Weekly Meal Planning

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kcpond
kcpond Posts: 651 Member
in Recipes
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to plan meals ahead of time. I am trying to both save money and eat better, more homemade stuff, but I need to have the stuff on hand so planning ahead is important. Is there any kind of template, software, website that works well?

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  • Aplant77
    Aplant77 Posts: 112 Member
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    I just use plain old paper. I shop once a week so before I go I map out the week with what we have going on and figure out what meals I will cook. Then I list out the items I don't have handy and off I go. I suppose there are ways to make it more technical but the hard part is still going to be deciding what to cook and what items are going to be needed so I just keep it simple.
  • Love_2_Hike
    Love_2_Hike Posts: 103 Member
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    Same as above. I print of recipes from www.taste.com.au. Then have a look at what we already have in the house, and write down what we don't, I find if I over complicate things its a fail.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    kcpond wrote: »
    Does anyone have any suggestions on how to plan meals ahead of time. I am trying to both save money and eat better, more homemade stuff, but I need to have the stuff on hand so planning ahead is important. Is there any kind of template, software, website that works well?


    I only plan dinners because breakfast, lunch and snacks are generally the same stuff I write a list of 28 meals on paper and divide that into groups of 7. I often have themes for the different days so I just have to find 4 things that fit each themed day.
    Each week I add to my grocery list on a white board in the kitchen as we run out of things and things I will need for the next week's plan. I shop once a week. Some things we buy every week so I know to add it to the list.
  • HotMermaid729
    HotMermaid729 Posts: 806 Member
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    Take a look at Tosca Reno's "cooler" plans. Effective for daily and weekly planning.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
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    I find all the meal planners tend to go a bit more adventurous with the ideas than is practical for everyday and they're always heavy on rice. I've ended up with a google sheet that I put a couple of days worth of meals onto, and then use my iPhone's reminders app with a list for shopping. I can access both really easily from my phone or computer to edit as needed. e.g. here's a cap from the sheet as viewed from my phone - I have a 'cupboard' tab that lists what I usually have on hand and I highlight red what I'm out of. The 'cheat sheet' tab is just a couple notes on ingredient quantities I always forget for some basic things.jn6k9hq44q63.jpeg

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