Busy Mom Meal Planning & Prep Tips to Save Time & Money

Moms often have the hard job of planning and preparing meals, and everything that comes with the task. Fetch sees and appreciates the way moms keep the family-world turning, so let us help you plan and prep your mealtimes while showing you how to earn rewards and save money on groceries in the process.

Don’t have Fetch yet? No problem! Download our free grocery rewards app today to start earning.

Why meal planning matters for busy moms

We understand why meal planning matters for busy moms: every penny and minute adds up, and the tasks and to-dos never seem to subtract. 

Of the many benefits of meal prepping, these are some pretty compelling reasons for busy moms to meal plan:

• Stress Reduction: Mounting stress is a debilitating way to live and tends to compound health issues. Nobody should live with a heap of stress on their shoulders, so the less you have on your mental and physical to-do list the better.
• Time Savings: There seems to be more to do than hours in the day to do it, but meal planning cuts down significant time on shopping, cooking and clean-up. Time is too precious to waste.
• Penny Pinching: Whether you are on a strict food budget or just want to be careful what you spend so you can allocate funds to other family needs, meal planning to save money is smart. Fetch makes it super easy with personalized offers to help you earn rewards quickly, points for shopping in-store (don’t forget to snap a pic of that receipt!) or doing your online shopping using Fetch Shop, and free gift cards you can get with the points you earned to use towards future grocery hauls.
• Minimizing Food Waste: Cutting down on food waste is wholly positive, as it’s better for your bank account, the planet, and your weekly or monthly fridge purge. It also saves you from having to make multiple trips to the store when key ingredients expired before you got to use them.
• Catering to Health & Palette Needs: So many health conditions and personality traits determine the foods we prepare for our families, so meal planning is a no-brainer for ensuring you have everyone’s salt, protein, dairy-free, or texture concerns addressed in advance.
• Curbing “Decision Fatigue”: Honestly, some weeks it’s just the perpetual decision-making that ends up being our last straw. Curb the decision-fatigue with a thoughtful menu ahead of time, and thank yourself later.
• More Family Time: The common thread in our busy lives is rushing through our obligations so we can get to the good parts. Give yourself and your family the gift of more quality time and relaxation by meal planning ahead of time and prepping for easier meal times. 

6 quick meal planning tips for busy moms

There are plenty of quick meal planning tips and hacks for busy moms to take advantage of! Here are a few of our favorites:

1. Weekly Meal Theme: Meatless Mondays and Taco Tuesdays are pretty popular already, but why not push it further and designate a quick and easy staple for Friday, or even the weekends?
2. Family Favorites: Pin down a couple recipes that are a hit with the whole family and keep them in the rotation to cut down on decision-making.
3. Leftover Day: Whether you have a recipe that stretched far like chili or spaghetti, or a buffet of fridge scraps, designate a “leftover day” for the family to graze, and cut down on food waste.
4. Meal Planner Help: Digital or physical meal planners will help you get organized and plan ahead to avoid last-minute dinner panic. Snapping your receipts each week will help you steadily rack up reward points to use towards future meals and groceries.
5. AI Chat Tool: An interesting hack is asking an AI chat tool what quick and easy dinner you can make with the specific ingredients in your fridge. This is a great way to use up random food items you have no idea what to do with.
6. Dine-Out Day: Cash out your Fetch reward points for a gift card to your favorite restaurant. You can do carry-out and be on the sofa with a hot plate in no time at all!

More time-saving tips and strategies for busy mom meal prep 

If you’re a busy mom, meal prep will definitely pay off via time savings, so check out these tips and strategies to get started!

• “Mise en place” Mindset: This is a French culinary term that means gathering or putting “in place”, referring to your ingredients. Knocking out your chopping, peeling, and other ingredient prep-work in one go will save you a lot of time later in the week.
• Ingredient Shortcuts: Review your weekly meals and look for shortcuts, such as frozen vegetables, ready-made sauces, minute rice or rotisserie chicken. 
• Batch Cooking: Preparing large portions of your proteins, grains, roasted vegetables, and other staples will really cut down on time and food waste. Consider recipes that can “borrow” ingredients, so you aren’t making so many varieties of meats or vegetables.
• Plan Prep Time: Planning to plan is a conundrum, but setting aside dedicated time each week of when you are going to plan meals and do the ingredient prep-work will help create the regimen you need to run a tight mealtime ship.
• Document Instructions: Many of us grew up with the “don’t forget to defrost the chicken” misery, but it doesn’t have to be that dramatic for your family! Most meal prep recipes are quick a quick 20 minutes on 375 degrees, and don’t require 4-6 hours of thawing in the sink. Write a sticky note with quick directions your partner or a responsible child can follow. 

Easy weeknight meal ideas for busy families

Between Fetch offers, boosted brands to help you earn even more rewards, and the ability to collect points from every snapped receipt or Fetch Shop order, busy moms have numerous ways to save on their family meals. Check out these ideas for easy meal ideas that are quick, easy, and require minimal prep and cleanup:

• Sheet Pan Dinners: A personal favorite, these meals come together so quick. Simply season up your protein of choice and load up your sheet pan with your protein and veggies. Chicken, cubed sweet potatoes, and brussel sprouts or green beans, for example, is a hearty and delicious meal idea.
• One-Pot Pastas and Skillet Meals: There are so many ways to elevate one-dish meals, and it’s an easy way to stuff them with veggies or other nutrients. Stretch it out with other veggie sides or dinner rolls. 
• Pre-Prepped Food: There’s a price of convenience, and the cost is your sanity and sleep schedule. If your budget can swing it, paying the slight premium on pre-cut produce and ready-made salads and sides can be worth it. 
• Theme Night: Ease of planning isn’t the only benefit of dinner theme night! If your budget is thin, plan simple meals that coincide with a fun theme. Think “baseball night” with hot dogs and chips, or “baked potato bar” with a bag of potatoes and whatever toppings you have on hand.

Tools to help cut down meal planning & prep time

To help save time on meal planning, rely on prep tools. Many of these tools can be purchased online via Fetch Shop and earn you points, so busy moms can also get rewarded on purchases that make their meal prep easier. Here are a few suggestions:

• Meal Planning Apps: To help you organize meals, make grocery lists, and plan portions, rely on apps specifically built for the task.
• Kitchen Gadgets: Slow cookers, rice cookers, Instant Pots, food processors, and other kitchen tools will cut down on a lot of the time and labor meals required. 
• Storage Containers: For batch-cooked meals, leftovers, and meal prepping for the week, invest in storage containers.
• Freezing Staples: As you are preparing meals, or clearing out leftovers, freeze excess chopped vegetables, garlic, excess broth, or other ingredients that you could incorporate into future meals.

Start getting rewarded for grocery shopping with Fetch

At the end of the day, a fed family is what’s important. Since meal planning, grocery shopping, and meal preparation is a perpetual cycle, why not turn this obligation into an opportunity to earn rewards and maximize your savings? 

Fetch can help busy moms save money on meals and earn points to redeem for gift cards to popular stores and brands. Simply download Fetch (it’s free!), and get into the habit of browsing your offers and snapping receipts after your regular grocery trips to see how quickly you can get rewarded on the purchases you’re already making and ultimately save money.