8 benefits of weekly meal planning to reduce meal time stress
Last Updated on November 19, 2024
Meal planning is something that’s spoken about a lot, especially how the benefits of weekly meal planning can save you significant amounts of time in the kitchen.
Meal planning takes time, sometimes it can feel like quite a lot of time, which is one of the reasons why you may be hesitant to add it to your already long to do list.
However, the time meal planning initially takes is heavily outweighed by the benefits it provides.
Here are some of benefits of weekly meal planning, which I hope will encourage you to try meal planning if it’s something you’ve been thinking about trying, but haven’t found good enough reasons to give it a go.
MEAL PLANNING SAVES TIME
One of the biggest benefits of weekly meal planning is that it allows you to save time not only in the kitchen, but also at the grocery store.
Having a meal plan and knowing the exact ingredients you need for the week ahead, means that you can go straight to the aisle the ingredients are located in when you’re grocery shopping.
This means you avoid wasting time walking up and down every aisle to find what you’re looking for, and you avoid the temptation to buy something in an aisle you don’t need to be in, which has the added benefit of saving money.
Another way to save time is by planning your meals for a period of time longer than a week, and cooking and freezing them in advance, so when you need a meal fast, all you have to do is take it out of the freezer and reheat it.
You can also save time by planning your meals around events. For example, you’ll know to plan smaller meals on nights where family members aren’t home for dinner, or not plan a meal at all if you’ll be working late.
MEAL PLANNING SAVES MONEY
Meal planning can help you to save money in a few different ways.
One way is by only buying ingredients that you absolutely need for the week, instead of buying ingredients you think you need, buying impulse items, or buying bulk quantities of ingredients that are on sale that you think you’ll use, but don’t.
Having a meal plan also means that you’re not constantly at the grocery store picking up ingredients that you need that night, which has the same money saving benefits listed above.
You can also save money by not spending so much of it on takeaways because you actually have ingredients in the house to make meals with, and if you plan meals around the items you already have at home, there is less that you need to buy over the week.
MEAL PLANNING MAKES MEAL DECISIONS MUCH EASIER
One of the benefits of weekly meal planning that appeals to me is that it makes meal decisions much easier. You don’t have to think about what to cook each night, as the decisions have been made when you put you meal plan together.
Having a weekly meal plan means you can start to cook your meals without thinking about it. You have the ingredients, and you have the recipe, all you have to do is get everything out and cook. It’s an automatic process, no thinking involved, and lots of time saved.
MEAL PLANNING HELPS YOU EAT HEALTHIER
Often when we’re hungry, tired, or have no time we resort to getting takeaway or eating snacks and ready made meals, all of which aren’t the healthiest options.
Another of the benefits of weekly meal planning is that it eliminates the need to buy and eat these types of meals because we already have all the ingredients we need to make healthier options, which take the same amount of time to make as it would to pick the takeaway up.
MEAL PLANNING HELPS YOU EAT A WIDER VARIETY OF FOOD
Meal planning allows you to look back on past meals and introduce new recipes in place of a meal that you regularly make, which means you’re adding new ingredients, and new recipes into your plans, which widen the variety of foods you eat.
This can lead to having a much more balanced and varied diet, so you don’t become bored of your meals, and perhaps then get bored of meal planning all together.
MEAL PLANNING RESULTS IN LESS FOOD WASTAGE
Food wastage is one of the benefits of weekly meal planning that I really value.
Meal planning means that you can plan meals based on ingredients you already have, you can plan to eat leftovers, and you’re using the ingredients you buy for your meal plan as close as possible to when you purchased them, which avoids throwing out food that’s spoiled or past its use by date.
MEAL PLANNING MEANS YOU CAN EAT SEASONLY
Meal planning means that you can plan your meals based upon what’s in season, which not only provides you with a varied diet, but also allows you to save money on your grocery shopping.
MEAL PLANNING REDUCES COOKING STRESS
Reducing cooking stress is another of the benefits of weekly meal planning, as it means that you don’t have to spend a lot of time thinking about what to cook on any particular night, and you don’t have to try to fit getting last minute groceries into an already busy day.
There are so many fantastic benefits of weekly meal planning, that not only reduce stress associated with meal times, but also that allow you to save time in the kitchen and the grocery store, as well as save money, eat more healthily, and eat a wider variety of food.
What benefits of weekly meal planning do you think will reduce your meal time stress the most?
