Still, it needs to contain all the most important information.
Menus, for people in families or on budgets, fall into the category of important information. Menus help people eat healthy food, have a variety of choices, make a grocery list, save money, and reduce waste.
It's hard to think of an argument against having a menu plan every week. And, unless you are a "on the fridge" type of person, your menu plan is probably in your planner.
Your beautifully designed menu plan? Your carefully Pinterest-searched printout?
It's probably taking up TOO MUCH SPACE.
Don't feel bad. I was doing the same thing. I've wasted half a planner page on menus. Prior to that, I was using a whole page every week and carrying several weeks worth of menus. If you searched "Menu Planner" on-line, you will discover many full or half page forms.
It's time to downsize.
Instead of wasting so much valuable planner space, I am now using a temporary list as a menu planner, on a small post-it right behind my hard, plastic dashboard. If I want to keep old ones for ideas, I can have an entire page of post-its in my Notes section of my planner.
My entire menu plan measures 2" x 1.5" and is microscopically thin. It's placement is to the left of my ongoing shopping list (which is located to the right of the planner spread, but not pictured, above). The plan is nestled among other temporary but very active lists, like my timesheet for work (on another post-it), my Gift list, and my "Owed (To or From)" list.
Planner space is too valuable to waste on a somewhat repetitive list of seven items.
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3 comments:
This topic has me heartily, and respectfully, disagreeing with you. I have a section of my planner devoted to menu planning & recipes because I love to cook, and it is my creative outlet. Having that section when I am out and about leads to inspiration. I have a laminated menu template. I write the recipes on page flag post-its as I plan for the following week. It is the one section I will not remove from my planner.
I bet a lot of people agree with you! :) I hope they take the time to read your comment. It's really thoughtful and well-reasoned, so I suspect it would help them decide what would work best for their own planners.
Most of the time, I plan my meals for the week on a scrap sheet of paper (or a sticky) and write down the main dish on my weekly pages. I used to have a divider for food and a system of sticky notes for planning meals but gave it up when I started going very simple in my planner ( I think that might be your fault, LOL) !
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