Fir those of you who do your big shop online, how do you plan your week?

[Mycatismadeofstringcheese]

This probably seems like a daft question, but if you do a weekly online shop how do you plan your week? Like do you meal plan for specific days. What day do you place your food order and what day do you receive it?

Really struggling to get our house in a workable routine.

I have a online delivery every Tuesday
I meal plan for each night - Monday is usually freezer surprise
I have the usuals - bread, milk, cereal, fruit and stuff for lunches and then dependent on dinner plans I get whatever I need
I top up if needed locally

Different every week and sometimes do two orders a week, generally I make sure there’s enough meals for the amount of nights and people. I’d not say it’s any big plan.

Meal plan on Saturday - meals usually friend on who needs to be where and when.
Delivery Sunday evening
Batch cook/prep ahead Monday

I have been having a delivery on a Monday. I meal plan for 5 or 6 meals only cause I know there will be some nights when we can’t be bothered to cook, and some where there will be leftovers, and so much goes to waste if I order 7 days worth of food.
I have been considering having 2 smaller deliveries per week instead though as I find a lot of the food (fruit and veg in particular) just isn’t very nice by the weekend.

We get our order on Saturday morning as then we can batch cook at some point over the weekend or do a roast with plenty of leftovers. Usually pick 2/3 other meals for during the week and then decide which days we will eat them, when we see what dates are on the fresh food.

I meal plan for the week and do one big online shop. It's delivered on a Saturday. I do plan for specific meals on specific nights if there's a reason such as dc having clubs we need to work around or one meal relies on left overs from another..

I have mine on Thursday.

I tend to start filling my cart just before my current order is delivered and finish it on the weekend for the next Thursday.

I do have to pop out to get more dairy, fruit and veg in the week. However I then use different supermarkets.

I tend to alternate whether I get meat or chicken weekly.

Oh and nearly all online supermarkets have cheaper deliveries between Tuesday to Thursday.

I live alone. Delivery usually on a Monday.
Plan for lunches and 4/5 dinners and eat in the order of best before date.

We have fortnightly deliveries and do a meal plan for two weeks, and usually order on Tuesday for delivery on Wed.

As it’s for two weeks, I often don’t order fruit/ veg for the second week of the meal plan as we get a fruit & veg box delivery that week. We check best before dates and freeze any meat that will be out of date before we use it.

We usually need to do a top-up shop at the weekend for milk, bread, yoghurts, and anything else we need.

The meal plan makes it much easier as I don’t have to think about what to cook during the week!

I book each week's delivery as the driver leaves the previous week's stuff, but just hold the booking with loads of cat food/litter.

I meal plan for a week on Friday night and clean the fridge Fri night too. delivery early Sat AM so there's nice fresh bread and salads for weekend lunches. I try to menu plan so that meals requiring the freshest stuff are at the start of the week, but I do a Tues/Weds top up anyway.

Delivery pass, so it's free on Tuesday, weds and Thurs for delivery.

Then, we plan meals with the fresh stuff to be eaten in the first couple of days and as we move through the week, we eat more from the pantry and freezer.

Single parent, three kids. We brainstorm the meal plan and put the order in on Tuesday, to be delivered Wednesday. Each child suggests two meals and I figure out what days they work best (quicker meals for busy days for eg) . We only plan for dinners, lunches are "whatever is in the cupboards/fridge" type affairs.
I reserve the slot in advance by putting placeholder champagne in the basket!

I have a meal plan blackboard in the kitchen so everyone knows what's coming up, also a list that tells me when I need to take things out of the freezer to defrost (very important, as meat tends to be delivered with only one or two days before end date so needs to be frozen) and a shopping list so people can write down when something gets used up.

Kids have one night a week at their dad's, eldest is occasionally elsewhere for dinner so plan accordingly for that.

Pop to shop across the road as we run out of bread, milk etc.

I plan 6 meals, I don't plan what day we'll eat them. We eat out have take away once a week. Weekend lunches aren't covered but weekday / school lunches are.

Shopping is delivered Sunday morning so in school times we have enough to get us through packed lunches for the week.

I’d meal plan to use the things with a shorter life or that can’t be frozen first. So things like salad and some veg. Root veg and things like chicken or fish can be frozen if needed in the middle of the week. Have a freezer tea / pizza at the end of a week. Maybe batch cook some stuff when the shop first arrives to use later in the week.

Mine comes Friday usually depending on my shifts.

I sit there with my meal planner and work out my shifts first. If I'm on lates then dh or ds cooks so I put something like pasta or a traybake on then. Then I plan around what I'm doing. If I'm on an early then its something simple as I'm usually knackered after work. If I'm on a rest day then I'll do something like a risotto or homemade takeaway.

Then I look at the app and go through the offers and add everything I need.

Usually I can book up to 3 weeks worth so I'll just check over the current week before the cutoff time.

Ours normally comes on a Thursday (midweek delivery pass). I place it the previous Sunday/Monday with £40 of placeholder items wine and cat food but amend it the night before delivery based on what we are actually low on by then.

There's enough dinners on the order for the week - I usually check the dates on the meat/fish when it arrives and freeze things or meal plan to use them in roughly date order through the week. I try to always have some frozen veg or batch cooked meals for the last day or two when the fresh stuff is running low.

Recently I've started having 2 smaller deliveries some weeks as most places have so many slots available.

I do a click and collect on Tuesday afternoon.

I do the meal plan for the week at some point over the previous weekend. I do plan for specific days, as some nights need a quick meal, sometimes it won't be all of us needing dinner etc. Monday night is always left free so I'll either make something using up whatever's left in the fridge, or do a freezer dive. I'd really recommend leaving at least one night unplanned - there's always something you can find to eat and it avoids waste.

