Get organized and lose the “what’s for dinner” stress! Grab a free meal planning worksheet that puts your grocery list and menu planning all in one place.
Meal planning is a gift that keeps on giving. Spending ten minutes on it at the beginning of the week means no more 5:30 “what’s-for-dinner??” angst.
A crucial step in meal planning is food shopping. I actually make my week’s dinner menus and grocery list at the same time so I can avoid last minute trips to the store where I run in for garlic and come out with $150 worth of other stuff. And completely forget the garlic.
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I’ve used other grocery list templates but found myself making separate columns for multiple stores and scribbling my meal plan at the bottom. I typically shop at two stores, and I like having the week’s dinners right on my grocery list so I can be sure I’ve got everything I need. So I asked my husband to design me a sheet that fits the way I do meal planning. He also designed a sheet for shopping at one store.
Want a copy? Download this sheet if you shop at one store:
Grab my free meal planning worksheet (for shopping at 1 store).
Download this sheet if you shop at two stores:
Grab my free meal planning worksheet (for shopping at 2 stores).
What kinds of tools do YOU use for meal planning and grocery shopping?
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I love Plan to Eat, an app/website that I use to save recipes from the web (or type in). You can drag recipes you have saved into a calendar (say Monday lunch, or next Tues breakfast), then it automatically populates a shopping list. There are tons of little helpful features. It has really, really made menu planning an easier task for me.
Tracy–I’ve heard other people rave about Plan to Eat and have tried it out myself as well. But I always come back to paper. I don’t even keep an online calendar. I’m stuck in the stone age I guess. 🙂 Glad you found a system that works well for you!
I usually do my menu planning in a big notebook with pink paper. Like you, I write the grocery list on the same page and work from this notebook whenever I shop. I will try your form this weekend as it looks like the kind of layout that works for me.
I have to have a full week meal plan or I end up spending way too much on groceries and not using what I have at home.
Jen–Hope it works out for you! I sometimes have the same problem of not being smart enough with what I already have on hand, then feeling dismayed by how much I’ve spent at the store. Have you ever done a pantry challenge? I’ve done a couple and written about them here. My husband and kids are never happy about it 🙂 but it’s a great way to be less wasteful! Here’s a post: https://www.realmomnutrition.com/2012/10/23/join-my-pantry-challenge/
Thanks for developing this, Sally! I’ve been using another planner for ages, but making changes to it every week to fit my needs. Yours includes everything I need! Thank you!
Thanks Wende! Hope it works for you. Nice to have a system–makes everything easier. 🙂
“I run in for garlic and come out with $150 worth of other stuff”
I can TOTALLY relate, lol! (Failing to plan, is planning to fail…)
This looks like a great resource to keep on track with meal planning, thank you!
-Chef Perry
http://www.simplysmartdinnerplans.com
Love these! I’ve been using a template from another blog but this one fits my brain better, thanks for sharing! And I’m with you, I keep coming back to the paper to meal plan…sigh…
Hi Sally,
I am having trouble getting the meal planning worksheets to download so I can print them. If it’s just a problem on my end, no problem, I can continue to try and figure it out. I thought I’d write just in case you’d heard this from others, though.
If you have any tips on accessing these, I’d appreciate it.
Thanks,
Sarah
Hi Sarah–So sorry to hear that. I will email them to you!