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The best way to meal plan
  • Organization

How to Save 3.5 Hours A Week (by Meal Planning)

Katie WellsAug 18, 2016Updated: Jul 30, 2019
Reading Time: 6 min

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Wellness Mama » Blog » Organization » How to Save 3.5 Hours A Week (by Meal Planning)
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • The One System That Changed My Life
  • A Better Way to Meal Plan?
  • A Look Inside+−
    • Meal Plan From Your Phone
    • More Reasons I Love (and Use) Real Plans Each Week
    • Meal Plans Each Week Include

Short answer? Meal Planning (here’s how).

Here’s the long answer and the way I save 3.5 hours a week with 5-minutes of meal planning…

I’ve always been a systems person who likes to find the fastest way to accomplish something. I’m also a (recovering) perfectionist.

Unfortunately, this led to some sleepless nights in high school and college as I stayed up all night studying or making sure a report was perfect, but over time, I’ve learned to harness my perfectionism and love of systems to actually save time rather than take time.

Some people call it mildly obsessive compulsive, I call it good time management.

The One System That Changed My Life

Whatever you call it, there is one particular system that has literally changed my life as a mom and that is meal planning. It is something I started doing almost a decade ago when I was pregnant with my first child and have done it (mostly regularly) ever since. In fact, of all the systems and planning, planning out meals for the week has saved me the most time (even more so than speed reading).

I started meal planning out of sheer necessity when we had an incredibly limited budget and I had to be sure that no food went to waste. I’ve continued doing it over the years both to save money and to save time.

At first, I made and used a basic index-card system which worked well, but took about half an hour each week to organize and plan, plus the 2+ hours of shopping each week.

It evolved into a spreadsheet and exported PDF documents that I could view on my phone which worked a little better.

Eventually, I developed a whole online system that would store my recipes, generate meal plans and allow me to customize based on family size. I began sharing this with a few readers several years ago and Wellness Mama Meals was born.

I’ve tracked the time I spent planning, preparing and shopping for meals on weeks that I didn’t meal plan ahead and weeks that I did… the difference? 3.5 hours a week on average. (I also saved about $45 a week shopping when I planned vs. when I didn’t).

Unfortunately, while Wellness Mama Meals was perfect for me, it had its limitations for you. For instance, I could add recipes since I had backend access to the system, but users could not add their own. I had a list of requests from users for improvements, such as the ability to exclude recipes with ingredients they were allergic to and better mobile usability or an app. These things were well beyond my technical ability or what I could afford to hire someone to create.

A Better Way to Meal Plan?

After attending a health conference last year, I ended up sitting next to someone at a restaurant and the topic of meal planning came up. It turns out that he was the husband of a blogger I love and have become friends with (Emily from Holistic Squid), and I realized that he shared my enthusiasm for real food and for systems.

In fact, this guy (Antony Bartlett) was a systems ninja. And he had created a meal planner. And it was better than mine. A LOT BETTER.

At first, I had an internal conflict. On the one hand, I loved my recipes and the meal planning system I’d spent years developing, but on the other hand, I knew I could never create as good of a system as he had.

Eventually, I had a long conversation with Antony and Emily and made the decision to merge Wellness Mama Meals into Real Plans. I expected that it would be easier for users and that current users would love it (they do), but I was surprised to find out how much more I loved it too! In fact, even with creating many of my own recipes each week (because food blogger…) it is still saving me hours of time!

Real Plans is so easy to use and customize that I can literally meal plan in about 5 minutes a week. It creates a meal plan automatically, which I can customize as much as I’d like and then I can view the plan, recipes and shopping list on my phone.

Seriously, I’ve been meal planning for almost a decade, and Real Plans is saving me even more time, especially at the grocery store and farmers market. Since there are also options for batch cooking or a prepare ahead day, it is even easier to save time!

Another bonus? With Wellness Mama on Real Plans, you get all 500+ of my recipes, plus over 1,000 additional recipes with new recipes being added each week!

Click Here to Test out Real Plans!

A Look Inside

Real Plans automatically generates a meal plan for you each week. You can choose in the settings to have them email it to you or just login and check it… This also works on their free mobile app so you can plan, shop and cook from your phone! Oh yeah, and if you’re going on vacation but plan to cook while there, it’s super easy to plan all your meals for the trip!

