Here’s An Easy Family Meal Plan For The Week

With meal planning, up-front preparation is key — but it’s also the most challenging thing. Here are a few tips and tricks that I use each week:

1) I pick recipes with ingredients that can be used for multiple meals (and in multiple ways). This also includes getting creative with leftovers. Sometimes, eating leftovers all the time can get old, but I try to remember that I can always use different components of my leftovers to create new meals.

2) I prioritize what’s on sale. For example, this week I was able to find a variety of cheeses, ground beef, chips, and many pantry and produce items on sale.

3) Clip your digital coupons! You can find lots of additional savings by clipping digital coupons (found on store websites or apps). Some items may not be on sale, but could have great savings with a coupon. Conversely, some of the advertised sales state that you need the digital coupon to take advantage. This is easy to miss, especially if you’re shopping in store. When you look at the fine print, you often see that even though the item is advertised as “on sale,” if you don’t have that digital coupon clipped, the price can be a lot more expensive!

4) I buy the cheapest store brand most of the time. Unless it’s something that I’m unable to use due to the peanut allergy, an item I absolutely love (or if a different brand is on sale), store brand it is.

5) I ask my kids to help me. Feeding kids is a challenge. They change their minds constantly, and they seemingly get new taste buds every meal. When I ask them to help pick out recipes (usually with them looking at pictures), I find that they are more excited to eat them. I will also let them pick what they want for their lunch/snack fruit and veggies for the week!