Meal planning or meal rotation ideas are great tools for almost anyone. It’s best for busy parents or employees who have no time to think of what they should cook. With a detailed meal plan, you get to live a healthy lifestyle without stressing yourself. If you want to be very organized, you can even learn how to meal plan for a month in advance.
By knowing meal planning tips and tricks, you no longer have to stress about what to prepare for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can put the menu on your fridge and rest easy knowing that you won’t have to spend your commute wondering what you’re going to whip up, when in reality, you’re already so hungry you’ll eat the first thing you see in your fridge.
How to Meal Plan for a Month in Advance
Why is meal planning for a month important? Wouldn’t that take too much time as well? Meal planning tips for beginners can seem daunting and confusing at first.
If this is the first time you’re doing this kind of meal prep, the tips may look confusing, but don’t worry.
Like any other task, you will eventually get used to it. At first, sitting in front of a blank menu can be difficult if you’re used to rummaging in your fridge until you find something that looks good every night.
Filling in a week’s worth of meals can be challenging, let alone a month. However, there are distinct advantages to meal prepping a month.
1. By meal planning for a month, you’ll be able to slash your grocery bills, possibly in half
When you go to the store weekly, you get tempted to buy things that you don’t need. Stores want you to buy more than what’s on your list, so they place tempting items on display that are hard to resist. The less often you’re at the store, the better.
By learning how to meal plan for a month, you will only need to go grocery shopping once a month. You can still stop at a small store every week to restock on produce and milk.
Another thing about meal prepping for a month is that you’ll buy your grocery in bulk, which gives you discounts.
2. Learning meal prepping for a month is not as hard as you think
By setting up a monthly family meal plan, you can easily set up a month of meals. It will save tons of time, leaving you free to cook and enjoy your meals.
3. Learning how to plan meals for the month can help you live a healthier lifestyle
Not only will it help relieve stress, but it will also let you plan your meals exactly, down to their macros.
If you’re following a specific diet, meal prepping for a month is the only realistic way to stick with it. By planning far in advance, you’ll lower costs, be able to shop in bulk, and will save time.
The Basics of Meal Planning for a Month
As we start learning meal planning tips for beginners, think of it as an elaborate weekly meal plan. It’s almost the same, except that you will need to consider the following:
1. Where and when to shop
Preparing your meal rotation ideas can start anytime. It doesn’t have to be on the first day of each month. Start by going on weekly or bi-weekly grocery trips so your food doesn’t spoil.
2. Could the ingredients be prepared ahead of time?
Here is one of the meal planning tips and tricks to remember. When buying your ingredients, you need to know if they could be prepared ahead of time.
If you like freezer meals, you can prepare more of them. If you love salads in jars, which don’t last that long, you need to prepare a few that you can consume in a day or two.
3. Changes in your schedule
You probably know what is going on in the next week, but in the next month? Maybe not.
Planning for a month is good, but we can’t avoid scenarios like this. That is why it’s good to have backup ideas for at least a few days out of the month when things may not go exactly according to plan.
Takeaway
Before learning how to meal plan for a month, do your research, take notes, and expect a lot of changes. It’s a fun activity, so don’t stress yourself. Soon, you’ll see how life-changing this decision is.