When you have a large family or a family with young children, menu planning is a lifesaver.
Menu Planning a Necessary Evil
But, first of all, a confession.
I highly recommend menu planning BUT I do NOT like menu planning. Honestly, I find it a pain to sit down and write out what we are going to eat a whole week in advance.
I am quite sure that I am not alone in saying that meal planning isn’t easy or fun. Why else would there be so many people and companies selling menu plans?
However, once it is done, it is done! And I do it week after week because I like the results of menu planning. That is – peace and efficiency.
No Decision Fatigue
Peace, because I no longer have to wreck my brains thinking about what to cook and what to buy at the grocery store. It is said that willpower and decision fatigue are linked. And we all have a limited amount of willpower each day. So each time we have to make a decision to do something or not to do something, we drain our willpower bank. So it is best to save your brain cells and willpower bank for more serious and important issues than what to eat.
No More “What’s for dinner?” Questions
Menu Planning also eliminates that dreaded, “What’s for breakfast/lunch/dinner?” question thrown at me many times a day. They know where to look to find that out. For myself, I also know what to thaw out in the fridge or countertop so that I do not have to deal with a frozen block of food an hour before a meal.
Efficiency and Productivity
I am also more efficient when I use my menu plan to organise my freezer/fridge. All the food for each day’s meals are labelled and packed together. This way, all I need is to pull out the correct “bundle” to defrost at the end of each day for the next day’s meals. Also, because my grocery list is based on my menu plan I seldom end up with missing ingredients. I say seldom since I do sometimes miss out an item or do not realise that stocks of another item have run out.
I have written before in So What’s For Dinner? the benefits of menu planning so I will try not to repeat myself here 🙂 It is really a lifesaver and another useful tool in making sure that our household runs smoothly. The other tool is, of course, having routines as mentioned in Schedules and Routines.
But a Menu Plan is So Rigid!
A menu plan is so simple and helpful and yet many moms I know do not use it. There are also many moms who are highly resistant to it. “There’s no spontaneity!” they cry in protest when I suggest it to them. I personally feel spontaneity is overrated. 🙂 Especially if spontaneity causes mom to feel stressed and worked up.
The only time I survived without a menu plan was when I had only 3 children and lived a 10-minute walk from the wet market which I visited almost daily as it was next to the only playground in the area. I also had a lot more time back then 🙂 Now I do not have the luxury of always popping to the wet market or supermarket to pick up things that I have forgotten to buy.
A Menu Plan isn’t Carved in Stone
Actually, one can still be spontaneous with a menu plan as one dish can be swopped for another on the list. Don’t feel like having fish today? Then swop with Thursday’s Beef Stew. What to do with the plan for fried rice now that dh has decided to bring you out for dinner? Push it to the next week. It isn’t carved in stone. It is a tool to help you be more efficient.
Yes, it takes discipline and time to sit and plan and even a mindset change. But if you want your home to run smoothly, you have to invest the time to plan for it to become so.
Try menu planning. And if at first it does not work out, try again! I had to work at it and tweak it many times before being happy with what I have now.
RELATED POST
Resources
***This post has been updated 18th August 2017***