Meal Planning with a Bullet Journal

Meal Planning Bullet Journal

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No matter if you like to cook or if you dread it, meal planning with a bullet journal will up your time management game and how delicious your meals are.

By planning out what you’re going to eat you can take the bull by the horns and get prepared. By planning your meal ahead of time you’ll be able to shop and prep early leading to less time at the store, fewer impulse purchases AND healthier meals.

Use your bullet journal to meal plan and save time by having everything in one place! Easy meal planning with this productivity tool.

The first tip that will help you with your meal planning is to put a section in your bullet journal where you can put meal ideas. Then when it’s time to write out your plan, you have a list of things to choose from. I usually have a section on my bi-weekly goals page for meal ideas. Here I can jot down recipe links, ideas, or cravings to put into my meal plan for the following week. I also have a grocery list right next to it for convenience.

There are tons of ways to try out meal planning with a bullet journal and below are some of the favourite ways I’ve found!

The Swap out

Some journalers like to have one spread that they can index and refer to for all their meal planning needs. This is usually a combination of outlined boxes for each day of the week and a grocery list. The boxes are also conveniently post-it sized! This way, instead of a new page every week you just replace the post-its.

You save tons of space if you routinely do your meal planning with a bullet journal with this method.

The Swap out. Meal planning in your bullet journal.
Source: http://sublimereflection.com/meal-planning-bullet-journal/

In your dailies

You can also add your meal plan into your daily spread. At the bottom of each daily set a space for your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack and just write it in at the beginning of the week. By doing this it’s accessible and consistently there so you don’t forget!

Bottom of weekly spread. Meal Planning in your bullet journal.
Source: https://pageflutter.com/10-weekly-bullet-journal-layouts/

Weekly Spread

You can add your meal plan as part of your weekly setup if you find you need more space. This is helpful if you want space for a grocery list or have complex meals to make.

The spread below is also great for having company and needing extra space to plan out your full meal plans. If you’re using a full page there is tons of space for recipe page numbers and/or a space for rating the meal. Then you’ll know if you want to make it again if you’re trying it for the first time.

Plan your groceries and meal plan in your bullet journal.
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BJINg_Hja8z/

What I like to do

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I have a bi-weekly goals/task page.

On this page, I have sections for meal ideas and groceries. Note that this grocery section is usually reserved for things that I don’t typically buy or am likely to forget. Think coriander seeds or vanilla beans.  I can add things here through the week(s) and then plop them into a meal plan as appropriate.

When I meal plan I usually use a weekly spread of about half a page. I put the days of the week down the side and then breakfast, lunch and dinner across the top. In the spread below I had just gotten a new cookbook so wanted to try out a bunch of the recipes.

You’ll see there are page numbers for where to find them. I also rated a few and made little notes on how it went. Next time, if I’m trying out this many new recipes, I’ll add more space for notes. This way I can make sure to get better results or time the meals more accurately.

The reason that there is a huge group of people avidly championing the use of a meal plan is that having a way to plan healthful, yummy, easy meals is amazing. I honestly can’t think of a better way to eat well, save money and time on top of that.

For more ideas on how to make sure that your meal planning is effective check out how I plan meals here. In that post, I talk about how I conglomerate ideas into a menu that’s cohesive and doesn’t involve having to buy a gazillion ingredients you’ll never use again.

I’ve also written another post with 10 Meal Planning Tips in case you want to find out a bit more about making the most out of your meal plan. 

Finally, tell me:

How do you like to set up your meal plans? Are there any recommendations you’d make for someone just starting to test out meal planning in their bullet journal?

Let me know in the comments!

Rachael

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