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!

I buy a selection of meat, fish and vegetables etc. My shop is based on what is on offer and what stock needs replenishing.

It’s then up to my husband to do a “Ready Steady Cook” from the ingredients on hand.

I meal plan (mainly in colder months) but I also shop for ingredient's rather then meals.

I do a rough plan weekly I.E.

Sunday - Roast
Monday - Leftovers
Tuesday - Mince
Wednesday - Pasta
Thursday - Sausages / Chicken Thigh
Friday - I don't cook so fish fingers & chips or Burgers
Saturday - Fakeaway.

We then decide what we want to make with the main ingredient.

I understand in theory how people do it but I couldn't do it.

I shop once a week and make mental notes when walking round the supermarket...like 'ooo chicken is on offer, we can have fajitas on Saturday' 😂

....not sure an example was needed but, it's done now.

I personally think it's less wasteful that I don't meal plan ... for example we had roast beef on Sunday .. it was a smallish joint so I couldn't plan a second meal assuming leftovers. However in the end we didn't eat much of it so there was enough left for another meal ... then I found a reduced cauliflower in the supermarket so I could make a meal around that .. so in effect two cheap and 'unplanned' meals IYSWIM.

It’s like Ready Steady Cook in our house every night.

Open the fridge, pull out random ingredients, make a meal.

I absolutely hate meal planning. It's like taking a test you haven't studied for. I sit there blankly, get annoyed and do something else.
Sometimes I can do a few days in advance but I much prefer suddenly thinking "it feels like a steak pie kind of day" and buying any items I might need for that.

When I worked and couldn't shop as frequently it was so boring as I could never muster up more than a handful of ideas so we ate the same things most weeks.

I don't meal plan, I don't know what I'm going to fancy,depends on the weather, don't want to eat if it's really hot. Always batch cook,and freeze, have "basics"larder,plenty of herbs and spices.

Same, more always ends up being wasted when I try to meal plan. I think it also depends on how big your family is - mine isn't big so if I go around picking up separate ingredients to make a meal we end up with loads left over that I can't use for anything. Plus the kids won't eat the same meal over and over.

One of the nicest things for me in getting older and having four adults at home now my younger two are at Uni is not feeling the need to put something "delicious and nutritious" on the table every day. I did that for 22 years until my eldest moved out and I am so over it. We usually eat out as a family once a week and DH and I will go out a few times, often for lunch so we don't really want dinner. I make sure there is enough food in the house for DS and DD to prepare meals so it could be pasta, tacos, steak and baked potatoes, chicken burrito bowls etc. I get meat delivered from the butcher which goes in the freezer and there is a Woolies Metro (we are in Aus) up the road so if I am cooking, I can decide what I want to cook the night before and buy any extras I need on the day. If DH is cooking he sorts out what he needs. I do love a Sunday roast so will usually do that, if not we might have a BBQ. "Kids" usually stick around for that, sometimes with partners and friends. Eldest and family will join us every few weeks too depending on work schedules so I get granddaughter cuddles which are a bonus.

This is like our house too!
I only really plan for our weekends as that's when we have the tastiest meals!! But that's generally me asking the kids what they fancy that weekend on a Friday morning and go from there!

Our diets have narrowed considerably since DD, really bloody fussy eater. So we basically load up freezer with acceptable meats (so thats mince mince mince) everything else is topped up.

Before DD I used to meal plan quite carefully.

I try to plan but it often falls over as stuff goes wrong. When it was just us DH's job was very unpredictable so he could randomly be home very late, making the planned meal impractical or inappropriate. The worst thing is when you've defrosted something and either someone is ill or very delayed.

Now with the kids it's easier as they have activities on certain nights which means some meals have to be quick cook while others need to be over 2 hours without attention. 1 night's going to need to be sandwiches between activities!

And with the age the kids are the amount they're going to eat is utterly unpredictable - with leftovers very difficult to predict - they might be super hungry and eat loads or they might not bother eating with no discernable pattern.

