We’ve all been there. You come home from work and stand in front of the refrigerator wondering what in the world you will have for dinner. Planning out meals in advance can save you headaches, time and money and make your meals healthier.

Many people may resist creating meal plans because they think it would take too much time or can’t imagine that they’ll want what they planned out days earlier. But there are many ways to make your meal plan simple and flexible. Follow these steps and you can make easy and economical meal plan in minutes.

Look at your calendar
When putting together your meal plan, it is important to know what your week looks like. Which days do you get home late, which means making dinner is a chore? Pinpoint those days and start from there: Your busiest days should be reserved for the easiest meals. Recipes.com, FoodNetwork.com and RecipeZarr.com offer easy recipes for days such as these.

Save the more elaborate meals for weekends or days when you know you won’t be too tired to put some effort into the kitchen. Doing so allows you the necessary time to prepare, fillet, cook and then serve.

Work with what you’ve got
When deciding what you eat, take note of what you have on hand. Take stock of what’s in your pantry, fridge and freezer. You may discover that you have all or most of the ingredients you need for a specific meal. If so, put that meal in your plan.

Keeping a well stocked pantry and fridge will make meal planning easier. Many recipes are based on the same ingredients, so keeping certain items such as pasta, beans, and spices in stock will mean less work when planning and shopping for meals. (Read: Stock the Pantry for Easy Home Cooking)

Make a plan
Once you know what your week looks like and what you have to work with, plan meals that fit your schedule and supplies and write them down into a meal plan listing what you will eat each day. Put your plan in a convenient location, like your fridge or the door to the pantry.

Go online
Several online resources, such as MealsMatter.org and Nutrition.gov, allow you to create printable meal plans, and help you pinpoint which ingredients you’ll need,. Those sites also have tips on healthy eating, and even an interactive Food Pyramid to see where your diet falls on the recommended nutrition scale. There’s even a recommended shopping list at Health.gov for those staples you might need.

Planning Tips
If life keeps you busy, you might want to pencil in a Crockpot day. Crockpots can be a meal lifesaver, letting you prepare meals such as chilies, soups or roasts in the morning and cooking them while you are away. Set it to low and forget it for the rest of the day, and when you walk in the door that afternoon, the mouth-watering aroma will be there to greet you.

Another tip for easy cooking: Make twice as much as you’ll need, eat half, and then freeze the rest. You can then schedule a leftover day and eat an already prepared meal. Or, if you change your mind about what to make the day of, you can pull something already prepared from the freezer and have a meal in the time it takes to defrost and reheat. You can even make extras of side dishes — such as rice — to save for future recipes that call for those items.

Make a grocery list
Once you have a have your meal plan, create a shopping list including the ingredients you need to execute each meal. This will ensure that halfway through making that casserole you won’t realize you don’t have a key ingredient. (Read: Saving Money: Your Groceries and Food Budget)

Once you have your meal plan ready and all the necessary ingredients on hand, you are all set to make healthy meals that fit into your schedule and your budget.