to get a little more organized. It’s true that cooking at home is much cheaper than picking up takeout. But, it’s easy to go over-budget at the grocery store, too. This is where meal planning comes in – it’ll save you time, stress, and above all, money.

1. It Helps You Stick to Your Shopping List

A golden rule here is to never go shopping for groceries when you are hungry. It’s likely that you’ll pick up some extra treats or snacks that aren’t on your shopping list. Yes, the bakery section smells delicious, but have some self-control!

In fact, the way the aisles are set up is to tempt you into impulse buying, but meal planning will help you combat this. Instead, arm yourself with a list of foods you need for the meals that you’ve planned and stick to it. The list helps to keep your mind from wondering and your stomach from rumbling.

2. Impulse Eating Becomes Non-Existent

Sometimes you just can’t decide what to make for dinner. It’s almost 5 pm, and the kids will be hungry soon – so you order pizza instead. This is a scenario that many Americans will be familiar with. But, if you have already sat down and decided what to eat each day of this week, you’ll never find yourself in this situation. Fast food joints have pretty cheap prices, but it’s still much more expensive than home cooking. Not to mention what it does to your health.

3. It’s Less Wasteful

When you throw food away, you are literally throwing money in the garbage. But, with a meal plan, every kind of food you buy will be used in your recipes, so much less (or hopefully zero) food will go to waste. Any fruit or vegetables you buy will get used up and eaten, and won’t go bad. As for your leftovers – why not pack them up and eat them for lunch the next day?

4. Buying in Bulk is Cheaper

It’s a great idea to bulk buy dry food items like flour, sugar, oats, etc. This way, your pantry is always full of essential items, and you’ll actually need to buy fewer items from the grocery store. If you use some of the same food items on a regular basis it certainly makes sense to buy in bulk for a reduced price.

5.Use What You Already Have & What’s on Sale

If you want to save some big bucks, it’s a good idea to plan your meals around what’s on sale. When you sit down to make your weekly meal plan, you can browse the newspaper and your local grocery store’s website for discounts and coupons.

You might think meal planning seems like a lot of work. But, it actually will save you lots of time and energy in the long-run. It’ll relieve the stress and hassle of trying to figure out what to feed your family and you’ll never find yourself trying to cook a meal with just a bag of flour, an orange, and an egg.