Save Time, Money, & Calories through Meal Planning

Pre-planning meals is a great life hack for anyone looking to save some time, money, and calorie intake. There are a few methods for meal planning. The basic idea is to buy groceries based on the specific meals you will eat that week and make all if not most of them in one shot. For those with a busy schedule every week it can be a serious time- and wallet-saver. For example, some people plan out everything for the week on a Saturday or Sunday, make a shopping list, go to the grocery store to buy only what’s on the list (harder than it sounds), and then cook, portion, and freeze their meals. However, what if you don’t have a few hours on the weekend to cook all of that food? Another option is to do what some call the Sunday & Wednesday Method. It’s basically the same as pre-planning meals for the week, except you’d make half of the food on Sunday for those first 3-4 days and the rest on Wednesday.

When planning your ingredients list and what you’ll eat for the week, you can also consider implementing a meal chain with your pre-planning. Meal chain planning basically takes leftovers from one dish to create another one. For example, if you roast a whole chicken one night, you can use some of the leftover meat the next night for chicken pot pie, and then a third meal of chicken noodle soup by using the bones to make stock. Throughout the week simply reheat your meals when it’s time to eat. No worries or stress needed about what to eat for dinner or what you’re going to pack for lunch. A great aspect to all of this other than saving time, is that since you already have your meals made and ready to go you’re less likely to order delivery or dine out. You’re also more likely to eat healthier foods and healthier portions!