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It’s
Saturday afternoon and you and everyone else are slugging your
way through the crowded grocery store hoping to get out with
everything you need and with your sanity in tact. Sound
familiar? For many families getting a meal on the dinner table
every night is a challenge. From the planning, shopping, and
cooking, family meal planning can become overwhelming forcing
many families to opt for eating out or quicker less healthy
alternatives. One way to save your sanity and get a home cooked
meal on the table more often is to use a monthly family meal planner
that allows you to plan meals a month at a time and streamline
your grocery shopping and meal preparations.
What You Will Need
1
Three Ring Binder
8 Three Ring Sheet Protectors
8 Tab Dividers
5 3 Ring Binder Pockets
1 Copy of Each the Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall
Menu
Templates
Copies of the
Grocery Shopping List Template
How to Make the Monthly Family Meal Planner
Begin by gathering your supplies and printing off the
menu and
grocery list templates. At first you will only need one copy of
each the Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall menu templates, and I
suggest you start with twelve copies of the grocery shopping
list template (enough to get you through the first season of
meal planning). The menu and grocery shopping list templates are
available as a free download and you can buy all of the binder supplies at your local
office supply store or on-line at
Office Depot. See the
Where to
Buy section for further details.
Next, assemble your monthly family meal planner by inserting all of your
tab dividers into the binder. Once you have all the dividers in
the binder insert the other items in the following manner:
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Tab 1 |
Insert a copy of the Winter menu template into 1 of the
sheet protectors and place it behind Tab 1. Add an
additional sheet protector and 1 binder pocket |
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Tab 2 |
Insert a copy of the Spring menu template into 1 of the
sheet protectors and place it behind Tab 2. Add an
additional sheet protector and 1 binder pocket |
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Tab 3 |
Insert a copy of the Summer menu template into 1 of the
sheet protectors and place it behind Tab 3. Add an
additional sheet protector and 1 binder pocket |
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Tab 4 |
Insert a copy of the Fall menu template into 1 of the sheet
protectors and place it behind Tab 4. Add an
additional sheet protector and 1 binder pocket |
Once you have your tabs set up, go ahead and place the 12 copies
of the grocery shopping list template in the second sheet
protector of the season you will be working on first. For
example, if you are building your family meal planner in
February add all of the copies to the extra sheet protector
behind the Winter tab. Over the remainder of the year as you
continue to build your family meal planner, you can add
additional copies of the grocery shopping list to each season.
How to Use the Monthly Family Meal Planner
The key to building the family meal planner is to build it one
week at a time. Don’t try and rush through and feel pressured to
complete all four menus at once. After five weeks, you will have
3 months of menus completed.
To begin, determine which season you are starting with; Winter
(December – February), Spring (March – May), Summer (June –
August), and Fall (September – November). Using the menu
calendar for that season, pick the week you are planning for and
begin adding in one meal for each day. To streamline the
planning, try assigning themes to each day of the week. For
example, make Monday chicken night, Tuesday pasta night,
Wednesday crock pot night, etc.
Once you get a full week’s worth of meals, add the recipes for
the meals to the binder pocket of that section. If your
recipe is on a 3 x 5 note card simply slide it into the binder
pocket. If your recipe is in a cookbook, make a copy and
slide it in the binder pocket.
After your menu is completed for the week and you have gathered
the recipes, use your grocery shopping template to check off the
items you will need for the meal. Post the grocery list in a
central place like on the refrigerator or on the bulletin board
to easily add things during the week until you head to the
grocery store.
If you use coupons or store fliers, place them into the other
sheet protector with the extra grocery lists behind the tab, so that they are easily
available when you are ready to go shopping.
Week after week, just continue this process until after five
weeks, you have completed one entire menu that will get you
through three months of meals. Don’t hesitate to repeat popular
meals throughout the month or from season to season to make
planning easier.
Use the additional tabs, sheet protectors, and binder pockets
for extra copies of the menus, grocery shopping lists, coupons,
store fliers, or recipes you want to try.
Where to Buy
You can buy everything you need to make your monthly family meal planner
at your local office supply store or on-line at
Office Depot
 . If
you have an Office Depot in your area, they offer a great
in-store pick up
 service which offers shoppers a great way of
buying on-line and saving on shipping costs by arranging for an
in-store pick up. Here are the items used in our family meal
planner:
Additional Resources
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