Planning Out Meals

abbeyjones1994
abbeyjones1994 Posts: 188 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I will be heading off for my sophomore year of college next week (!) and will be living in a studio apartment, so I'll only have myself to rely on when it comes to preparing meals, and no meal plan means I'll be grocery shopping by myself as well. I know that planning meals ahead of time will save me time and hopefully prevent me from buying foods at the grocery store that I don't need. So for anyone here who does plan there meals ahead, I have a few questions:

1. Are your meals planned for a specific amount of time? (Weekly, biweekly, etc.)
2. What method do you use to plan your meals? Do you use paper and pencil or are there apps/websites/etc. that you can use?
3. How much do you usually spend per meal planning "session" at the grocery store?

Thanks, guys!

Replies

  • pleasurelittletreasure
    pleasurelittletreasure Posts: 236 Member
    In a studio, your meal-planning is also going to be based on how much space you have in your refrigerator/freezer and cabinets. I have a very small freezer, so planning out purchases of frozen goods can only be done on a weekly basis. I go through my food logs from the previous weeks if I want to remember items to put on the shopping list and peruse the flyers to get inspiration/deals for new meals. I'm not limited by money so much as space and that might be something you will face? Planning ahead is so key in either case.
  • happyapathy
    happyapathy Posts: 44
    1. I get paid every 2 weeks, so that's how long I plan for. Sometimes I'll try to plan for a few days beyond that, because I don't always go shopping on the same day.

    2. I have the writing program Scrivener and I used it to make a recipe book (for the recipes I like and use all the time) with a new page for each month's meal plans. But I wouldn't suggest you spend the $50 on this program unless you have other uses for it.

    3. My budget is $100 every shopping period. The first shopping trip would probably cost more though, to stock up on basics.
  • marieamethyst
    marieamethyst Posts: 869 Member
    I plan out weekly, since the on-post grocery store is less than a mile from our house. I take a piece of printer paper, turn it horizontal, and write out the days of the week across the top, then draw lines down and across to form three boxes for each day. I think plan out breakfast, lunch, and dinner for each day. On the bottom half of the paper I write out the grocery list for what I need to make the meals that I don't already have, usually by what section of the store the item is in so I can just grab and go instead of bouncing around between aisles. After that I go through my coupons and search online for deals for what I'm buying (I usually save over $7-10 a trip, $20 is the highest so far). We usually spend around $100 for our family of three (they eat... a lot). :flowerforyou:
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    I don't plan. I'm too flighty. My best friend does. Sits down once a week, clips her coupons, plans the meals for the week, shops, cooks.

    It's impressive.

    Don't shop when hungry!!!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I use primarily fresh, whole ingredients so no more than about 5 days...7 days max for most things. I basically sit down with my wife and we figure out what we're going to eat throughout the week...makes shopping on Friday that much easier for her.

    Ultimately, we go through a lot of the same staples week to week, but it took some planning in the beginning to figure out what those really were....we used to be day to day shoppers and it killed us from a budget standpoint, waste standpoint, and nutritionally we were pretty out of whack as well.
  • meghan_lovely
    meghan_lovely Posts: 48 Member
    I need to plan out my meals weekly for two reasons:

    1) so much less stressful to come home and know what to make for dinner and that I have all ingredients purchased
    2) weight control (obviously)

    I have a small freezer and not much room to freeze a lot of meals or meat. This is why I plan every Sunday. I also buy a good amount of produce and want it to be fresh.

    Similar to other posts I write out my meals and then make a list on the other side. I use Pinterest as a place to keep recipes.. I have a board of recipes that I make often and those I want to try. I also look at my previous food diaries to get ideas.

    Good luck!!

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