I book my regular slot two or three weeks ahead of time - filling my basket with some standard basics. I check out to confirm the slot, but then I go back to my basket during the week and add more items. I have the app on my phone for my supermarket and not having to log in every time makes it really easy to add things as I go.

I check out the night before it’s due to arrive, which flags what has gone out of stock since I added it to my basket (and might not be available for picking) so I have the opportunity to change my mind on a meal if it’s a key ingredient.

I plan meals, but don’t plan the days until I’ve seen what the use by dates are on items when I’m putting them away, so that we eat it at its best. I get a delivery on a Friday or Saturday, so I’m more flexible about rejigging the order of planned meals towards the end of the week that are reliant on fresh ingredients.

I plan meals for the week, but not necessarily for set days as when it arrives I plan by the use by dates. For example, order arrived yesterday and the stir fry veg goes off today and is looking past its best, so having that tonight. Some stuff like milk and bread I keep as saved items as tend to get them every week.

I use the dates as a guide but hate a set meal plan on certain days with the exception of Christmas Day. I like to vary each weeks and keep a stick of basics in just in case of missing items or snow etc. More so since covid and the need to isolate at any point.

My delivery is a Wednesday. I reserve my slot and shop on a Tuesday night. I order “breakfast stuff” (usually bread, bacon, eggs, cereal, milk), “lunch stuff” (things such as soup or ham to put in a sandwich), and stuff for seven evening meals. The order in which we eat the evening meals depends on what we fancy and what dates are on the food items when they arrive (have to eat the shorter dates first).

I have a regular mid week delivery. I use a quiet hour on a weekend morning to look at the diary and plan based on who is around for which meal, guests, need for speed, if I’m not working and can put something in the slow cooker in the morning etc. I also check what I have in the freezer / cupboard. Then I add all the ingredients I need for planned meals (just evening ones) plus ‘stuff for lunch’ and breakfast food to my shop. I keep a running list of ‘things we’ve run out of’ in the kitchen for the whole family to use, and add it to the shop the night before it is delivered. Anyone complaining that we’ve run out of something is asked if they put it on the list…

I live alone now but did things mostly the same when dd lived at home

Usually order my delivery for Friday afternoons

I have a delivery pass so can book 4 weeks in advance which I do by filling the "basket" with the things I get every week (bread, milk etc)

Then the day before delivery I do an update. I keep a running "note" on my phone of when deliveries are booked for, I also note any regular items I was unable to order at this time so I can add them, I also make/keep a note as the week goes on of what I want to add (usually items that are rarely ordered like laundry detergent, or items I want to try/try again) and also items I want to remove (eg if I've not used as much of something as I usually do so have plenty in)

I'm not really a meal planner but I'm trying to lose weight so trying to be more sensible/healthy in my choices. But I tend to have similar meals each week (pasta, stir fries, soup, salad, some kinda roast type thing on a Sunday, baked potato based meals lately for the weight loss)

BUT once it's arrived I'll roughly plan based on dates on perishable produce so that I'm using the shorter dated stuff first, I also put away in the fridge accordingly so that the longer dated stuff at the back

Day before delivery kitchen gets a sort out inc getting rid of/using anything that's expired/close to expiry to clear the fridge and give it a wipe down (it needs a proper clean tbh must get on that!)

I also use "nest egg" app for keeping a running inventory it lets you input expiry dates and then you can check the "alerts" page to see what needs used when at a glance and I can plan for the week based on that - also v useful for making sure I don't let rarely used tins/packets get forgotten about until they're way past expiry!

I agree with @HoppingSkipping it's good to do the update the day/night before (but watch the cut off times and allow time for "glitches") as then the stock info tends to be more up to date and you can effectively choose your own "subs" which I prefer.

That said I use Tesco who let you select which items you're ok with having substituted and which not and you can also leave specific notes for the subbed items - eg for cans of soda I put "no caffeine sugar free pls" and when they've needed to sub they've selected according to my note. Reduces returns for them to deal with too.

I occasionally need a top up order from Asda if certain items aren't available at Tesco eg recently Tesco were struggling to get fruit stocks up so I got a top up from Asda.

When this happens in order to meet the min spend and have it not mean I'm spending loads more than I normally would I'll order things from Asda which are "nice for a change" alternatives to what I get from Tesco and the following Tesco order I remove the similar equivalents from the basket. Mainly Quorn products in my case. Neither stock the full range so if I'm ordering from Asda I'll order the items from that range that Tesco don't stock, gives me a bit of variety. Some cooking sauces, salad dressings, tinned meals etc vary too so it means I have a nice variety in to choose from.

I think the nest egg app might help you plan op, takes a while to input all your "stock" in the first instance and you have to regularly keep it up to date but that only takes a few mins each Eve, but then you have a handy inventory to refer to when planning/shopping

I have it delivered on a Friday
Teens give me their toiletries, stationery and snack/meal requests by Thursday 9pm
I usually add stuff over the course of the week when I see that things are running low
I meal plan on Thursday and add those ingredients then. I have until 11:46pm Thursday to finalise my order and I end up changing/updating dozens of times as I realise I've forgotten an item and need to add it iyswim

I get my order Thursday night so we have food for the weekend; I book it about a week in advance with all our normal basics then add or take away the night before. I do plan for what we eat each day (although it’s flexible) as I take into account that on a Sunday we can spend more time cooking and by Wednesday/Thursday I’m trying to do fairly easy dinners and plan it so we’re not having chicken 3 days in a row etc