Real Plans Menu

Don’t like something on the menu? No worries, you can customize with a drag and drop feature in about three seconds:

Customize real plans

Have allergies or foods your family won’t eat? Just add them on the settings page and you’ll never see recipes with those ingredients again! You can also customize how many people you are cooking for.

Real Plans Food Preferences

You can even customize what days you want to generate meals for, what type of meals, and even if you want a big cooking day so you can batch-prepare meals ahead of time.

Which days in real plans

If you have family favorite recipes, you can add those and make them part of your meal plan.

Add recipe in real plans

And after you finish that incredibly long process (which might take a whole 5 minutes if you change everything 😉 ) Real Plans generates a custom shopping list that you can view on your phone via their mobile app while you shop. You can even check off items you already know you have so you only buy exactly what you need.

shopping list

It’s so easy!

On top of that, you can modify each recipe, define what store you want to purchase each ingredient at, and even add a photo of the specific ingredient (in case you send your husband to the store to pick up ingredients and he doesn’t know which brand to get).

I can honestly say that few things have truly changed my life. Among them are homemade deodorant, magnesium, my organic mattress and Real Plans. Of those, Real Plans is the least-expensive and most valuable (as little as $7/month!)

Click Here to Test out Real Plans!

Meal Plan From Your Phone

Another advantage to Real Plans is the ability to plan and shop entirely with your phone. You can view the meal plan, recipes or shopping list from your phone and check off the list as you shop:

Real Plans Mobile Recipe Box Real Plans mobile shopping list

More Reasons I Love (and Use) Real Plans Each Week

  • The easiest way to plan healthy meals for my family
  • Mobile app for easy use, especially when shopping
  • I easily save more per week than Real Plans costs per month!
  • It takes under five minutes to plan our meals for the entire week
  • Reduces my grocery shopping time and budget by simplifying the process
  • Makes it effortless to stick to meal planning
  • My children love using it and my 9-year-old can plan meals for our whole week by himself

Meal Plans Each Week Include

  • A pre-made meal plan based on your food preferences
  • Ability to completely change and customize the meal plan each week
  • Easy to add your own recipes or recipes from your favorite website(s)
  • All of my recipes (500+), plus over 1,000 new recipes and more added each week
  • Simple way to sort by ingredient, remove recipes with allergens and modify any recipe
  • So much more!

As you can probably tell, I’m super excited about Real Plans and I think you’ll love it too!

Do you meal plan? If not, what is stopping you?

Category: Organization

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About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a wife and mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

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Reader Interactions

Discussion (87 Comments)

  1. Stephanie

    June 17, 2015 at 12:44 PM

    Hi Katie,

    I am interested in your meal plan system. Are the recipes listed on your website the same ones on the meal planner, or do you have additional ones as well ? Thank you

    Reply
    • Katie - Wellness Mama

      June 17, 2015 at 1:30 PM

      All the ones on the site are included, and there are over 1000 additional ones as well, and more getting added weekly!

      Reply
  2. Michelle Chizmadia

    June 16, 2015 at 10:53 AM

    Is there any way to get nutrition information for the recipes? I’m looking for help for a diabetic diet

    Reply
  3. Lindsay

    June 15, 2015 at 9:21 PM

    This looks amazing. I’ll probably sign up for the Yearly membership. I’m sure the answer to my question will be yes, but… could this be applied to someone who is eating primal/ low carb(ish)?

    Reply
    • Katie - Wellness Mama

      June 15, 2015 at 9:22 PM

      Yes indeed!

      Reply
  4. Tanya Skinner

    June 15, 2015 at 2:16 PM

    This is huge! I’m dreading grocery planning but know we NEED to eat better for our health and our kids and my daycare. I just signed up for a quarter to see how it goes… Btw…I’ve been sharing my goodies (lotion…healing slave…lip balm…hair growth recipe…etc) and my friends/family are loving it…hoping this gets your website out there for more people to search and read the site themselves to find recipes they are interested in and realizing the importance in taking care of our health!!! THANK YOU!!!!

