The kitchen is one of those areas in our lives that can take a ton of time, energy, and money and at the end of the day, we can still feel like we are spinning our wheels. Do you ever feel like your kitchen is controlling you?

Between meal planning, grocery shopping, all the cooking, coordinating, and clean up, it's really easy to spend all of our time in the kitchen and still not see much fruit from it all! So today I am going to take some time to dive into how we can get our kitchen under control, some tips for meal planning, and how we can save money from within our kitchens.

Listen to the podcast: I’ve recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. You can read it here, or if you prefer, listen to it as a podcast below! Enjoy!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

I've heard from many women who don't meal plan that they just don't think it's right for them for one reason or another. Maybe meal planning seems like adding one more thing to your to do list. Maybe it sounds like adding more work to your already full schedule.

I get that. Which is why I wanted to share my super simple method(s) for meal planning and how in the end, it saves me so much time, energy, and money.

Why I Meal Plan

Meal planning does take some time and effort up front (especially the first few times you do it), but the effort is well worth it. Before we dive into how I meal plan specifically, let's chat a little bit about why I meal plan:

Meal Planning Saves Money

For a couple of reasons, meal planning ends up saving me so much money. Here's how:

1) It Keeps Me Out of the Stores

We all know that the more time we spend in grocery stores and the more trips we take, the harder it is to stick to our grocery budget. I'm currently 20 weeks pregnant with our baby girl and it's nearly impossible for me right now to leave Costco with only the items on my original list.

When I meal plan, it allows me to better plan out my week, month, and fit my meal plan into my budget. It eliminates that need to run to the store for only one thing and $80 later you walk out wondering how you spent so much!

2) I'm Better Able to Plan Around My Grocery Budget

Instead of having a vague idea of the money I'm spending and that I'm trying to stick within a specific amount of money. Meal planning allows me to literally plan my meals around my grocery budget. If I have $200 to spend this week, then I can plan our meals (down to the snacks) if I need to in order to fit that $200 budget.

This really helps eliminate the unwelcome feeling you get when you get to the end of the month and realize you are $300 over your grocery budget and have no idea how you got there.

Meal Planning Saves Time

Initially, meal planning takes a little bit of time to get into the habit of and actually do each time you head out to the grocery store. But in the long run, it saves so much time! It virtually eliminates the “What’s for dinner?” question that pops up around 5 o’clock every day.

Meal planning mentally frees me from having to think about my meals each day and helps to cut down on time searching for meals to make, running to the grocery store for one or two items I forgot, and helps me to be more organized.

 Meal Planning Helps Us Eat Healthier

Meal planning is the #1 thing that helps me to feed my family healthier meals. Not only does it keep us from eating out, but it allows me to plan out well rounded meals and introduce a variety of fruits and veggies into my family's diet.

When I don't have a plan for dinner, it's so much easier to ask my husband to pick up a pizza on his way home. That's fine for the occasional treat, but it's not okay when you end up eating out more often then eating at home.