Posted by Sharee Gibson
on February 20, 2025
You know that feeling when you finally sit down at the end of the day, only to realize you never actually sat down all day? Yeah, me too.
Motherhood is beautiful, messy, and a little bit (okay, a lot) hectic. But one thing that’s helped me feel more grounded? Systems.
Not the aspirational, color-coded, perfect-on-Pinterest kind. I’m talking about the real-life, sanity-saving routines that help me keep the overwhelm in check with a little more ease.
I’m pulling back the curtain and sharing the simple, game-changing systems that have made my life as a mom feel lighter. First up? Monthly meal planning. (Because if I have to figure out dinner at 4:30 PM one more time... 😅)
I started weekly meal planning over a year ago, and that was a huge help for reducing the decision fatigue and making my grocery shopping more efficient.
But doing that every Sunday still felt like a lot of work. Every. Single. Week.
So I decided to try monthly meal planning for January, and it has been a game changer. It honestly takes about the same amount of time to plan a month as it did for a week.
Poppy is all about making mom's lives easier (& more stylish) so I'm sharing my super simple template and process here for you to try it.
Here's how it works:
✅ Start a Google Sheet for dinner plans, or start with my template to make it even easier.
I like to have it in Google Sheets so I can access from my phone and so my husband can access it as well.
✅ Fill in your family's favorite meals.
When I first started meal planning, I really only had about 8 go-to meals that we loved. I started making a point a couple of years ago to try new things from Pinterest and NYT Cooking a couple of times per week. Some of them were 'meh', some were total flops, and lots of those have made it to our favorite meals list. Now we have almost 30!
✅ Fill in your family's key events for the month on the calendar tab of the spreadsheet.
I don't put all of our calendar details in here–just the things relevant to dinner. For example, an afternoon soccer practice so I know I want to have a slow cooker meal going that morning. Or a 'Date Night' so we make it an easy kid-favorite dinner.
✅ Spread out your favorite meals across the month depending on the needs of the day.
Mix in some new recipes to try, and don't be afraid of being a 'meal repeater'. I also schedule in days for eating out or eating leftovers, although my husband and I work from home so leftovers typically become lunches for us.
That's it! Now meal planning for the month is done, and you don't have to think about 'what's for dinner' for another month. It truly gets easier each month you do this because you can just copy most of the previous month and make some tweaks.
Want to try it for yourself? I’m sharing my monthly meal planning template—it’s simple but makes a big difference. Make a copy of this sheet, then start editing to make it your own.
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