What do you do if you don't meal plan?

[SingularityCat]

For some reason I always thought when people talked about "meal planning" they meant partially pre-preparing meals during the weekend for the week ahead, not just planning in advance what you're going to eat that week and shopping accordingly.

I don't understand how you can do any differently than this? So those of you who don't meal plan, what do you do? Do you just go to the shops really regularly? Or buy staples and then make stuff using that? I'm intrigued!

Before we started meal planning we got a veg box and always had staples in. I’d top up shop more often for things we fancied but didn’t have the ingredients for.

Staples. Range of veggies. Then yellow sticker or reduced meat on the weekly shop. No planning at all!

staples and range of meat and just decide what to eat on the day

I do a shop and have a rough idea of what we usually eat / favourite meals and also batch cook now and again so I have curries and stuff in the freezer.
I usually have chicken breasts and salmon and frozen vegetables in the freezer.
So no real plan.
But I defrost chicken in the morning and then an idea comes during the day 😏

We meal plan. Based on sitting opposite a colleague who didn't and whose husband rang every day to ask what's for tea, I think some people use more freezer food. Colleague used to get cross about being asked and ask him why he didn't just look in the freezer.

Based on DSIL and DBIL some families just buy pretty much the same stuff every week and cycle through a similar menu each week. Their kids ate separately and always seemed to have pretty much the same tea when we were around.

Plenty of vegetables and basics. I often cook double and freeze half for another day. We just decide each morning what we fancy or one of us will come back from the shops with something.

Weekly meal plan, only buy what I need. Reduces the thinking time as I go along and the need for tip up shops!

Me too. Sometimes don’t know until I start cooking. But I keep basics in stock and can rustle something up most days.
I shop once a week with one top up for milk and bread.

We have a range of staples to make various meals, and generally top up with fresh veg when required between big shops. We are in a rut, though. I keep meaning to plan properly to get some more variety into our lives, but somehow fail to do it...

My mum doesn’t meal plan, she literally wanders around the shops and buys things she needs or wants, often completely unrelated to each other. Then gets home and bitches that she has nothing to make for tea despite spending £100 in Tesco. She’s always been like this and we’ve told her countless times to meal plan. I think she just enjoys food roulette/moaning!

we meal plan though, decide what meals we’re having then shop accordingly. Way less stressful/cheaper

Have tried meal planning and it absolutely does not work for me. I simply can't get my brain to do it. So I get a range of food we like, with meat and veg for the freezer, and make up meals out of that each day. Loads of food waste, sadly, but I am trying.

My parents take it in turns to nip to the shop after work every night. They stopped weekly meal planning when we left home and pick just up what they fancy that day.

They often invited to friends or decide to eat out so don't want a fridge full of food.

I have a cupboard full of tins/jars, a fridge full of veg, cheese ham etc and a freezer full of meat and easy cook from frozen stuff. Then on the day I either defrost something or cook from the cupboard/cook from frozen depending how busy I am that day.

I rarely have fresh meat because when I do buy it I end up struggling to use it before it goes off. Because I might have a busy day and only have time to cook pesto pasta!

I go to the shop.
I buy food (mostly raw ingredients, but occasionally a quiche, a tub of pesto or something for the freezer)
When I'm hungry, I cook something - taking into consideration what I have in, what (if anything) needs using up, and how long I have to make it / how tired I am.

Ds currently having a very young adult/ teenage patch and is sometimes in and sometimes not. I'm finding it quite wearing. I just cook something if I feel like it and point him towards the freezer if I don't. I pick up bits at the supermarket next to the bus stop.

We have some store cupboard meals e.g. pasta with tomato and tuna, risotto. I go to the supermarket once a week and the market (veg, fish) on another day and get whatever looks good or is on special offer. So I don't plan the whole week but normally have an idea for the next 2 or 3 days.

Sometimes don’t know until I start cooking

Sometimes I don't know till after I start cooking! Chop up an onion, soften it, add a can of tomatoes - then decide what it's going to be turned into!

I've never made a meal plan, tend to go shopping for a week's worth and pick up what's on offer/what I fancy within budget.
I make sure I have enough 'meals' and might know what I'll eat but not know when.
Also tend to eat things depending on the order they go out of date/go off rather than a plan.
it's probably because me and dd like different things and eat at different times often late and after long shifts so it's usually easier to go for freezer food rather than getting creative in the kitchen.

How do you mean you can't do it - do you struggle with other planning tasks too?

I used to not budget but it wasn't that I couldn't it was that I didn't want to!

I hate meal planning. We just buy loads of food and then make meals out of that. And if there’s nothing we fancy then we go to the shop and get something else.

We don't meal plan, and like many of the pp's we just have a standard weekly shop. In it we add anything that's running low such as tins, etc., and then fresh fruit and veg - same items each week. It's a flexible method that enables us to do the range of things we like, and no fruit or veg ever goes to waste.

Keep staples in.
Buy yellow ticket/special offers.
Cook whatever hits its date first.

I usually decide what to have tomorrow, so I can defrost and check what's in. So while I'm cooking tonight, I'll decide what to cook tomorrow according to what I can find in the cupboards fridge and freezer.
Anything missing will go in the online shopping basket so next time I'll have it.

We never meal plan.

Get an organic veg box delivered each week and grow my own veg as well. So meals will depend on those ingredients.

Also get a supermarket delivery every couple of weeks which includes basics like sausages and chicken thighs and a few ready-made things like quiche. Use freezer a lot and pulses.

Usually decide what to make for supper on the day, maybe 2 days in advance if something is getting near its use by date. Do a couple of regular top-up shops as needed during the week.

Might get a take away occasionally although less often now due to rising prices.

Same here.

I go to Costco and buy all my meat and fish there and put it in the freezer. My cupboards are packed with different types of pasta, rice, couscous, tinned tomatoes and every herb and spice under the sun. There's always veg/ salad in the fridge too.

I usually take some meat out of the freezer in the morning and will decide what to make later on. I have a Ninja Foodi which is a godsend as you can use frozen meat in it.

If all else fails there's always nuggets ( naice Costco ones, not grey sludge ones) and chips in the freezer.

I have no cook Fridays and and will have pizza, shop bought curry etc

I try and do meat free Mondays and have plenty of beans and some vegemince in the freezer to make something.

Supermarket every two to three days and decide on the day, they are very close by so that’s not a problem. I don’t have a car and prefer fresh food, so this seems to make sense for now. It also forces me to exercise by carrying the shopping and having a walk - it all serves several purposes.