Meal Planning for Two: 5 Tips to Make Couples Meal Prep Easier

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If you’re a couple on a budget trying to save money, one of the best ways to lower your monthly grocery costs is by making meal prep a part of your weekly routine. But when it comes to meal planning for two people, the process requires some extra thought and effort to run more smoothly. So, we’ll cover 5 tips to follow to make meal prep easier as a couple so that you can save the most time, energy, and money each week.

Jump To:

• Choose batch cooking-friendly recipes
• Give a buffet-style meal planning a try
• Reuse ingredients in multiple recipes
• Split up the tasks during prep sessions
• Save room for meals outside of meal prep
• Sample 3-day meal plan for couples
• Meal prep for two FAQ

When it comes to meal prep for couples, the process is pretty much similar to meal prep for one person — but with an extra person to plan and cook for, of course. By keeping these five tips in mind, you’ll not only save more time, money, and effort each week, but also enjoy meal prep more as a regular part of your life.

1. Choose batch cooking-friendly recipes

When you’re meal prepping for one person, it makes sense to focus on recipes that make less portions so that you can avoid any food waste throughout the week. But when you’re meal prepping for multiple people, you’ll get more use out of recipes that you can easily cook in bigger batches and split up into separate portions.

Now, there are way more than a handful of recipes that work well for batch cooking. When you’re batch cooking for meal prep, though, it’s important to find recipes that not only store well in the fridge, but also taste great by the end of the week. A few of my favorite batch cooking-friendly meal prep recipes include:

• soups, like classic chicken noodle soup or creamy tortellini soup
• curries, like Thai green curry or spicy Indian curry
• chilis, like hearty turkey chili or white bean chili
• stews, like sweet and savory Moroccan stew or classic beef stew
• casseroles, like cheesy chicken and rice casserole or breakfast tater tot casserole

All of the recipes listed above can be made in larger batches, which means that you can save time in the kitchen when you’re cooking. And don’t forget to consider other batch-friendly recipes, like shredded meats and sauces, if you want to save more time during your weekly prep.

2. Give buffet-style meal planning a try

When it comes to drafting up a weekly meal plan, there are three main types of meal planning that people commonly use: portioned prep, buffet-style prep, and ingredient prep. And each of these different methods of meal prep has its own pros and cons, depending on whether you’re doing solo, couple, or family meal prep.

When you’re meal prepping with a partner, it’s common for you and your partner to have different food preferences. Perhaps one of you has food allergies or specific dietary restrictions — or maybe the two of you just have different tastes and like to eat different foods.

Either way, this is where a method of meal prepping like buffet-style prep can come in handy. By choosing to follow a buffet-style meal plan each week and prepping various mix-and-match recipes, you can much more easily cater to everyone’s individual needs without having to prep entirely different meals. Not to mention, buffet-style meal prep is a great way to bring variety to your weekly menu.

3. Reuse ingredients in multiple recipes

One of my top meal prep tips for beginners to save money on grocery costs is to use the same ingredients in multiple recipes throughout the week. So, this means choosing the same grain, protein, or vegetable, for example, and using it in different types of recipes in your meal plan for that week.

For example, if your meal plan includes cheesy chicken and broccoli rice casserole, another recipe that uses chicken, broccoli, and rice might be chicken and broccoli stir-fry with rice. By building a menu that uses repeat ingredients like this, you can save yourself the effort of having to buy, prep, and cook a ton of different ingredients. Plus, if one of those ingredients is on sale, you can buy it in bulk and save even more money on your groceries that week.

4. Split up the tasks during prep sessions

One of the best parts about meal prep for couples is that you can share the work during your meal prep sessions — which is something you’re not able to do when you have to prep everything yourself. And while there are so many different ways to do this depending on your own personal preferences, here are a few possible ways you can split up those weekly tasks:

• one person cuts and preps ingredients for the recipes, while the other person does the majority of the cooking
• one person sets out all of the meal prep containers, while the other person portions the food into each container
• one person washes the dishes after the cooking is done, while the other person helps dry and put the dishes away

In my household, my experience with cooking means that the cooking portion of the prep generally goes to me — while the dishes, portioning, and storage usually goes to my partner. By splitting up our tasks in this way, we can quickly and easily meal prep in just a few short hours each week without wasting more time or energy than is necessary.

5. Save room for meals outside of meal prep

Finally, this last tip is something I’ve said before and will say again: always give yourself wiggle room when you meal prep. Making meal prep a regular part of your routine is a great way to save time and money each week, and the benefits often make it worth it for so many couples. But, it’s also important to make space in your weekly schedule for planned and spontaneous dining experiences with your partner.

If you and your partner meal prep every Wednesday and Sunday night, for example, this “wiggle room” might look like grabbing food to-go on those evenings as a way to save your energy. Or if you know that you both have a social event like a birthday dinner to attend on the weekend, you might plan to make less food earlier in the week so that your prep doesn’t go to waste.

Sample 3-day meal plan for couples

Even if you haven’t had a chance to meal prep with your partner yet, it’s never too late to give it a try — and this sample 3-day meal plan can help! It features a 3-day meal plan, a full shopping list, and 3 delicious recipes (with 6 servings each) that will help make meal planning for two a breeze.

And if you’re looking for more meal planning resources, this sample plan is one of the three plans included in The Healthful Human’s 3-day meal plan starter pack, which is free to download and use for your next weekly prep. You can also find more affordable meal plan options here.

Meal prep for two FAQ

If you and your partner are interested in incorporating meal prep into your weekly routine, hopefully these beginner-friendly tips will help your sessions run a little more smoothly. However, here are just a few more things to keep in mind before you dive into your next (or first) prep session together.

Is meal prepping really cheaper?

With food costs constantly rising, you’re probably wondering if meal prep is still a good way to save money each month — and the answer is yes! By planning and prepping your meals ahead of time, you’ll not only save on grocery costs, but also reduce food waste and save your valuable time and energy for more important things.

What is a realistic food budget for 2 adults?

A realistic food budget for two adults depends on a variety of factors — including how much each person eats, how much groceries cost, and so much more. But if you’re looking for rough estimates on what a realistic meal prep budget might look like, check out our full beginner-friendly guide on how much meal prep costs.

How do I meal prep on a budget for 2 people?

While meal prepping regularly can help reduce food costs, there are always a few extra steps you and your partner can take to lower your grocery bill even more. As mentioned above, buying in bulk and reusing ingredients can help bring grocery costs down, as can making your own meal plans and taking advantage of your freezer space for bulk prep.

How many times a week should you meal prep?

Most people meal prep one to two times a week, depending on their availability — and if you live and prep with a partner, this availability can be drastically different if you have two different schedules. However, whether you meal prep once or twice a week, all that really matters is that you prep often enough to meet your own weekly needs.