Do you find meal planning helpful?

JennJ323

I think it's very helpful and like planning ahead!

I plan my weekday breakfasts & lunches usually a couple weeks at a time (same thing for each meal, then switch to something else for the following week). So I can look ahead 2 or 3 weeks and see what I'm having or what I need to add to my grocery list. I also prep everything the Sunday before the week starts so I can just grab & go in the morning.

For dinners I plan the entire month at one time. My husband's work schedule varies, so I don't have to cook full meals for us each night. When I get his schedule I sit down with a calendar and plan the month out. That also helps because if I see one week we are having particular high calories dinners all week I can adjust my breakfast/lunch plans to be lower cal for that week.

I've been doing things this way for almost a year and I don't think I'll be stopping anytime soon.

cwolfman13

smallstepslongstrides wrote: »

If you do, how far in advance do you plan for?

My wife and I sit down on the weekends and figure out what we're going to make during the week...this not only provides a plan for the week, but also allows us to just go shopping once and get everything we need. It's also efficient from a budget standpoint.

We don't plan it out in regards to Monday is X and Tuesday is Y...just a general plan of what we're going to make throughout the week.

Need2Exerc1se

I do not find it helpful.

kgirlhart

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

I do not find it helpful.

I don't find it helpful either. Maybe I would if I lived by myself. I do tend to eat the same things for lunches and basically the same meals throughout the week so when I do my grocery shopping I pick up the foods we usually eat. But I never really know what I am going to eat until I get ready to eat it.

Need2Exerc1se

kgirlhart wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

I do not find it helpful.

I don't find it helpful either. Maybe I would if I lived by myself. I do tend to eat the same things for lunches and basically the same meals throughout the week so when I do my grocery shopping I pick up the foods we usually eat. But I never really know what I am going to eat until I get ready to eat it.

It's just me and my husband but we don't eat the same things much. Well, there are few favorites we might eat twice in one month. But it's the same with us. I don't know what I'm going to be in the mood for until it's time to eat. It's 3:30 p.m. here and I have no idea what we'll be having for dinner.

shaumom

I would only do a week in advance, in part because if anything changed, and I couldn't make a meal, I would have leftovers to use up that should be in the next week's meal plan, you know?

I will look at sales ahead of time. I will look at what I have on hand that should be used up soon. And I will think about how much time I will have that week, when I am making a meal plan.

I found it helpful, budgetwise, because I tend to waste less food if I'm getting foods for a specific meal that I'm going to make, rather than just food in general, you know?

I found it helpful for the budget as well if, before I make the plan, I looked over the fliers for sales that week at my grocery store. Then I decided on meals based on what was on sale, so that was helpful as well.

I found it helpful in terms of time because I am often home later and my brain is so fried I wouldn't know what to make if I didn't have a little list of things I could do.

One thing I do is to pay attention to difficulty levels of meals vs. my time. So, like, I get home late three days a week. So I try to make sure i have three super easy and fast meals I plan a week (when I'm planning), so they are more likely to get made, and I can have food faster.

Also, if I really feel a time crunch, I may plan something like a huge meal that I eat multiple days, like some giant pot of soup, which helps me with time and not wasting food, both.

EatingAndKnitting

I just started meal planning and it has quickly become essential to me. I used to go to the store daily and buy breakfast, usually high calorie non-nutritious foods, along with whatever sounded good and cheap for dinner. We ate a lot of pasta, and I always ran out of food money by the middle of the month.

If I go to the store I buy junk. I have not yet figured out how to say no to myself. I'm working on it, but it's hard to break years of bad habits.

But, two weeks ago I sat down and planned all my meals for two weeks. I figured I the calories and logged them. I tried to do all my shopping then that Sunday, but ended up going to the stire a couple times during the week, and bought junk. But I'm doing better than I was.

So, for me, planning is helpful. I'm going to come up with like two months worth of dinners that I can rotate through and mix up so every week won't be the same thing, but I'll know all the calories and logging/shopping will be easy.

I won't meal prep though. I've got plenty of time to cook, and will not eat leftovers. I won't even eat food I've cooked and then frozen. I'm good at cutting down recipes for two people.

GottaBurnEmAll

I make a general plan of what we're going to have during the week, and this includes planned leftovers. I'm flexible about what days I make things, usually going by what the general consensus/agreement is given the choices from what I've planned (do you want x or y?).

walkinginplace

Thanks for all of your input everyone! It's interesting to see how many different ways people plan their eating.

kpkitten

Really helpful!
I plan 6 or of 7 days. If 2 of those are eating away from home for whatever reason I count it as being planned!
That way I can prep veggies twice a week, move frozen bits from the garage to kitchen freezer and remove from kitchen freezer in the morning on the day they're needed.
Makes shopping much easier, meal prep is quicker, and I can plan my lunches/breakfast around the evening meal and my intended activity.
Leaving a day out gives me room to change my plans a bit.