Do you find meal planning helpful?

One day or less. I need to plan the day early in the day or it turns into a day of me eating too much. My diary at the moment doesn't show a dinner plan yet, but I do have a dinner plan based upon what I find in the refrigerator when I get home. Longer term, I make sure to have plenty of supplies for my pizza and my non-pizza dinners with a modicum of variety.

Yes, very helpful as I need to meal plan in order to make up my grocery list. I shop once a week so I plan for seven days.

We eat pretty much the same things for breakfast/lunch everyday so that's easy and dinners vary. This week was/will be: Pot Roast, Chili, Hamburgers, Beef & Broccoli, Ribeye, Pork Chops. Saturdays I don't cook.

I find the whole idea of meal prep sort of unappealing (I'm not big on leftovers) but I do usually plan my dinners one day in advance. If I'm having something like salad that involves a lot of ingredients I'll chop up some of the non-wilting vegetables that morning or the night before because I know if I get home after a day of intermittent fasting I'll be too hungry to cut up a bunch of vegetables and will just eat bread or something quick.

I make stuff ahead, but I'm not big into it. I have stuff in the freezer I could pair with a veggie and make a quick meal. I make soup or stew and just eat it until it's gone or it's gone bad, whichever happens first.

I do plan meals ahead of time when I visit other people or travel now. I stopped eating meat and I don't expect people to make meals around my dietary choices, so I make sure I bring something that could be a side if other people like it or a just main for myself. And it's a good thing, last time I went to someones house for dinner they lovingly prepared a nice vegetable soup and I was one bite in when they told me they used chicken stock from dinner the night before...it would have been potatoes for dinner if I hadn't brought something. Some people just try to serve me fish, like that isn't meat I guess? Either way, I plan ahead if I'm going to be out.

I plan 3-4 days in advance, because that's how long a lot of veg and meat will stay fresh (as I want it) for me in the fridge. I do have some freezer and pantry staples that I work with, but fresh stuff is a good 75% of my diet. Sometimes I will really write it all down and shop properly, but I have a pretty good range of easy meals I like so it's fairly easy to pick up this and that to supplement what's at home. I don't "meal prep" as I hate reheating most meat stuff. Stews and soups are an exception, I'll happily eat those leftovers.

I've always done meal planning as a way to keep from getting bored eating the same things over & over, and a way to control grocery spending. Even when I was at my heaviest and baked/cooked 5 full-on desserts per week along with the actual meals, I relied on meal planning to avoid situations where I would have a chicken breast, can of beans, and a big bag of potatoes on hand and wind up just ordering takeout.

Now, it's the same principle but healthier fare. My husband is an amazing cook and makes most of our lunches & dinners from scratch (he also works from home). But I am the one who usually comes up with the majority of meal ideas. Or I'll suggest a meal and he'll make it healthier and meatless (which we prefer). If we just went to the grocery store without a list and a solid plan for our meals, we would probably rely more on frozen and prepared foods than we do currently. We also make a point of sticking as many fresh and in-season veggies in our list as we can. Two heads are better than one for that stuff, and we typically plan this in about 10-15 minutes over a leisurely brunch at home on Sunday.

As for how we do it...we come up with 5 breakfasts (VERY frequently repeated btw, we don't mind repetition as much for that meal), 5 lunches, and 5 dinners. We don't assign them to specific days so it allows some leeway for various activities or choices. If we need another dinner we may go out or we may piece something together or have leftovers. It works very well.

Most of the time I always try to meal plan. Usually Saturday or Sunday my boyfriend and I sit down and decide on 3 or 4 meals we'd like to have for dinner that week and plan around those. Fridays are always pizza and video game night, and then the other nights we'll fill in leftovers. We plan everything so that we only have to run to the store on Sunday, unless we end up using a full container of mushrooms when we originally planned to use half, etc.
Meal planning, list making, and grocery shopping are actually fun to me, so much that sometimes I'll scroll through pintrest to get meal ideas for the next week as well.

On Sunday I plan my dinners for the week. Each day I pre-log what I plan to eat for each meal the next day.

The combination has been incredibly helpful for me.

I find it very helpful...especially for my wallet. I plan a menu on Friday based around the weekly specials at my local stores. On Saturday, I go to the grocery store. Sunday I cook all of hubby's breakfasts for the week. Then the week is planned out and it's leftovers for hubby's lunches. If Cookout and Chickfila call, the menu just gets bumped down a day.