This year one of my goals is to share with you my insider tips on how I stay organized when it comes to meal planning and that is planning for 31 days is the key. Hands down it beats other types of planning for several reasons. Sure you can plan for 7 days or 2 weeks, but I will share why 31 day meal planning is a huge sanity saver for me. Too, I am sharing my free March 31 days of dinner ideas menu.
31 Day Planning means Flexibility, Saving Money and Being Healthier. That Equals Smarter.
At the end of this post, you can grab two more 31 day meal plans, which are January and February. More on that in a minute because first I want to share another tip or two for meal planning.
I know planning for 31 days may sound like it is one more weighted thing to do on your growing to-do list when homeschooling.
However, nothing is more important than feeding your family meals that not only reflect your family’s unique likes, dislikes, allergies and must haves, but also you do not want to compromise their health while homeschooling for the long run.
It may not be one of the things that new bees think they will hear when they go through my workshops, but first on the list is organizing the living areas and shoring up the meal planning.
Sometimes it’s easier to homeschool and forget about the meals, believe me, I have been there.
It wasn’t because I wasn’t interested or didn’t know how to organize when I started homeschooling, I just didn’t realize that planning far out was the key.
Sure, it takes me another hour or so to meal plan for the whole month, but the return is SWEET.
What I mean by that is that some weeks end sooner than I want them to and then I’m faced again with a new grocery list and dinner ideas for the following week.
This is not the case with 31 days of dinner ideas because I have the next week planned for me.
So during the month, I normally have an hour or two that I can plan for the following month and the really sweet pay off is that I can plan in chunks during the month when I am in the mood.
The flexibility of planning for 31 days too is that contrary to what some may think, I have no problem switching around my ideas to fit the needs we have for the week. In other words, my dinner ideas on certain days aren’t etched in stone. BUT, to have that many ideas at my finger tips that my family loves is worth every ounce of energy I put into menu planning.
Stress has just been pushed wayyyyyyyyyyyy down low and living and savoring each day way up highhhhhhhhhhh.
Free 31 Days of Dinner Ideas
I’ll share some more tips next month too, but in the meantime, I am sharing my free March 31 days of dinner ideas menu.
This menu reflects the likes, dislikes and needs of my family. We love meat, we like variety and try to eat less beef, though we love it. We also, love different forms of vegetables and one pot dinners are a must for me while I homeschool.
Too, I share 31 days each month regardless if the month has 31 days or not because I want ideas and recipes that my family will eat.
Grab January dinner ideas along with an editable menu planner here.
(We repeated two meals in February because we didn’t have BBQ sauce like we liked in Ecuador or made chicken pot pie, so a couple of meals I repeated.)
And grab February dinner ideas here.
Are you following along and doing this with me? What are your struggles?
Hugs and love ya,
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