Printable Meal Planner

I am SO freaking excited to show you this printable meal planner. As some of you may remember from my post on How to Start Meal Prepping, I'm a huge fan of meal planning and prepping -- in fact, it saved my life as a broke student.

But in quarantine, I fell out of the pattern of meal prepping, and man did I pay for it. Both my food costs + stress levels skyrocketed when I stopped meal prepping, so I've been very focused on rebuilding the habit in my life.

This meal planner printable is free, simple, easy, and super cute (what more could you want?!). I've laid it out with a spot for notes on each day, as well as a separate section for shopping items. I love having my grocery list right next to my meal planner -- it just makes it SO simple to write down what I need for each recipe, and I never forget anything.

You can either print out the free meal planner every week, or for a more sustainable option, get it laminated at Staples or Office Depot to just wipe + reuse with dry erase markers! 

Not only am I dropping this totally free printable meal planner for you, but I'm also going to give you my entire update meal prep strategy. This is saving me more money than ever & helping me eat healthy and stop wasting food.

Free Printable Meal Planner

How i use the meal planner

When it comes to using the meal planner printable, things are pretty straightforward. As you can tell, the free download has sections for every day of the week, as well as a spot for a grocery list where you can write everything down.

Once a week, usually on the weekend, I'll sit down with my computer and open up Pinterest. For portion reference, I meal prep with my boyfriend, and we usually pick 3 recipes that we want to eat that week for lunch/dinner (lunch is usually leftovers). We both enjoy cooking but don't want to have to do a big meal every night, so making things that reheat well and taste good a couple days late is a big win.

After picking those recipes, we'll schedule them into the meal planner, write down our groceries, and THEN -- this hack literally changed the way I meal prep and buy food -- we order everything for online pickup.

I first heard Milena Ciciotti talking about how she and her husband always order on Instacart, which actually saves them money, and thought it was genius.

I don't know about you, but particularly when I'm not meal prepping, I'm such a sucker for extras at the grocery store. Ice cream (my weakness), junky snacks, extra food that I won't eat, and things that I just don't need always seem to find their way into my cart. 

It's habit, and it's good marketing, but it's not good budgeting. Ordering online for pickup is usually free (or super cheap), and it ends up saving sooo much money in the long run. With the free printable meal planner as a guide, you've got an almost-fool proof system for a cheaper, healthier, less wasteful diet.

I'm not a big fan of cooking, and I hate having to do it everyday... which is why meal prep has been a lifesaver for me, and the printable meal planner has just been the best tool to get back into it.

Whether you're brand new to the concept of meal prepping, or a seasoned veteran just looking to smooth out the process, download the meal planner right now. Seriously. Just do it. 

As always, I'm dying to know your thoughts, so leave a comment and let me know what you think or shoot us a DM over on @outofthehabit.co! 

For more meal prep content, inspiration, and ideas, make sure to stay tuned on our Instagram account + follow us on Pinterest!