Busy moms will most likely agree that the last thing they want to hear after a long day of working, school or taking care of kids and a home is, “What’s for dinner?” That single phrase can cause many a mom to throw up her hands and sigh or pull out the credit card for a quick trip to a drive-through. The good news for families everywhere is that all it takes is a little bit of simple planning and knowing how to plan meals and mealtimes will soon become a happy event.

Meal planning is easy once you organize your materials and determine a course of action. Try to designate a certain day of the week as your meal planning day. Gather your materials including a notebook and pen,cookbooks, grocery list, scissors and coupon inserts. While you are planning your meals, you can save even more time by making your shopping list and cutting out relevant coupons all at the same time.

Decide in advance what types of meals you are going to want to make for your family. If you work away from home, make a list of easy recipes you can make in short order such as tacos, spaghetti, and casseroles. Include any meals you want to make for holidays and birthdays or other special occasions. After you decide what you’re going to make, add any ingredients you need to your grocery list. After you do that, cut out any coupons you come across that you could redeem at the grocery store.

Keep breakfast and lunch as simple as possible when you are just starting out creating a meal plan. Think of a few breakfast and lunch suggestions that you could use over and over during the weeks and add them to your list of meals. You don’t generally need to have a different meal for breakfast every day of the week. That goes for lunch too.

Make your meal calendar by using blank calendar pages, a computerized spreadsheet or even old-fashioned notebook paper. Just make a box for every day of the week (or two weeks if you are planning a two week meal plan). Start by putting an “X” through the days where you know you’ll be eating out and won’t need to cook. Then take your list of meals and plug them into open blocks on your meal calendar. For instance, if you want to have tacos, you might want to put that entry into a weeknight space. Plan to cook bigger items like a turkey or a pot roast on a weekend when you might have more time. Also, incorporate leftovers into your calendar. You may want to intentionally make more than you need so you won’t have to cook as often. So if you have spaghetti on Monday night, plan to have leftovers on Wednesday.

After you create your meal calendar, take your grocery list and coupons to the grocery store and buy your ingredients. Pick up a few extra items such as frozen pizzas, canned soup or boxes of macaroni and cheese to have on hand just in case. You never know when life might throw you a curve and your good intentions for a meal plan might not pan out on a certain day. It’s always good to have a backup!

After you get home with your groceries, save even more time by preparing anything you can in advance. For example, if you are chopping vegetables for a casserole, chop a few extra to throw into soups or a salad. Cook up a few extra chicken breasts to slice and use on a salad or sandwich.