How to Make a Monthly Meal Calendar

Planning a monthly meal calendar helps families stay organized.

Setting up a monthly meal calendar organizes family meals that are being prepared and cooked at home. This type of planner reduces unnecessary stress and helps save money each week at the grocery store. Planning meals in advance makes it easier for families to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Taking the extra time to develop a monthly meal calendar will prove to be rewarding for the family's overall health.

Things You'll Need

• 1 three-ring binder
• 10 tab dividers
• Pen
• Large calendar
• Paper
• 3-hole paper punch
• Recipes
• Plastic zipper pouch (for 3-ring binder)

Instructions

1. Mark off any days on the monthly calendar where meals will be eaten outside of the home. Tally up how many meals need to be planned for the month. Make a list of all of the meals that will be cooked at home. This list should include breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and dessert.

2. Break down the monthly meal plan into four weeks of meals. Write these meals onto the calendar.

3. Locate the recipes to coincide with all of the desired monthly meals. Use cookbooks, magazines or online resources for additional help. Separate the recipes into the same five categories; breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and dessert.

4. Create a detailed ingredient list from all of the recipes and compile a weekly grocery list. There should be four weekly grocery lists when this step is completed.

5. Label the 10 tab dividers, one tab for each category; Grocery Lists, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks and Desserts.

6. File all grocery lists, weekly menus and recipes under the appropriate tab divider in the three-ring binder. Use the binder along with the monthly meal calendar to stay organized from week to week.

Tips & Warnings

• Involve children in the meal planning process to help come up with a variety of meal ideas.

• A large desk calendar or big magnetic calendar for the refrigerator are ideal choices to use for the monthly meal calendar.

• Store coupons that will be used for each grocery shopping trip in the plastic zipper pouch inside of the three-ring binder.

References

• Families With Purpose: Monthly Family Meal Planner
• Monthly Meal Planner