Meal planning (or some people call it menu planning) can be a great way to cut down on the grocery budget for SURE. There are tons of sites out there that help you do it for free. Some of the sites will just email or post a menu and you can print it out. Some sites provide the recipes and the software for you to build your own plan and then you print that out. Some sites have both. I’m going to share some of the sites I have found over the past few years and PLEASE comment if you’ve found another one!
Free Meal Planning Sites
Moms Who Think – 16 weeks worth of dinner meal plans made by moms, for moms! 8 of them are “healthy” options. This is a great meal planning resource if you love browsing pre-made plans.
Monthly Meal Planner is also totally free, and you can either use her monthly menu or customize your own. There are thousands of recipes in the recipe box, and they also have a Facebook group for more meal planning chatter.
The Better Mom – She has put together tons of Bi-Weekly meal plans for families. The recipes are included in the individual blog posts, and the foods are nutritious!
Also, don’t forget about sites like All Recipes, Food.com, Food Network, Epicurious, Betty Crocker, and Kraft Foods. These sites allow you to search their recipes and add them to your own online recipe box. Most of them allow you to create and print shopping lists as well and some of them allow you to combine several recipes to create menus.
If These Aren’t Enough
By the way, if you’re interested in paying a little bit of cash for an amazing meal planning subscription, check out my affiliate link for eMeals. There are breakfast plans, lunch plans, and tons of different options for dinner meal plans. If you are eating paleo, gluetn free, vegetarian, low carb, low fat, counting points, or just want some tasty classic meals, you’ll be happy with eMeals! In fact, many of their meal plans are targeted to specific stores you are already shopping at and match sales for the best value! Planning meals just saves money, so it really makes sense.
I’d love to hear about your menu planning adventures! It can be a great way to save money by anticipating the inevitable – eating! 🙂
How do you plan your family’s meals?
jen says
We did the eMeals paleo plan for three months with a coupon code and loved it. It was money very well spent and more than paid for itself in grocery and time savings! We also use all recipes and love the menu feature with the shopping list, although we probably won’t renew unless we find another coupon code. Now I’m going to go check out some of the other sites you listed because I am a tad obsessed with meal planning and just looking at and thinking about good food 🙂
Jenn says
Oh, I totally know what you mean! I am a bit obsessed as well. 🙂 I desperately need to print out some meal plans because we’ve been SO bad lately!
Jenn recently posted…Meal Planning for Free
Sheri Conaway says
Where were things like this when my kids were growing up? I’d have loved to have meal planning assistance, as being a working, single mom left me little time for creativity! (oh, wait, there was no internet when my girls were young!)
Even though it’s just me now, I may well check this out so I can add a little variety to my diet! Thank you for sharing.
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Jenn says
There are so many wonderful recipes out there! 🙂 Emeals has meal plans for 1-2 people as well if you don’t find what you’re looking for on the free sites. Thank you for dropping in!
Jenn recently posted…Meal Planning for Free
Tamsin says
I LOVE the idea of menu/meal planning but my hubby is the one who does most/all of the cooking …. and he doesn’t have the same obsession as me for structure and order, or at least not in the kitchen ……… I’m going to check out some of those sites and see what I can come up with!
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Jenn says
I have a feeling it’ll inspire you to poke around more in the kitchen! 🙂
Jenn recently posted…Meal Planning for Free
leah says
Thank you for post this! I need to get back into menu planning!
Jenn says
Sure thing! 🙂 I do, too. We save SO MUCH MONEY when I plan our meals. Otherwise, going out is just so tempting.
Jenn recently posted…Paleo Pancakes – Banana Chocolate Chip
Dianna @ The Kennedy Adventures says
Thanks for gathering these ideas in one spot!
I’ll have to give some of these a try! Thanks for linking up with The Thoughtful Spot!
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susan - ofeverymoment says
Great resources! Thanks for linking this up at the Saturday Sharefest where I found it!
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Stephanie Kay says
I’ve always been fascinated by menu planning sites. In theory I want to use them but in practice I’m better off with my own calendar, notepad, and pencil. Guess I’m just too particular. 🙂 Thanks for sharing via Family Fun Friday.
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Carrie says
I totally agree meal planning is awesome!! We do it every week, but lately we’ve been bad about sticking to it…AND I am getting tired of my boring recipes. Thanks for sharing, I am going to check some of these out.
Thanks for linking up at Wordy Wednesday! Pinning!
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