Monthly Menu Planning | How to Meal Plan 1x a Month

Try monthly menu planning to plan once and eat for a whole month! Follow these 5 simple steps to create monthly food plans so you can eat well all month long.

Menu planning is so important! Learn how to meal plan once a month. Cover image shows a bowl with blackberries and nuts nearby. There is a notepad and pen near the fruit and nuts. Text overlay reads, "Meal Planning Once Per Month."

I’m a huge advocate for menu planning.

Just take a look at 30 Minute Dinners. It contains all of the menu plans I’ve ever made (250+!), comes with step-by-step cooking instructions, shopping lists, meal prep, and everything can be customized to fit smaller/bigger families as well as your own family-favorite recipes!

I know that not everyone likes family menu planning as much as I do.

I mean, they like the benefits… like saving money, saving time, and saving your sanity every day at 4 pm.

But not everyone likes the actual PROCESS of meal planning.

It still has to get done, though, especially if you’re trying to save money on healthy food … but what if you could meal plan less often and still save money? Wouldn’t that be nice?!

Turns out, you can do that with monthly menu planning!

I made a meal plan once a month for YEARS and was able to get the process down to a science, as well as get our grocery budget down to a lean $300 for four people! (That includes organic food, by the way!)

I’ve taken the exact method I used for monthly meal planning and broken it down into five steps, so you can get all the benefits of planning weekly menus, without all the stress and fuss of menu planning every week!

One plate has a sandwich wrap cut in slices, another plate has celery and carrots and apples, the other bowl has tuna with bread nearby and a sauce. Cherries are near all the plates.

HOW TO START PLANNING MEALS FOR A MONTH

STEP 1. CHECK THE CALENDAR.

Look at the family calendar and see what’s going on.

Before you do ANYTHING ELSE – before looking up recipes, before making grocery shopping lists, before you even look at a sales flyer – look at your family calendar.

The idea here is that you only have so much time to make dinner each night. And on some nights, you have less time.

If you have doctor appointments or baseball games or cheer practice or church potlucks or neighborhood cookouts or if some company is coming over… all of these things affect your meal plan.

It’s really important you take this into consideration before you write any meals down.

STEP 2. WRITE DOWN REPEAT MEALS.

Write down the meals you always have on the same day.

Maybe you have pizza every Friday or tacos every Tuesday or pot roast on Sundays.

Maybe you go out on Wednesday nights when kids eat free. Or maybe your parents host family dinner Saturday nights.

Whatever meals you have on a regular basis, write those down first. This can be any meal of the day, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, AND dessert.

STEP 3. CHECK THE PANTRY, FRIDGE, AND FREEZER.

Brainstorm a few meals based on what you already have.

Look at your fridge, freezer, and pantry to see if you can turn certain items into meals. You can save A LOT of money if you eat what you already have, so don’t skip this step.

These meal ideas don’t have to be fancy… soup, salad, sandwiches, and such are wholesome meals when you use healthy ingredients. Your goal is to feed your family, not win Master Chef.

STEP 4. CHECK THE SALES FLYERS.

Brainstorm a few meals based on weekly sales flyers.

Once you’ve used up what you already have, see what’s on sale and how you can use it that month. This can be anything from chicken breast, to broccoli, to brown rice.

The goal here is to focus on what’s on sale this week and use it for the rest of the month. Buying items at their rock bottom sale prices is a great way to stretch your grocery budget!

STEP 5. FINISH YOUR MONTHLY FOOD PLANS.

Review your monthly food plans and update where necessary.

At this point, you should have most of the days filled in, but if you still have a few blanks, fill those in with family favorites, family requests, meals you’ve been wanting to try, ideas you saved to your Pinterest board, or recipes your favorite blogger has recently shared.

You’ll also want to make sure you have enough variety and that you’re meeting your personal and nutritional goals. Consider things like:

Did you end up with the same meat for 5 nights in a row?
Or pasta for a whole week?
Did you plan enough meals using beans?
Do you need more salads? Or more soup?

Here’s your chance to move some things around the weekly meal plans so that you actually enjoy the meals you picked. Feel free to swap the protein, change the grain, or substitute the produce for something similar in order to feel like you’re eating something different, without reinventing the wheel every night.

Once you have everything figured out, congratulations! You have 30 days of meals planned for your family!

MONTHLY MENU PLANNING IDEAS AND TIPS

Use more perishable vegetables like mushrooms, lettuce, and squash sooner in your menu planning ideas, and hearty produce like onions, potatoes, or carrots later in the month.
Or plan a fill-in shopping trip midway through the month. Just because you’re planning meals for a month doesn’t mean you have to only shop once! You could create your grocery list ahead of time, too.
Use each “specialty” ingredient AT LEAST twice. For example, if you need feta cheese for Greek Pasta Salad in week 1, come up with another meal that uses feta cheese later in the month. (Greek Couscous and Kale Salad with Blueberries, Walnuts & Feta are yummy choices!) This lets you buy in bulk AND reduce food waste – both proven strategies for saving money on food!
Pick a freezer-friendly meal to double early in the month for a quick meal later on! Eat one right away and freeze one for the end of the month. Easy Baked Ziti, Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas, or Tamale Pie are easy one-pan options for this.
Re-evaluate your monthly meal schedule halfway through. Double-check the plan against the family calendar, make sure that what you planned at the beginning of the month still works, and make sure you still have everything you need. Re-arrange the meal plan as needed – remember it’s not set in stone. Make it work FOR you!
Pause the monthly meal plan to eat leftovers. There is NO SHAME in skipping a meal you planned in order to eat leftovers. You can either move that meal to the end of the month or shift the meal plan forward by one day. In either case, eating leftovers is another proven strategy for saving money on food, so do it!

HEALTHY EATING MENU PLANNING FAQS

Can I do healthy eating menu planning for a month at a time?

Absolutely! Monthly menu planning works with whatever food priorities you have. You just need to be intentional about using or freezing fresh ingredients before they spoil, and making sure you have time to prep ingredients. If you’ve followed Crumbs for any length of time, you know this is my specialty!

How do I create a menu plan that is kid-friendly?

As you’re filling in your monthly food plans, think about the meal category that your kids like and request all the time. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel! Use your regular repeat meals and family favorites as you’re planning meals for a month.