    Reply
    • erin

      August 8, 2016 at 6:35 AM

      Hi Tanya,i know this is quite random considering this particular discussion but as i was reading through the comments wondering whether to sign up i came across your comment and seen that you had a recipe for hair growth and was hoping you might share it with me as i lost my hair due to treatment when i became quite ill, warm regards Erin

      Reply
  5. Christa

    June 15, 2015 at 1:52 PM

    HI, Can you cancel at anytime, or only after one year? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Wellness Mama

      June 15, 2015 at 2:58 PM

      You can cancel any time, If you are not certain if this system will work for your family, you might consider trying it out for a month to see…

      Reply
      • Jasey

        June 16, 2015 at 7:57 PM

        Is there a way on the meal planner (like if you input your location or climate zone) that the weekly meal plans adjust to your local seasons? Thanks! 😀

        Thanks! I appreciate you getting back to me – I also work from home and stay at home mommy (and homeschool); I know how busy it can get! 🙂

        Reply
        • Katie - Wellness Mama

          June 17, 2015 at 2:22 PM

          Hi Jasey, yes! Everything is customized based on your location or climate zone.

          Reply
          • Jasey

            June 17, 2015 at 4:34 PM

            Awesome 🙂 thanks, I’ll head over and signup. Your an amazing women from sharing all your hard earned knowledge with everyone! Stumbling upon you site has made my life sooo much easier and I can’t wait to try out your meal plans!!

  6. Angie K.

    June 15, 2015 at 11:43 AM

    Are the recipes realistic for a full-time working mom to get done in the evenings after getting home from work/school/activities?

    Reply
    • Katie - Wellness Mama

      June 15, 2015 at 2:53 PM

      Yes indeed. The system is designed for busy moms on the go.

      Reply
  7. Beth

    June 14, 2015 at 8:44 PM

    I totally want to sign up, but then get worried that there won’t be enough meals that my son and I can eat (the only meat we eat is fish)! Should I be hesitant or is there enough to still make it worth it?

    Reply
    • Wellness Mama

      June 15, 2015 at 6:57 PM

      There are over 1000 recipes and more getting added every week…

      Reply
  8. Angie K

    June 14, 2015 at 5:01 PM

    I am very interested! You say the recipes are all grain free, does that mean gluten free as well? Would you be able to use your recipes to make freezer meals to later cook in the crock pot? I’ve got two picky eaters and a meat and potatoes husband, do you think your recipes would work for our family? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Katie - Wellness Mama

      June 14, 2015 at 8:21 PM

      Yes, all are gluten free as well and I do make freezer meals and crock pot meals pretty often (there are recipes for those). You can tailor everything to your family’s dietary needs.

      Reply
      • Angie K.

        June 15, 2015 at 9:37 AM

        One other important question before I sign up, are these recipes realistic for a “full-time working outside the home” mom to make in the evening after getting everyone home from work/school/activities?

        Reply
        • Wellness Mama

          June 15, 2015 at 7:20 PM

          I feel like it is pretty easy. There are a lot of stir frys, crock pot meals, and one-pan dishes that minimize the mess and clean up and also pretty easy to prep. While I work from home, it gets pretty busy around here with 7 of us, and these are the meals I make for my family.

          Reply
  9. Jo

    June 14, 2015 at 4:11 AM

    Hi Katie

    I’m in the UK. Would your meal planning be tailored for here? Obvs different seasonal vegetables etc.

    Thanks jo

    Reply
    • Katie - Wellness Mama

      June 14, 2015 at 9:24 AM

      Yes indeed! When you signup, it asks you what geographic location you’re in so that everything is geared specifically to your needs!

      Reply
  10. kelley burt

    June 13, 2015 at 1:39 PM

    Hi! My family and I are transitioning to a low /no sulfur diet and no nigbtshades as well as other restrictions. Can the meal plan be tailored to out specific needs? Thank you ?

    Reply
    • Katie - Wellness Mama

      June 13, 2015 at 9:21 PM

      Yes! You can set everything based upon your family’s allergy needs, preferred cuisine, and much more!

      Reply
      • Danielle Rothman

        November 12, 2015 at 7:55 AM

        butter coffee? Where do you get that? Sounds good.

        Reply
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