Share your meal planning spreadsheets + tips

One of the fastest ways to save money is by strategically cutting back on food spending.

Most of us have no idea how much we really spend on food. However, it’s easy to gain awareness simply by tracking spending for a month or so.

With Tiller Money, you can use granular categories and tags to understand your food spending habits.

I use the categories “groceries,” “dining out,” “coffee,” and “drinks out.” Seeing my weekly spending trends encourages me to trim back (or even better, splurge on a fun dinner out).

After you know what you’re actually spending, meal planning is the next step for saving on food expenses.

Especially with families, meal planning is one “hack” that can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year.

In this post, we’ve gathered seven of our favorite free spreadsheet templates for grocery shopping and meal planning. Most were created by budgeting experts and nutrition experts.

If you have meal planning advice or a spreadsheet you like, please share it here. I look forward to learning what works for you!

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I highly recommend the app AnyList (available on iPhone, iPad, Android, and browser) for grocery shopping and meal planning. It does require a subscription for all the cool features ($9.99/yr for individual, $14.99/yr for family) but there’s a basic free version that you can test out before making the commitment. The best feature is the ability to import recipes from pretty much any website (assuming compatible formatting) that you can then put into a calendarized meal plan and add recipe items to the grocery list directly from the recipe page with a single tap. You can also put notes and price estimates and photos attached to the items on your grocery list. I love it. : )

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