Simplified Meal Planner
This year I started using a daily Simplified planner for all of my day to day activities instead of The Happy Planner I have used in the past. Being a little over a week in, I have really liked the planner itself. I think it will become exceptionally helpful once Melody is in school. My big dilemma was now meal planning. There is a note section in the daily planner, but I found myself using it for other things and not having the room for meals. I thought about the weekly notepad I bought, but it still didn’t provide me quite enough space. One week while doing my grocery pickup, I was able to snag a weekly Simplified planner at Walmart. This is NOT a signature planner like the one I bought directly through Emily Ley. It was 1/5 of the price and not quite as nice as the other, but it provides me the space I was hoping for.
In addition to the planner, I decide to make a laminated copy of all of my go-to recipes. There is a free printable on Emily Ley’s website, but again, it was too big and not as involved as I wanted. I made these small enough to fit in my planner, and it provides me with all of the ingredients and instructions for the recipe for the recipes that aren’t obvious.
Then I made a perpetual grocery list. These are all the things we typically use on a weekly basis. I don’t buy these things weekly, but they are the things I check to make sure I have weekly on top of the recipes I decide to use.
I decided to use the notebook I bought to keep the contents of our freezer in it. I used my erasable pens so that I can consistently update it.
Below is currently how I am keeping my meal planner.
I am using the monthly view to try and keep up with all the things that could impact our meals. I don’t list all the things like I do in my daily, but I just list the important things like traveling, her school, birthdays, etc.
And below are the first two weeks in my meal planner. On the left side of each day I list our lunch and dinner plans. Then on the right side (under the To Dos), I am listing the ingredients of those meals. It makes meal planning easier having the recipes and freezer storage handy. Then I can go through my pantry and fridge and check off the list what we need to buy. Super easy and really quick, well at least the first two weeks have been!
