How To Create A Great Meal Plan As A Student

It is a great idea to meal plan as a student and continue the skill throughout your life. Not only does it let you plan out what you are going to eat for the week but it also helps you save money, eat better and healthier and also saves you time.

To effectively meal plan for a week as a student you need to get a meal planner template, create a collection of recipes, look for specials at your local grocery store, fill out your meal planner template, making a shopping list, go shopping and then repeat each week!

How to meal plan as a student 

#1 Create a collection of good, trusted recipes

You can create a folder to keep on a kitchen cupboard with all of your recipes printed off or create a bookmarks folder online with all your favourite online recipes saved. These should be recipes that you love (hopefully healthy as well) that you don’t mind eating on repeat.

#2 Sort recipes by protein 

Within your physical folder or online bookmarks I suggest storing your recipes by protein. This is so it is easy to menu plan because your recipes will be more organised and it will help you avoid having consecutive days of the same protein type. 

#3 Look at specials at your grocery store and choose meals that have ingredients that are on sale 

Before planning your meals out for the week I highly recommend looking at specials to plan your meals around them. This will help you stay within your budget. 

#4 Fill out your meal planner template 

The next step is to decide if you want to plan all of the 3 main meals of the day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) or if you just want to plan just dinner. Once you have decided you can print out the template that you prefer from my meal planner printable pack. They are PDF documents so you can also use them as inserts in a digital planner as well! 

Here is a screenshot of the full breakfast, lunch and dinner planning sheet that I have filled out using GoodNotes on my iPad Pro. I really like digital planning like this because it gives me the flexibility to make easy changes by using the eraser tool and I also don’t waste any ink or paper which is better for the environment! Also I can access my shopping list from my phone when I go grocery shopping which is really handy! 

#5 Figure out what ingredients you already have

Now you should have a good idea what you want to eat for the week. You can then go into your pantry and fridge to see what ingredients you already have. Look at what ingredients are going to expire soon and try to incorporate them into your meals. Also take note of what you don’t have and need to buy.

#6 Make your grocery list 

Now you can make your grocery list. Look at the recipes you are going to use and write down everything you don’t have at your house. You can also add details like what shops have the product on special etc. I highly recommend using the printable grocery list from my meal planner printable pack to help you with this process. It’s really great because it divides your whole grocery list into sections such as fruit and veg, dairy, meat etc. to make your shopping experience faster! 

#6 Go shopping 

Remember to bring your shopping list! If you use my meal planner template, you can also use it digitally in a PDF editing app such as GoodNotes or notability which means you can use it on your phone! This makes your shopping list very accessible while shopping!

#7 Rotate your meals 

Once you have meals planned for a few weeks you will know what meals you love and which ones you can give a pass. Now all you need to do is rotate your meals and mix up your meal plan slightly every week! 

How to stay within your food budget as a student

#1 Only go to the grocery store once a week 

The easiest way to go over your food budget is to go to the grocery store multiple times a week. This is because you will be tempted by new specials and advertising throughout the store and thus buy food that you do not need. It is really important to plan what food products you exactly need for the week before you go shopping!

#2 Look at specials before you go shopping and plan your meals around that 

Another way to save money as a student is to look at specials before you go shopping and then plan your meals around what is on sale. 

You can find the specials by looking through advertising catalogues that are sent to you or online on the grocery store’s website. You can also consider shopping around for good deals. For example if there are multiple shops in your supermarket facility like a fruit and vegetable shop, a meat shop and a general store, I suggest going to the smaller stores first to look for good deals and then comparing the prices to the general store. If the smaller stores have better deals, go back to them on your way home after you have done your large shop in the main store. 

Another good point to this technique is that it will force you to be more creative and test out new recipes. You can search for recipes by the main ingredient of the meal online to get inspiration. For example on the taste.com.au website they collate recipes by ingredients such as chicken recipes or vegetarian recipes etc. 

#3 Buy what is in season 

My third tip to save money and stay within your food budget is to always buy what is in season. The fruit and vegetables that are in season are always cheaper because they will be locally grown. These fruit and begs will have no importing costs and they will be in abundance which makes them much cheaper!

Great tips for cooking as a student 

#1 Buy food on sale in bulk 

Next time you go to the grocery store, look out for specials and buy them in bulk. This is especially the case for non perishables such as pasta, flour, lentils, canned food and frozen food etc. Also look out for meats that are on special that you can buy and put into your freezer. If you do this make sure you have enough cupboard and freezer storage space! 

#2 Cook once, eat twice 

To cut down the amount of time you spend in the kitchen I suggest cooking double quantities of meals that you can store in the fridge and heat up the next day. 

You can also apply this meal prepping idea to smaller things like sides that you would have with your meal. For example you could prepare a large salad at the beginning of the week, store it in your fridge and serve it with your meals for a few days. Obviously this depends on the salad if it will keep fresh. Something like a chickpea salad would work well. 

You can also prepare food so it is ready to go to cook at night when you get home. This will make you more motivated to cook healthier meals as you won’t be tempted to order takeaway. An example of this technique would be cutting up all your vegetables in the morning so they are ready to be cooked in the evening. 

#3 Getting tired of your go-to meals? Swap in one new recipe each week into your meal plan!

It is really easy to rotate your favourite meals in and out each week and never try any new recipes. I suggest trying a new recipe each week into your meal plan so you can experiment with your cooking and ultimately avoid getting bored! 

Meal Planner and Shopping List Printable Pack In Depth

Includes one PDF with 3 pages

☆★☆★☆★USE THIS PRINTABLE TO:★☆★☆★☆

• Get organised before you hit the shops
• Avoid food wastage
• Eat healthier
• Stay on budget while shopping

☆★☆★☆★WHAT’S INCLUDED:★☆★☆★☆

3 pages

• Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Weekly Meal Plan
• Blank Weekly Meal Plan
• Grocery List

Purchase your own meal planner template here!

Before you go!

Are you interested in learning how to balance studying, work and your social life as a student?

Check out this article where I explain how to plan your ultimate day!