Meal Planning Printables and Crafts Round Up

I have talked about meal planning many times and share my meal plan each Monday, so you know I think this is one of the most important things you can do to save time, money and stress in your home life!

I am wondering how many of you are meal planning now… and if you are not maybe I can tempt you with some printables to get you excited about this “chore”. I have used many printables over the years – everything from the basic to the colourful, borrowed from other sites and created for myself (my most recent versions are also included here). For each printable go directly to the sites via the links to print except for the HLS printables where the link will take you directly to my pdf.

I encourage you to use these free resources or create your own – you do not need to spend money on printables unless someone is customising it so fancy and beautiful and perfect for you. For those of you who are crafty I have linked up a few Menu Board ideas if you want to have a bit of fun with it.

Menu Planning Printables

I use my own monthly menu planner that I have printed off and laminated. I then use sharpies to put the Month, dates and meals on the planner. I use whiteboard cleaner and a cloth and reuse it and can adjust the menu for changes as the month goes along. You can download my HLS Menu Plan for the month here.

The Project Girl has a weekly meal planner that also includes space for noting grocery items needed.

Get buttoned up has another weekly planner with categorised grocery list.

At Organized home you can find a weekly menu planner for all three meals plus grocery list.

Kamley Lane has a cute weekly plan with space for a grocery list.

Mayi Carles at Heartmade blog has an adorable girl chef planner that she has illustrated herself. Check out her blog for so many other creative printables and more!

 

Grocery Shopping List Printables

My own HLS grocery list is simple, but thorough. I have sorted it by category and for most of those left additional space for “other” items to be added. you can make your own simply in word by making a chart of your own design of colums and rows. You can refer to the one I use for ideas of specifics to add to yours, use it as is, or download the HLS generic grocery list where I have taken out a lot of the specifics so you can jump right in.

At Everything Mom they have a grocery list sorted by category

Not Quite Susie (as in homemaker) has a quirky grocery list with separate categories.

Freezer and Pantry Inventory / System

I have used freezer and pantry inventories off and on (they do take some effort to maintain). I highly recommend the ones from Organized Home as most variations out there are just reinterpretations of theirs. You could easily whip up a basic form for yourself  following the same concept.

A fantastic idea I found at Amy Bayliss this week is for keeping track of what is in your deep freeze (you lucky people) using colour coded and labelled tags. The printables are customizable  and this is why I say never to pay for printables – so many awesome people are out there sharing their creative solutions for free – just seek them out!

Meal Planning Menu Boards

Better Homes and Gardens has a great resource for a project to make a colourful magnetic meal planning calendar system.

 

Make and takes featured a dry erase meal planner within a normal picture frame.

 

All things beautiful is inspiring me to be crafty – I love this fabric and binder clip menu planning board!

 

Inspired by All things beautiful, Oh So Chichi made an awesome version that included breaking it down into fast, favourites and new recipes to try – it would be like taking my recipe binder system and putting it on a board!

 

This last one from Fussy Monkey Biz  is completely doable right now – just some wood and chalkboard paint and your own sense of flair…

 

So, PLEASE tell me – are you menu planning yet? have you organised your recipes?  Share a tip or a link to a project or post you have done on your own blog - I want to hear about it!

Use these printables as-is or just use them for inspiration and make your own as simply or creatively as you want! I am the worst with technology and always managed to at least swing the basics to create my own forms and schedules and have faith that you can too. Don’t get hung up on fancy papers and pdf files, just do it!

 

Find your simple,

Deb

 

Tagged as: household management, household notebook, meal planning, printables