Meal planning is the practice of creating a menu and shopping list for yourself and your family ahead of time, making the daily struggle of deciding what’s for dinner a thing of the past. And that means no poking around the fridge for last-minute ideas or scrolling food delivery apps for a quick fix. 

Beyond dinner, meal planning also might include breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Ideally, meal plans include dishes cooked one night and saved as leftovers for at least one other night. That can make your dollars, time, and energy go further without sacrificing healthy, flavorful meals. 

By mapping out your dishes, schedules, ingredients, and shopping lists in advance, it’s possible to minimize the groceries you need to buy, catch coupons and sales, and buy certain items in bulk, knowing you have a plan for them (and they won’t go to waste).^[1]

When you meal plan, consider including a mix of new, familiar, and simple recipes to keep things interesting (and sustainable for the long term). You might keep track of those recipes, too — not only to reuse them but to build your own cookbook to pass on the health, simplicity, and other benefits of meal planning. 

Why plan your meals? 8 key benefits:

While many embrace meal planning to bring consistency to their lives and simplify the daily dinner dilemma, others take it up to save time, eat healthier, and even save money. If you need some extra motivation to commit to meal planning, consider the potential benefits:

1. More time and less stress
2. Less money and food waste
3. Healthy habits
4. Easier shopping
5. Simple portion control
6. Less decision overload
7. More family time

Let’s take a more in-depth look at each of these benefits.

1. Save time and reduce stress

You can become a meal planner with as little as 30 minutes a week.^[2] Once you get into the swing of it, that can be how long it takes to jot down some meals, organize an ingredient list, check the pantry, and narrow your grocery list. You might stick your list of meals on the fridge, and instead of spending 30 minutes every night just thinking about what to have — perhaps while quite hungry — you’ll just get to cooking. 

Simplifying your nightly decisions (and your grocery planning and shopping) can cut down on stressful and frustrating moments during the week. 

It’s often in those stressful moments when quick, easy meals seem more appealing, even if they lack proper nutritional value (like fast food or processed snack foods). A proactive approach to planning breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks can help make smarter shopping decisions, leading to better-for-you ingredients on hand and in your body. Better nutrition, in turn, reduces stress further, promoting a healthy cycle.^[3]  

2. Save money and reduce food waste

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the country wastes up to 40% of its food.^[4] Not only does that mean healthy, edible food goes in the trash, but it can also mean the efforts and resources of the food supply chain are wasted. 

While some of that 40% is out of a single consumer’s control, what goes in your shopping cart, on your plate, and in your stomach versus your trash can is well within your domain.   

Reducing food waste is about combatting food scarcity as much as it is about reducing unnecessary energy usage, transportation, and other burdens of food production. Think of it as an eco-friendly benefit as much as a budget-friendly one. 

Since meal planning compels you to take inventory of your existing food stock and buy only what you need for those planned meals, it can help you spend, consume, and waste less.^[5] 

Tips for safe leftover storage

Keeping leftovers helps stretch meals and budgets while maintaining the health benefits. But you also want to avoid unsafe or unsatisfying next-day plates. 

Prioritize the use of food-safe containers, include a label with the cook date, and use or freeze extras and leftovers within three to four days.^[6]  

3. Support better eating habits

Meal planning is an approachable way to consistently eat more mindfully without paying for expensive prepared foods or restaurant orders. And by feeling fuller and well-nourished, you may be less inclined to rely on snacks or drive-throughs between meals. Over time, you might even find ways to reorganize your kitchen and refrigerator to best store, monitor, and access your foods for optimal and easier meal planning.^[7]

Meal planning and healthy eating go hand in hand because the planning phase allows you to take a step back and make sure you’re getting the right nutrients, variety, and flavors.^[8] It’s also a time to think about portion sizes and how you divide up your plate for an adequate blend of fruits, vegetables, grains, and proteins.   

4. Make grocery shopping easier and more efficient

A meal plan dictating your shopping list can lead to a more focused experience. Instead of wandering the aisles in search of ideas — and trying not to cave into impulse purchases — you’ll know exactly what to grab. 

Between what’s already in your pantry and what’s on your list of ingredient-sharing meals, you can end up buying and spending significantly less. Plus, by remembering everything on your list, you reduce the need for trips back to the store.^[9] 

Meal plans benefit you with quicker and more efficient shopping trips, especially once you’ve locked down a recipe and shopping routine aligned to your menus.   

5. Improve portion control

Portion control can be a benefit of meal planning. It’s also a way to practice and improve portion control. 

When you sketch out a menu and distinct dishes every week, you make a decision about how much of each meal to make. By doing so, you’re deciding to eat, save, or waste any extra food. Meal planning is like portion control practice as you perfect recipes and shopping lists. Plus, it helps you avoid overeating, better understand your body, and track your weight or other health metrics.^[10]  

6. Reduce decision fatigue 

How many decisions do you make in a day? From what to wear, when to leave for work, and even what to watch on TV, we’re inundated with decisions from the moment we open our eyes to the time we go to sleep again. 

That can lead to decision fatigue, aka the mental exhaustion, impaired judgment, and easily triggered frustration that comes from a brain overloaded with making choices.^[11] A decision-fatigued person might put off decisions or revert to quick, impulsive choices to avoid the added exhaustion. That can mean going back to bad habits or sticking with easy (and often less balanced, cost-conscious, or well-rounded) meals. 

