Meal Planning 101- Display Your Menu

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I know you are ready to be a Dinner Diva in 2011. Meal planning has so many benefits. You’ll streamline your budget, feed your family healthy meals, and spend more time together around the table. You’ll see how easy it really is once you get going.

You know what kind of recipes are a good fit for you and your family.

You’ve searched the 20 places I shared with you to start making your list of recipes.

You’ve chosen a grocery list template that works best for you.

Step 4: Display Your Meal Plan

This part can be a lot of fun. You need a place to share your meal plan so you can easily reference back and at any time to remind yourself what is in store for you and your family this week.

Here are 14 awesome ways to display your meal plan:

1) If you have a blog, the simplest way to share your meal plan might be in a blog post. This is one of the ways I display my weekly meal plan and one of the perks is, I can quickly link the recipe to each meal and reference it all week long at my fingertips.

2) If you are a crafty person and will be more encouraged and excited about meal planning if it is posted in a pretty way, check out this awesome fabric covered cork board created for $10 by Charity over at All Thing Beautiful.

From Charity at All Things Beautiful
3) I also like this creative wipe off meal planning board that is made using a picture frame! Cute and inexpensive.

4) And this one by, Living the Army Life, is also a dry erase idea using glass marbles as accents. Beautiful!

5) Would you like a chalkboard meal plan? They can be very pretty. Here is a tutorial on how to make one for your kitchen.

6) This menu planning board by UCreateFoods is fancy and fun. She shares with you step by step how to make a menu plan board that is for an entire month and is magnetic. It really is very pretty! If you’re crafty and serious about meal planning, or already are an established meal planner and want a pretty display board for 2011, this is the one for you!

7) Just want to keep it simple? Here are two free downloads from The Project Girl. One allows you to meal plan for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Her second download is just for dinner but has a build in grocery list, too! Download either of these and use a magnet to post it on your fridge.

8) Our friends over at Buttoned Up has an awesome menu plan download that is free. Again, just print it out and magnetically share it on your refrigerator.

9) OrgJunkie has got it going on with her free meal planning printable!

10) More free printables! These are in Excel for our spreadsheet meal planners! They offer templates that are for one week, two weeks or monthly meal plans and some of them even have a place for breakfast, lunch and dinner and even sides!

11) Check the dollar bins at your craft stores, Target and Walmart or even search at Dollar Stores. My friend Kim scored me an awesome magnetic dry erase menu planner in a dollar bin at Walmart over a year ago when I first started meal planning. As you can see it had been very well used!

12) Purchase a monthly organizer, like the one from BusyBodyBook or Chaos Simplified, that give you space for meal planning. These are nice options for super busy people who need to reference their family calender when making their meal plan.

13) And remember the the Ultimate To Do List I was telling you about from Organized Wizard? That same packet not only has the grocery list printable I was telling you about, but it also has a couple of different meal planning templates as well. Easy to print and post it on the fridge.

14) Simply use a spiral notebook and make your own hand drawn template. If it works for you- it works!

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Personally, I like sharing my meal plan on my blog so I can reference the recipes electronically and then on my fridge so the entire family can see it at a glance and I do not get a million questions about what’s for dinner!?

Search for the display that works best for you. Go through the links I shared and see if any of them are good fits for you.

If you’re on a strict budget I would certainly start with one of the free download options until you know that meal planning is easy and something you will stick to!

If you need to make this fun so you do not dread it every week and you’re crafty, make a pretty display board.

If you’re a mom that works away from home an organizer book or spreadsheet method might be best for you.

Let me know what you try and if you have a template or tutorial you want to share please leave it in the comments!

The next steps in meal planning will discuss executing your plan!

7 Comments

  1. Anonymous says:

    I'm really Glad i found this site.Added mygrandmasrecipes.crabbysbeach.com to my bookmark!

  2. Priscilla - Wheelchair Mommy says:

    I just use a plain white dry erase board, on my fridge.

    I love the pretty paper in a frame idea though!

  3. Lori@Paisley Passions says:

    Some great ideas! Thanks for sharing them on Thrilling Thursday! 🙂

  4. I am so glad you guys are finding these pointer on meal planning helpful.

    The next steps will go over executing your meal plan!

  5. wowza – those are great ideas! I'm thinking I'm the queen of homemaking if I can get around to printing mine out and hanging it on the fridge. I'm gonna step up my menu game after this!

  6. Love your board! So cute!

    I also have a dry erase menu board like yours. Such a great deal for a dollar!

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