Have you ever considered how much you spend on groceries every month? On top of that, the hard work of meal prepping and cooking after a long day at work or school. Housing and food make up most of the household budget for most people.
If you want to create a healthy meal plan within a budget and stop eating out daily, going for subscription meals from online services is the best way to go forward. With careful planning and forward-thinking, it is easily possible to eat healthy, diet-specific meals within a limited budget.
What Is Meal Planning?
Meal planning is the strategic process of choosing different meals you want to eat in the coming days. Then, you decide on the meals from before and order the same from an online meal subscription service. With careful selection and planning strategies, you can save significant money and time and waste less food.
Sit down every week or at the start of every month to think about what kind of meals you want to try in the coming days.
6 Things You Must Keep In Mind For Meal Planning On Budget
Calculate Your Budget:
If you are still determining your current food budget, it is high time you start tracking it. First, pick which category – groceries and restaurants – takes up most of your food budget. This will be the starting point of creating a healthy meal plan.
The numbers will set a cap limit or help you determine how much you want to cut down and save. For example, if you spend $900 monthly on food, you can use it as the max spending limit or even dial down.
Set A Monthly Or Weekly Budget:
Once you get the idea of the budget, break it down into weekly portions to make meal planning easier. Set a weekly target and decide whether you want to stick to the current budget or cut it down to make some savings.
Either way, your goal is to stay within the determined monthly amount. For example, you can set a $100 weekly with a monthly budget of $500. If your original amount were $900, you would save $400 monthly with the new budget.
Determine Which Meals You Need To Order From Meal Subscription Services
Do you want all three meals – breakfast, lunch, and dinner – from meal delivery services? Or do you need just lunch or dinner for your meal plan?
This would significantly influence your weekly and monthly budget as the number of meals would mean your cost would also increase a little. However, if you do not like to cook or have less time to cook at home, it is best to subscribe to all three meals from a reputed delivery service.
This is an excellent way to maintain a proper diet and eat healthy meals three times a day.
Look For A Reputed Meal Subscription Service:
A meal subscription service sends pre-cooked, fresh, healthy meals to your doorstep in portion-controlled packages. You can choose weekly or monthly meal plans from low-calorie, keto-friendly menus.
It is an easy and convenient way to eat timely, healthy meals without going into the hassle of buying groceries, prepping, and cooking meals after long hours at the office or school.
Include a Meatless Dish For Everyday From The Subscription Service
As we know, meat dishes cost more than vegetarian or vegan meals. So, include at least one vegan or vegetarian dish daily in your meal plan. This would help you to control your weekly expense and control protein intake as well.
Try to go for meal recipes, including peanut butter, beans, dried peas, lentils, and tofu, as they are excellent protein sources. Here are a few meatless recipes that you can choose in your weekly meal plan:
- Vegan Beef Ragu with Vegetables & Spinach Pasta
- Spinach Ricotta Ravioli In Pumpkin Sauce
- Thai Yellow Curry with Tofu & Brown Rice
- Mexican Superfood Bowl
- Vegan Pesto Pasta With Vegetables & Sundried Tomatoes
- Vegetable Lasagne With Vegan Bolognese & Cashew Sauce
Opt For Meals With Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables
Produce that is in season is cheaper than ingredients out of season. They are also fresh and contain several health benefits. For example, seasonal produce is rich in antioxidants like folate, Vitamin C, and carotenes that rapidly decrease with an increase in storage time.
Meal recipes using seasonal produce will be cheaper and much more flavourful than recipes using preserved ingredients.
Final Takeaway
Regardless of your reasons, healthy meal plans will help you control your spending and help you save a significant amount of money. While it will take a few months to get used to this routine, but in the long run subscribing to pre-cooked meals will help you eat healthily and save time and money in the long run.