FREE Menu Planning Printables

This is my sixth week menu planning my family’s dinner. It hasn’t gone perfectly smoothly, but it’s been done every week and only simple changes needed to be made. As always, in any area of my life that I’m trying to change, my motto is “progress, not perfection.”

Searching for the right Printable

When I was starting to actually write a weekly meal plan out, I searched for weekly meal plans and finally decided on this one. I didn’t really know what I would need yet for a menu planner, but I knew that I didn’t need certain elements that I kept seeing in the free printables:

• a shopping list section
• breakfast and lunch sections (2 of my sons eat school lunch and hubby and I usually pack dinner leftovers for lunch)
• I also knew I would most likely just put it in a clear sleeve and use a dry erase marker versus printing a new one out weekly.

I found that I DID need a section to write down what was happening that evening based on the family schedule. Most of the posts I have read about meal planning suggests using your family calendar to plan the meal, but doesn’t have a place on the weekly menu to note that on the plan. Christina from Juggling Real Food and Real Life does have one with an activities section, but it includes breakfast and lunch which I didn’t need on my weekly menu.

Making My Own Menu Planning Printables

As I have been using this simple weekly menu planner, I found I was using the column for shopping list as a column for family events happening that evening. I also wanted some more space to write the dinner meal (do they have fine tip dry erase markers?).

I decided I could probably create a simple weekly menu planner that would work for me. Here is what I created:

Weekly Dinner Menu Planner

CREATING WHAT I NEEDED: MONTHLY MEAL PLANNER

I mentioned before that I used to write my meals out for the month, but they were written down from the previous week or month. I did that because I wanted to note the last time we had such and such meal so I wasn’t repeating meals too often.

I could print out a new blank monthly calendar each month, but I decided to create one that I can use a dry erase marker on as well. I created a blank monthly calendar that I can slip into the same clear sheet holder as my weekly meal planner. At the end of each week I’ll write down the meals that we had for dinner and use the monthly information to plan the weekly menus for the next month.

If your brain and family life are anything like mine, and these printables would be helpful to you, please feel free to download them for free:

My Weekly Menu Planner

My Monthly Menu Planner

What kind of planner do you use when menu planning? What’s your favorite simple meal when the weekdays get hectic? I’d love to know!

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