Meal planning can save time, money and mid-week energy

Rachael Hallett and Nathan Lyons have a lot of practice with meal planning.

Rachael, a mum of two from Melbourne's outer south-eastern suburbs, runs the Facebook group Mums who Budget and Save. Nathan, a dad of six based in Queensland, shares his budget meal ideas as @kookingwithakoori.

We asked both for their top meal planning tips.

So how much can you save?

Two of the main benefits of meal planning are savings on costs and reducing food waste. 

Research shows that Aussie households fritter away the equivalent of $2,100 in food waste every year, says Amanda Kane, a manager in the NSW Environment Protection Authority's Circular Economy Program.

One easy way to do this is planning your meals around in-season produce, says Ms Kane.

"Fruit and vegetables that are in season are more nutritious, economical and last longer," she says.

Nathan says he often feeds his family of eight for as little as $8 per meal, with the lowest-cost meals being a simple pasta dish. That's a weekly spend of just $168 for six kids and two adults, if he stuck to the lowest-cost meals in his repertoire and didn't include snacks.

Rachael, who is also the co-founder of Mums Who and co-host of the Home Hacks podcast, can feed her family for around $200 a week.

She'll often include dinner staples such as noodles, chicken schnitzel and stir fry that can be eaten as leftovers, too: "If we had schnitzel for dinner, we would probably have a schnitzel sandwich the next day," she says.

But meal planning isn't all scrimping and saving: it can allow you to accommodate "splurge" items without guilt.

"It just means if you want an expensive steak one day, you balance that with one or two cheaper meals that week," says Rachael. 

"So, overall, you're on budget but you're still getting your luxury items."

For Nathan, cooking cheaper meals some days allows him to splurge sometimes on pricier dishes, such as lamb shanks or kangaroo curry.

Each plan is personal

"Because I enjoy meal planning, I've done it so many different ways over the years," says Rachael.

"I generally use pen and paper because that's how I like to work — I'm quite visual."

But the way you plan your meals really comes down to personal preference, she says. Some people prefer computer spreadsheets, or meal planning apps that allow you to create corresponding grocery lists. Others create lists in the notes app of their phone.

"Just me and the wife, we'll go, 'we'll do garlic chicken', then we'll get to the store and see that lamb is quite cheap," he says.

To accommodate any last-minute changes to whatever he has planned, he keeps a well-stocked pantry of staples.

"Keep your staples up, and you can plan so many meals around using those staples," says Nathan. He recommends starting with pasta, rice, stock, herbs and spices.

Other meal planners enjoy getting stuck into the details and creating multi-tab spreadsheets to record the projected cost of each meal. (If that's your preference, Rachael recommends checking item prices on supermarket websites before heading to the shops to get an accurate idea of cost.)

Rachael has occasionally gone down the spreadsheet route and "literally planned months at a time", she explains.

With practice, you'll save time and energy

At first glance, it might look like meal planning requires an enormous amount of time and mental space. But Rachael says, to the contrary, it can actually save on the "mental load".

"Once you've sat down and done it, you don't have to think about it during the week. That's particularly good for people who work and don't have the time during the week," she says.

Keep in mind that meal planning gets quicker and easier the more you practice: "I've been perfecting it over the years, and it can literally take me five minutes now," says Rachael.

Quick tips to get started with meal planning

• Start small and scale up: There's no need to launch straight into a month-long meal plan. "I recommend if you've never planned before, only planning dinners, and then plan say three dinners a week — and you can add more meals in as you become more comfortable," says Rachael.
• Check the family calendar: An exercise-heavy day might work up an appetite, so think about factoring in the family's planned activity level for the day.
• Consider the forecast: "I always check the weather as well, to make sure I'm not planning pumpkin soup on a 30-degree day or something," says Rachael.
• Decide where you'll store groceries: Buying in bulk can save costs – but consider whether you have the space, or if you're organised enough to prevent chaos. "I have a regular 900mm wide pantry plus use a couple of drawers for dry food. Pretty basic really, but organised well," Rachael says.