7 Ways Meal Planning Makes Your Life Better

Posted on November 02, 2023 by Amber Metz, One of Thousands of Health and Fitness Coaches on Noomii.

If you know me, you know I like to plan. Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to know “what the plan was”.

If we were going out to eat, I wanted to know who would sit next to whom. If we were running errands, I wanted to know what order we would do them in. I guess I’ve always liked being prepared.

I’ve kept this habit of planning into adulthood, and I find it benefits so many areas of my life. One of the greatest perks of being this organized is that I’ve developed this habit of meal planning.

Why is meal planning so important? Meal planning makes your life better in 7 ways.

1. Saves You Time

Do you ever feel like you don’t have the time to eat healthily? If so, you’re not alone. A study on the eating habits of adults found that lack of time is the greatest barrier to healthful eating.

We save ourselves time by prepping our food in advance. I can dice vegetables and bulk cook meat and grains to use throughout the week. If it won’t keep more than a few days in advance then I freeze it into the portions I will use and then take it out as needed.

I hardly ever make an entire meal from scratch at one time. If I’m making a casserole, the grains and meat are pre-cooked, and at least some of the vegetables are pre-chopped.

Broccoli casserole.
Also, if it’s a food shopping day I almost always use our leftovers. In the morning I will take a meal from our freezer and thaw it in our fridge during the day. Because if I’ve spent several hours shopping the last thing I want to do is make something new.

2. Saves Money

Meal planning is one of the greatest ways to save money. Since cutting our budget last year we’ve saved around $2,000 a year on food, and meal planning has been a great help.

One of the first ways you can save money is by shopping the sales. I like to use a meal planning app called Flipp to find out what’s on sale in the stores I shop at. This allows you to meal plan on a budget, stretching your pennies further.

Piggy bank with pennies.
Once I know what’s on sale, I take a good look at our pantry and see what items we already have that I can use up. I then look through my recipe collection to find meals that use these ingredients.

The beauty of meal planning is that when done right you won’t have to buy so many different ingredients at the store. For example, you might not want to make brown rice, quinoa, and barley all in one week. Instead, choose one to bulk cook and use in all your meals that week.

3. Less Food is Wasted

When you buy food with a purpose you waste less. Don’t buy ingredients you want to use: buy what you know you will use.

By writing the quantities of ingredients on your list you can calculate if it makes sense to buy in bulk. If you don’t have a plan for a dozen lemons then buy them individually.

I rarely throw food away, even down to the tiniest scraps. When I dice strawberries, I cut the extra red part around the leafy greens and put it into a bag in the freezer. I then use it in smoothies or thaw it and add to yogurt.

Strawberry smoothie.
I freeze portions of our dinners so we don’t have to eat the same meal five days in a row. I know many people who let perfectly good food go to waste because they didn’t eat it in time or grew tired of it. By freezing our dinner portions, I prevent us from wasting food (and we get a meal for another day).

4. Teaches Resourcefulness

Part of an effective meal plan is only going to the store weekly (or less). This teaches proper planning and resourcefulness, as you learn to work with what you have on hand.

If you forgot an ingredient (or it was too expensive this week) you learn how to make it or substitute it. You can sub oil for applesauce, sour cream for yogurt, and much more. It’s even possible to make buttermilk and heavy cream.

Meal planning also helps you use up those food scraps you find in your freezer. I came up with several recipes to not waste these odds and ends. My favorite is called “Use Up the Pantry Rice Casserole”. It’s a new combination of protein, vegetables, cheeses, and spices each time – but it’s always delicious!

5. Reduces Eating Out While Traveling

Meal planning helps our health and wallets while on vacation. My husband and I bring a cooler on road trips to store our water bottles, sandwich ingredients, Lärabars, nuts, and leftovers.

If we are traveling by plane we bring snacks on the plane and empty water bottles (to fill at water fountains once we get past security). We then buy food at grocery stores once we arrive.

This year we put a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread in our luggage and used it to make sandwiches! It traveled surprisingly well and I am really thankful we brought it.

We do our best to only eat one meal out per day. We make use of complimentary breakfasts and eat what we’ve brought for lunch. Dinner is the only meal we eat out.

Let’s say lunch costs $20 a day for two people. By packing our food we save $140 on lunches over a week-long trip. Plus, we also save on calories, since the portions we eat are smaller (and healthier) than any restaurant.

Berries on a plate.
6. Encourages Healthy Eating

Meal planning enhances your health by helping you eat a variety of foods.

Recently I was talking to someone about his bachelor days. He told me that one night he would eat meat, the next a grain, and another, a vegetable. Clearly, the idea of a balanced meal was not on his mind.

While that may be more typical behavior of men, we too can fall into a similar trap. Do you eat the same foods each week, without much thought? Meal planning can help you each a well-rounded diet.

When I plan my meals for the week, I try my best to include proteins, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, and grains throughout the day. As you sit down to meal plan you can look at your week at a glance and see areas you may be lacking.

7. Makes You a Better Cook

The more meals you make the greater of a cook you become.

As I make recipes that Mike and I like, I compile them into a binder with alphabetical tabs (yes, I’m organized!). I take notes on what worked and didn’t, and reference it the next time I make it. This helps me to improve as a chef.

Notebook used for meal planning purposes.
Perusing what you’ve made in the past can inform your cooking. I am saving my previous meal plans into a binder to reference later. This will help me learn what meals I make throughout the year, especially during the fasting seasons. I hope doing this will make meal planning simpler.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan then you are planning to fail.” Don’t let that be you! Meal planning enriches your life in so many ways. Why not start today?

Do you meal plan for your family? What benefits do you find?