5 Family Meal Planning Hacks for a Healthy and Budget-Friendly Diet

Planning meals for you and your family can be challenging enough, but when you are trying to ensure that your family eat a healthy, balanced diet, while also sticking to a budget, it can start to feel impossible. 

But don’t worry! We have put together some of our top family meal planning hacks that will make planning the meals for your family much easier, cost you less money, and encourage your children to eat well and live healthier lives. 

Get the Whole Family Involved in Meal Planning

As a parent, you are likely familiar with spending a lot of time and money planning meals for your family, only for your children to refuse to eat them come dinnertime. However, if your children are difficult when it comes to what food they will eat, you can find yourself wasting food and relenting by giving them a fast food alternative. 

Therefore, you should get the whole family involved in the meal planning process and ask them to contribute what they would like to eat each week. Your children are much more likely to eat the meal put in front of them if they have had some say in the planning or preparation of the food! 

Shop Around for the Best Deals

Food shopping for a whole family can soon add up and is one of the main expenses that families have to cover each week. However, by shopping around and looking for the best deals, you can make big discounts on food. From weekly promotions at your local grocery store to coupons and discount codes, you can save a considerable amount of money each week. Even saving only a few dollars on each food shop will soon add up over the months and years.  

Embrace Batch Cooking 

Cooking a balanced and healthy meal each evening for your whole family can sometimes be a challenge, especially if you aren’t all home from school and have extracurricular activities at the same time. If this sounds like your family, then it is time that you embraced the benefits of batch cooking. 

By purposely making more meals ahead of time that you can freeze and defrost at a later date, you can save yourself a considerable amount of time and money. You will be incredibly grateful to your former self for that healthy and pre-cooked meal that is already prepared, waiting to be easily served to your hungry children. 

Eat What’s in Season 

Throughout the year, different fruits and vegetables come in and out of season, and you will find that in-season produce is a lot more affordable and often available at a discounted price. Buying out of season food items can add a lot more to your grocery bill. 

Frequent the Frozen Aisle

Using frozen vegetables is a great healthy meal hack that not enough people take advantage of. Vegetables are frozen at the peak of their freshness, retaining all their nutrients, and they are ready to use when you want them. It only takes minutes to heat up some frozen broccoli or carrots, and they come prepared, saving you time on peeling and chopping. 

You should also make the most of other foods that can be found in the frozen aisle, such as frozen meat like ground beef that you can use for lasagna or chili. Frozen meats usually cost less and last a lot longer than fresh. 

By shopping around for the best deals and planning and preparing your meals in advance, you can transform the meals that you and your family eat, while drastically reducing how much your grocery bill costs each month.