Today we meet South African mom blogger Nadia Gabriel, who blogs at Plan My Meals. She shares with us how her blogging journey has evolved from “The Non Adventures of a Stay at Home Mom” to social media, to copy writing and now a meal planning business.
How content creation has changed
The blogging landscape has changed so much in the last 5 years that it is almost unrecognisable. The quality of content being generated is so professional and creative that it is sometimes jaw-dropping. But it has to be, because we are inundated with so much of content that it really does take a lot to make us stop long enough to Like, Comment or Save.
How I started blogging
I started blogging in 2016. I was up late one night because my 2 year old refused to go to bed and I had so many feelings that were bubbling inside me and needed to get out. So I hopped onto WordPress, created an account and wrote my first blog post. It was love at first ‘publish’.
Social media and community
Writing became my therapy and as time passed, I created an Instagram and Facebook page and that opened a whole new world for me. I found my people. Other mums who were also open about not having Pinterest homes or kids that wore matching clothing. When I think back to the content I posted back then it really makes me cringe. But it also makes me laugh because it really is a learning journey. It was a really wonderful time to be a blogger. Brands were very open to working on both trade exchanges and paid campaigns. We got loads of ‘free’ stuff and I got to flex creative muscles that I didn’t even know I had. It was fun!
Until it wasn’t.
Taking a break
But by the end of 2022 I had social media fatigue. Scrolling had become an addiction and I was annoying myself with how much time I was spending online. So I stopped. I took a year off social media and it was the best thing that I could have done.
Writing again
In that year I took the time to work out what I wanted to do. Writing was my first passion. So I ran with that idea and started a freelance copywriting business. Brand Narrative was created and now I write blog posts and create newsletters for small businesses with a focus on technical businesses such as accounting companies. But I missed creating fun content.
Fun with food
In May of 2024, I hopped back onto Instagram with a following of 5500. I went in with zero expectations and with the intention of only sharing food content because that’s what I loved doing. It was around the same time that I realised we were spending a ridiculous amount of money on groceries! The price of food was through the roof! So I decided to work on our budget by meal planning and I shared that journey online. I cut our budget by R6,000 in one month! I shared my grocery hauls and meal plans for the week and the response was insane! My page grew by 5000 followers in under 2 months! I was blown away!
But more than that, it let me know that there was a market for people who wanted to eat good, home-cooked meals without blowing the budget. The blogging world has blown up and there is so much competition for brand work these days so I knew that being a full time content creator wasn’t going to work long-term. I needed to leverage my audience in a different way. So I mentioned on Stories that if anyone was interested in the meal plans then they should DM me their email address. I received over 400 DMs!!! The interest was there. And that’s how Plan My Meals was born.
Meal planning and budgeting
What initially started as a meal planning service has evolved into a ‘Cook Once, Eat Twice’ 7-Day Dinner Plan subscription.
I have combined budgeting and time-saving to come up with a dinner planning subscription that will not only cut your budget down but also only have you cooking full meals 3 times a week! Because let’s be honest, thinking of what to cook is almost as exhausting as cooking the meals.
Keeping the price point low was important to me because the whole reason this started was because of a shared need to save money.
The subscription is only R59 a week. Every Friday I send out an email with the link to that week’s plan. You get:
- 7-day Dinner Plan
- Cook Once, Eat Twice Recipe Book for the week
- Grocery list with prices and the stores that have the items on special
The business is doing really well with most of the feedback being around how much it helps to know what to cook each week. I mean, we have enough going on in our day-to-day lives. Having to now think of what to cook every single day seems like the last straw. R59 is less than the cost of two coffees for a week yet it will save you literal hours!
Your power
So if you’re starting out as a content creator or maybe you were a blogger and have become disheartened, don’t forget that you have your audience. These are people who follow you for a reason. They resonate with something you do and you can use that to grow your own business. It may not make you millions (it would be awesome if it did!) but it will bring in some extra income each month and that’s always a good thing.
Feel free to get in touch if you want to chat. You can find me on Instagram most easily or pop me an email.
Nadia Gabriel aka The Cheeky Optimist and Meal Planner.
Related posts:
Meal Planner and Grocery Lists
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