When you meal plan, you remove a lot of the daily decision-making that can add to that fatigue. Since you’ve already made those decisions when you planned, all you have to do is act on them. In that sense, meal planning can be a way to simplify and structure your life in a way that can actually serve as self-care for a decision-fatigued brain.  

7. Accommodate dietary preferences and restrictions

Dietary restrictions and preferences can further complicate deciding what to eat — and the decision fatigue. With a focused moment to chart out how your shorter list of safe ingredients translates into flavorful, affordable, healthy meals and the groceries they’ll require, you can get through every aisle quickly and confidently. 

When you carefully plot out recipes and grocery items in advance, you can more strategically avoid allergens, include nutrient-dense options, and align meals with personal, religious, or family dietary guidelines. Customizing meals can also help avoid stress when preparing food, making it easier to enjoy delicious, safe, and satisfying meals for everyone in your home.^[12]

8. Encourage family involvement and shared meals

Meal planning is a great way to involve the whole family in cooking, nutrition, and the food cycle while building stronger relationships. A weekly menu inspired by the tastes, creativity, and resourcefulness of the whole family makes for much more than a healthy and colorful diet.  

The camaraderie, teamwork, and bonding of planning, preparing, and enjoying a meal together has both short- and long-term health benefits. Families who share in the meal planning process can communicate better in other areas of their lives and build healthy food habits for lifelong nutrition.^[13]

How to get started with meal planning

The potential benefits of meal planning are bountiful. Who wouldn’t want healthier, less expensive and more flavorful meals that bring the family closer? What’s just as motivating is how easy it is to get started. 

Grab a pen and paper or open your phone’s note-taking app. Jot down five meals you enjoy cooking and eating at home. Under each one, list the ingredients you need, roughly how long the meal takes to cook, and how many portions it provides. 

That’s it. You just made your first meal plan!

Is it perfect? No. Are some recipes too complex, not healthy enough, or out of season? Maybe. Go back and tweak it a bit, and you’re probably good to go for your first week of meal planning. 

Next week, you’ll do even better. Every time you plan, shop, prepare, eat, store, reheat, and plan again, you can get better at planning meals that nourish, comfort, and inspire. 

Start enjoying the benefits of meal planning 

When you’re getting started, it also helps to “shop” your pantry and fridge first, think about what’s in season, and pick a couple of items you can cook in batches and freeze for additional future meals.^[14] 

The budget, lifestyle, family, and dietary benefits of meal planning can start as soon as your first shopping trip and meal. Go ahead. Take a few minutes now to jot down your first meal plan.

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Sources

[1] Mayo Clinic Press. Meal Planning on a Budget: Plan, Purchase, Prepare. Last reviewed November 6, 2023. https://mcpress.mayoclinic.org/nutrition-fitness/meal-planning-on-a-budget-plan-purchase-prepare/ 

[2] South Dakota State University Extension. Reduce Stress With Meal Planning. Last reviewed June 18, 2024. https://extension.sdstate.edu/reduce-stress-meal-planning 

[3] University of Georgia. Meal Prep Can Mean Healthier Meal Plans in Times of Stress. https://online.uga.edu/news/meal-prep-can-mean-healthier-meal-plans-times-stress/ 

[4] U.S. Department of Agriculture. Food Waste FAQs. Last reviewed 2023. https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs 

[5] Utah State University Extension. Food Waste Prevention Part 2: Meal Planning. https://extension.usu.edu/nutrition/research/food-waste-part-2 

[6] Mississippi State University Extension. Tips for Meal Prep Storage. Last reviewed February 27, 2020. https://extension.msstate.edu/blog/tips-for-meal-prep-storage 

[7] UC San Diego Center for Healthy Eating and Activity Research. Nourishing Spaces: The Art of Organizing Your Home for Healthy Eating Success. Last reviewed March 29, 2024. 

https://chear.ucsd.edu/blog/nourishing-spaces-the-art-of-organizing-your-home-for-healthy-eating-success

[8] Mayo Clinic. Healthy Meals Start With Planning. Last reviewed February 28, 2024. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/healthy-meals/art-20546806 

[9] Kendall Reagan Nutrition Center. The First P of Meal Prep: Planning. Last reviewed June 2024. https://www.chhs.colostate.edu/krnc/monthly-blog/the-first-p-of-meal-prep-planning/ 

[10] Altru Health System. Portions and Planning: Why Meal Planning Is Important. Last reviewed March 9, 2021. https://www.altru.org/blog/2021/march/portions-and-planning-why-meal-planning-is-important 

[11] Cleveland Clinic. 8 Signs of Decision Fatigue and How to Cope. Last reviewed June 1, 2023. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/decision-fatigue 

[12] CACHEducation. Navigating Dietary Restrictions with a Chronic Condition. Last reviewed August 1, 2024. https://cacheducation.org/news/navigating-dietary-restrictions-with-a-chronic-condition/ 

[13] American Heart Association (AHA). Meal Planning: Benefits and How-To’s of Family Dinners. Last reviewed July 30, 2024. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/cooking-skills/meal-planning/meal-planning-benefits–how-tos-of-family-dinners

[14] Mayo Clinic Press. Meal Planning on a Budget: Plan, Purchase, Prepare. Last reviewed November 6, 2023. https://mcpress.mayoclinic.org/nutrition-fitness/meal-planning-on-a-budget-plan-purchase-prepare/ 

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