Hello my name is Stephanie and I’m addicted to pizza. You’ll be hard pressed to find a Friday that isn’t pizza day up in my house. Do you want to have pizza every Friday? Boom; you just planned your first meal. You’re in it now, sucka!

But really — meal planning and grocery list-writing doesn’t sound like a super flashy and exciting topic, and honestly to most people it probably isn’t. But bear with me, because grocery list-making leads to food and I think everyone can agree that food is one of their favorite topics.

Also, if you plan your meals and grocery lists you’re gonna feel like you really have your life together and guess what — you’ll probably save money too.

When you start planning out your meals for the week and shopping accordingly, you’ll have:

more money in your account! I don’t have a secret solution to be paid to buy your own groceries, but having a clear list (and sticking to it) will cut down on your impulse purchases.

less food waste. Buy what you need, use what you buy.

less stress and hanger during the week deciding what to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Plus, you’ll probably end up eating healthier — because nobody makes the best choices when they’re hungry now and need something ASAP. I also love having the week’s dinners listed out, because I find myself looking forward to certain meals. (I’m looking at you, Taco Tuesday and Pizza Friday)

We aim to go to the grocery store once a week, on Sunday morning. We somehow still end up going multiple times during the weekend for extra snacks and meals, but hey we try. Here’s a rough outline of the steps I take each Saturday night/Sunday morning to plan our meals for the week and get ready to go shopping.

On one side of a piece of paper torn from a notepad I list the days of the week with space between each day. I typically don’t plan meals for Saturday. I shop at Kroger (who has a handy app with digital coupons that you should use if you go to Kroger), so I always check the weekly flyer and any coupons that may give inspiration to meals or snacks. For an example, we have Halo Mandarins to snack on this week since they were on sale + I had a coupon. Next is the kind of hard part: deciding what meals to eat each day. We watch a lot of YouTube videos, read food blogs, and check out Pinterest for ideas. Pro-tip: picking themes for days of the week can make choosing meals a little easier. For example, we always have Pizza Fridays and Mexican Food Tuesdays and typically Pasta Sundays Now that you have as many meal ideas as days you’re planning for, assign them to a day and write it next to the day of the week on your list You’ll then need to cross reference the recipe with what you already have. Anything you need to buy for the meal, list out below that day on your list. Next you’ll transpose all the ingredients you need to the other side of the list. You can organize (or not organize) the list however you choose. I like the list everything in the produce section in a left side column, and everything else in the righthand column. This makes it a bit easier on me at the store, but also it makes me feel good try try and make the produce list as long or longer than the other side Now it’s time to shop! Head to the store with your list, a pen, any physical coupons you may have, and reusable bags (they hold so much more in one than paper or plastic)

I’m a visual learner, and maybe some of you are too. With that in mind I created a template of the two-sided list I write up each weekend before we head to Kroger, as well as links to some of our favorite place to find recipes. You can either print the list out, or just use it as a template for writing out a list in your lil notebook of choice.

To download the free meal planning + grocery list guide (plus, some of our favorite sources for vegetarian/vegan recipes) click here!

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