Why We Are Meal Planning & The Family Benefits

Over the last few years we have played about with meal planning and were really enjoying the benefits of it as a family before lockdown last year. 

However, when lockdown hit back in March 2020 we struggled to get some of the key ingredients for many of our meals and with restrictions on cutting down the amount of trips to a supermarket where you could it didn’t seem right to visit multiple stores.

So we decided to just go with the flow and meal planning slowly dwindled away and teatimes became a more chaotic unorganised affair.

The cost of groceries sky rocketed and the amount of food waste we had also seemed skyward bound.

Although this year we didn’t set any formal new years resolutions. Well, who would with the threat of COVID-19 still at the forefront of peoples minds and just getting through the week a mental, physical and phycological trauma for most. We did decide that in the world of so many uncontrollable things and with limited income that has practically halved overnight. It is a must that we be more frugal with what we do have coming in and we needed to broaden the choices again.

If you have followed me for a while you will know that my husband has had a limited taste before where food is concerned. However over the last decade he has slowly come around to eating a more varied diet that contains some of my meal basics like onions! .. try cooking a meal from scratch without onions! 

This Year ..

We have started this year off back on the Pinch of Nom recipe books. Although I am not on any fixed weight loss plan right now. I do need to be more restricted with what I eat and those books are great for tasty meals without the heaped calories.

We had book one and two from my slimming world days last year but I have now bought book 3 and I have been meal planning from that. 

Shopping now we are back in a third lockdown has been slightly more difficult. However, not as much as the first lockdown. I now visit some older ladies and do their shopping for them weekly so I am able to get everything I need if I have planned in advance. 

The family purse string are not being stretched quite as badly either. As with meal planning we have less waste and I am able to create the family shopping list from the meals we are eating and not just buying .. just in case.

So with this weeks family meals sorted we are going to start looking at the next 2 weeks worth of meals. So watch this space. As I am planning to share our family meals if you are looking for inspiration!