Planning your meals ahead of time often  saves you time as well  as money.

There are many different ways to plan your  meals. How you plan  yours depends on how much time you want to spend now to save yourself time later.

I plan my meals once a week. Because I have limited refrigerator/freezer space and a small family to feed (3), this plan seems to work best for me. I only go to the grocery store  once a week. When I'm getting ready to go to the store, I sit  down and starting planning my menu for the next week.

One  day I was looking at the ready-made templates that came  with  my word processing program, and I noticed there was a weekly menu  planner and grocery shopping list. I printed out enough weekly  menu planners to last a month or two.

The weekly  meal planner has columns for every day of the week  with "Breakfast," "Lunch," and "Dinner" listed for each day. Every weekend you write in your meals for the week, and then make up a shopping list to take to the grocery store. The menu planner  has a place at the bottom to write in your shopping list, or you  could make up a separate list.
Download a free menu planner  template from http://www.creativehomemaking.com/download.shtml.
Just print, and photocopy as needed.

The best way to organize your menu planners is in a three-ring binder. Customize your binder to suit the needs of your family.
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Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the owner of http://www.organized-mom.com, featuring the Easy Organizer, loaded with tools to help you plan, schedule, remember events, keep in touch, get your family on an organized schedule, prioritize, and more.

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