There’s no doubt that the task of meal planning can seem, well, daunting at times. You have to brainstorm dinner ideas that everyone will like, plan them on your calendar, take into account all your family activities and social tasks, plan around those, and then they still expect you to make dinner every night! If your family has any dietary restrictions, that’s an added layer of complexity to dinnertime and planning it out.

Planning dinners as they come is one way to shorten your life span. Okay, that’s not scientifically proven or anything, but it does leave one to wonder if there’s a better way that will save your sanity.

See my blog post on how a Capsule Meal Plan Can Save Your Sanity

Here are 5 reasons why you should have at least a weekly meal plan (besides the fact that your family still needs to eat every day…):

1. Decision Fatigue Is Real - As 4:00pm starts to roll around, the little people in the family start to get hungry and begin to ask “Mom, what’s for dinner?” After playing taxi all day, running errands, working on your own priorities (working outside the home, run your own business, work from home?), turning off all 16 lights the kids left during the morning school rush, and folding yet another load of laundry, you DO NOT have the mental bandwidth to make a responsible decision on a family dinner menu. Having your plan ready for you makes this easier. You could already have all the ingredients you need to make what you’ve put on the menu and all you need to do is prep and cook. A meal plan helps with that. Avoid decision fatigue by having a plan ahead of time. Look out for your future self by setting some time aside to make sure your meals are all planned out. This could even be considered a form of self care if you think of it this way.

2. Variety Is The Spice Of Life - Does your family ever get stuck in a rut of eating the same things over and over again? Lots of spaghetti nights and chicken with rice over here! Planning variety into your weekly meal plan helps spice up your meal time (pun intended) and can help get your family to try new things. Whether you’re scheduling a night out for Thai food or cooking with a meal plan kit like Blue Apron, Home Chef, or Every Plate, you can get as courageous as you want or it can help play it safe with just a bit of variety. Either way, plan that bit of adventure into your week by picking a weekly “fun meal” night.

3. Plan For The Unexpected - Life happens. Having a meal plan doesn’t lock you into only following that. It gives you the freedom to use your decision making powers on things that are more pressing (see reason #1 above). It shouldn’t be seen as a prison you’ve planned yourself into. Things come up and you can deviate from the meal plan as you need to. It is only a tool for you to use to make your life easier in the day-to-day grind. If something unexpected comes up and throws of your meal plan, shift it by a day, or forget that day altogether. It’s your plan and you are the boss of it. Use the plan, don’t let it boss you around! This is your permission slip to deviate from the plan in whatever way makes your life easier.

4. Save Money - If you are on a budget and your budget only allows for a certain amount to be spent on food, a meal plan is your best friend. Having dinners at home saves money over dinners out, and you can budget each week how much you will spend for each meal. There are plenty of budgeting gurus you can find on the inter-webs who will tell you exactly that - meal planning will save you money.

5. Look Like A Rock Star For Your Family - There’s no doubt you are the glue that keeps your family together. Even teenagers who roll their eyes at you referring to yourself as glue will appreciate a well thought out meal. Or escaping their dark lair of a bedroom to eat a home cooked meal. You have so much power in making and blessing your family with meals that will nourish them and bring them all together for a moment each day. And when that 4:00pm hunger pain hits and they ask you “MOM - What’s for dinner?” You can have an answer every time, because YOU, yes YOU, are a rockstar!

I hope these ideas helped you become even more of a rockstar than you already are. If you have a meal plan, I’d love to hear about it!

Decision fatigue still have you down? I’ve developed a course to walk you through setting up an easy meal plan. Plan an entire year’s worth of dinners in under an hour with my Capsule Meal Plan 101 Course. Sign up HERE!!

I can’t wait to cheer you on!

XO,

Shannon