Any help please - finding planning meals & food shopping really hard due to ADD

[Poppysball]

Posted in housekeeping too as wasn’t sure where the best place was. I have ADD and so I find organising and planning difficult. I have tried to meal plan and do a once a week online shop but it never lasts. My brain can’t seem to think ahead further than today when it comes to planning a week’s worth of meals. Recently I have been going to the supermarket every day and, as its school hols, I have been taking one or more dc with me which is even worse as I am focussing on them and not what I’m buying and then come home with half the stuff missing! The other day I went and got all the stuff for a chicken meal but forgot the chicken!

It’s not helped by the fact they are fussy and don’t all like the same food. I am trying to look after myself better and eat healthier and really don’t want to eat all the stuff they do. Sometimes I end up cooking us all different things or I end up having pizza/pasta again because it’s easier but I don’t want to eat this stuff.

Aswell as the dread of going to the supermarket every day, I am spending too much as of course I am buying other things I didn’t plan for.

Because I find it difficult, I hate doing a big food shop and find just being in the shop overwhelming, but equally I am sick of going there every day especially with dc’s in tow!!

Please can anyone help? I know this must seem like such a basic, simple task to most people, but it isn’t for me and I’d appreciate any ideas to make it simpler.

[BertieBotts]

You're not alone. Sorry this section is a bit quiet, which might be why your post has been missed. You could try reposting in Food?

Do you do online shopping? I would highly recommend that. It means that you can spend as long as you need to refining what you want. If you get a Tescos delivery pass you can even have unlimited deliveries.

I'm having a bit of a medication fuzz at the moment, I do have more ideas for you, but I can't articulate them so I will come back. But online shopping is my first tip for you.

[DonPablo]

Write a master list of all the meals you like or cook, laminate it.

I make an a4 sheet with the days on and the the right spaces for the info I want it to contain. So we have lots of afterschool and weekend stuff going on as well as various work commitments. So I draw it up like a table. Leave it empty and photocopy it a few times.

Then, using your laminated master list, complete the schedule and meal plan. Make a list of what you need to make those meals and order them online.

So, for example, mine says

Weds. Kendo ds1, dh out. Early tea. Pizzas and salad.

Thurs. Parents evening, dsis baby sitting. Make a cottage pie in two halves. Half one to be cooked by dsis and we'll cook the other half when we get in.

Fri. Curry. family Smith coming. Buy red wine!

Hope that helps.

[WeirdPookah]

I have a week to view diary for meal planning. I will write in special days ahead and plan out everything ahead of time. We have similar things on the same day each week. But the dairy is so helpful.

[GruffalosGirl]

Hi. I have ADHD and find this really hard. The amount of times I have bought stuff that goes off before I manage to cook it, or had to buy twice as I forgot to defrost stuff or left cooked chicken in the oven and had to bin it as I forgot it for days. Right now the following helps:

Weekly ASDA online delivery at the same time every week. I have set up a shopping list in the account. I have everything I ever buy in the list so I can look through it and not forget anything I may need. I add anything I ever but to that list. You can book a regular slot.

Asda do loads of cook from scratch frozen ingredients. I have frozen chicken pieces and mince in alll the time and frozen casserole veg, frozen mash and soup base. This means I can make stew, chilli, cottage pie, soup (With frozen butternut squash pieces) and spag Bol all from stuff in the freezer really quickly as it is chopped and cook from frozen. I also have frozen jacket potatoes in and buy a stir fry mix and sauce and micro rice packets. I know it all costs a bit more but the extra cost is less than I was throwing away and it stops me from constantly feeling like a failure so it is worth it for me. I also always have tins of beans and soup in and fish fingers so no matter what we won't starve.

I have also come up with a four weekly menu all typed on the computer to use and laminate as lots of people suggest. Obviously I haven't actually managed to print it off or use it since I did it in September though baby steps I guess