Printable Weekly Meal Planner

If you’re trying to get ahead on your grocery budget, using a printable weekly meal planner is the perfect way to do it!

Writing up the meals you’ll serve throughout the week before you head to the store is a great way to save money on groceries, because you’ll know exactly what to buy, so there’s no guessing.

Having a plan also helps since you know what to expect ahead of time.You’re planning for your time constraints and not letting them overwhelm you. Do you always have a jam-packed Wednesday?

If so, plan a super simple 15 minute meal that night so you’re not stressed, or plan to make a double batch of dinner a day ahead so you don’t have to cook at all on that day! It really is a money, time and sanity saver, and everyone can benefit from meal planning.

A great way to use this if you only want to print this out once is to laminate it so you can use a sharpie and erase each week! 

If you are new to menu planning, there are a few steps to help you out so you can kick it off with a successful first week! Let’s get started!

• Pull out your weekly calendar and see what you have going on for the week. This is necessary as you need to build the menu around your upcoming life/week. I can’t tell you how many times I used to plan a great grandiose meal on a night that I wouldn’t get home until 5:30 or a night I needed to get back out the door in under an hour. Put your expectations in perspective!
• Once you know what your week looks like, start plugging in your menus into each day! If Tuesday is crazy, make a quick 15 minute meal or a favorite crockpot meal. Try to combine like ingredients so you are not buying a bag of parsnips when you only need 1 for a recipe. Find another way to use parsnips during this week.
• Make your grocery list and head to the store. Just like we have always been told, don’t go hungry and preferably, go alone. Sorry, sweetie, it’s best you stay home!
• Come home from grocery store and spend 20-30 minutes prepping as much as you can by cutting up vegetables or even slicing up meats that will be used in a stirfry. Anything at all that will make your life easier during the week.
• Each day, look at your menu, verify that your plans haven’t changed and you can mentally prep through the day of what is to come and what you have to get done! It works like a charm!

Save the Weekly Menus that you have used in a binder. It’s great to look back at weeks that worked and ones that did not. It is also a great reminder to recipes/menus that you have forgotten about!

How to Print Your Free Printable Weekly Meal Planner

• Click the link to download above. Right click to save to your computer.
• Print on 8.5×11” paper at 100% size (to preserve quality, don’t resize if you can help it).

Note: If you are sharing this printable, please link back to this post. Do not place the printable on your own site.

I designed this weekly meal planner to go along with the cleaning schedule printable I shared a few weeks ago so you can create a cohesive look if you’re putting them in a home management binder.

If you like this printable, make sure to let us know how you are using it! We would love to hear!