Dinner only enters my head at about 5pm each day. I then look in the fridge/freezer/cupboards until inspiration strikes and make that.

I hate it. It is like a veil of dread and horror that I have to create dinner descends on me every day.

I have tried to meal plan, and it always goes wrong. I don't have a regular shopping delivery (just do it as and when), I have fussy people to feed and so get grief for whatever I make (I get the grief for longer and in advance if there's a meal plan on the wall), I seem to end up with loads of 1/2 people leftovers that I chuck in the freezer/fridge and never use ......

Basically, I find providing food for my family a miserable drag, and whatever system I try to use ends up feeling awful and attracting moans from children. So there's no point spending time planning, as it doesn't make it any easier.

Any tricks to make it work would be gladly accepted, but I've already tried involving the kids in the planning/shopping/cooking, planning 1 and 4 weeks in advance, batch cooking at the weekend, booking a weekly supermarket delivery etc etc and none of it works/helps

We just keep stocked up with staple ingredients, get a weekly veg box and make whatever we fancy on the day. We're vegetarian though- if you buy meat that needs using before it goes off then it makes sense to plan more.

Oh the days can be swapped around. There is a list that covers 7 days, but which days we have what is just a guideline. Days 6 and 7 will often be something with longer life ingredients. Spinach and beansprouts need to be in days 1 and 2 usually. Typically we only have meat once a week anyway. I'm surprised how much meat people are eating actually. We're not veggie but meat is not a big feature on the household menu,

We have a cupboard full of spices & staples like pasta, rice, dried lentils, flour… like most people. We buy vegetables and make whatever we want that night.. curries, pasta sauce, veggie fried rice.
Have frozen fish in the freezer.

If we want something else we go to the shops on the day. We live a 4 minute walk from a highstreet with an M&S foodhall, small Tesco, greengrocers.

If we had to drive to a supermarket I would meal plan.

End up eating lots of foods that don't go together

I buy the cheapest meat available while I'm doing the weekly shop and any ingredients needed for the store cupboard so cans, flour, stock cubes etc. We always buy the same range of veg (the nice cheap stuff so carrots, brocolli, frozen peppers, onions, cabbage and frozen caulli plus salad bits and potatoes) and then we just decide what to make on the day.

So for eg. yesterday we fancied sausages and I did a tray bake of veg with it. Today I've pulled chicken thighs out the freezer. Current contenders are either a chicken and bacon pasta dish or chicken and cauliflower curry. Another week I might make a pie with the chicken instead or do fajitas. The only non negotiable sort or planning we do is that I tend to make something close to a roast on most Sundays and there's usually a bag of chips in the freezer and some beans in the cupboard for an emergency quick tea if we are late getting home for some reason.

Food shops for family or 4 (including a preteen who eats adult portions) usually come in at around £50-60 including pet food so it isn't costing any more than meal planning. I actually think it lowers costs as it frees us up to only buy the really cheap or yellow sticker meat or the stuff that's on offer rather than the ingredients needed for specific meals.

Should clarify that I will count out meals when shopping so for example if I had picked up a large tray of mince, a pack or sausages, a yellow sticker brisket and a a pack of chicken I know that's 2 meals from the mince, 2 the brisket, 1 meal from the sausages and 2 from the chicken. So I know I've got enough for the week.

We meal plan, usually a mixture of premade meals that I've batch cooked & stored in the fridge/freezer in portions and just a written plan for other days with everything needed to cook laid out ready. We do our meal plan at the start of the month and then one big shop so we know exactly what we need and have everything for the whole month. We're a family of 4, 2 children under 4 and both me and my partner work long hours so it saves us time in the mornings before nursery & work and again in the evenings plus is one less thing to think about every day.

I tend to buy much the same foodstuffs every week, but don't plan meals ahead because I don't always know whether I will be eating in or out, and have no idea what I will fancy eating/how hungry I will be/how much time or energy I will have for cooking.

Ready Steady Cook here too
We always have pasta, potatoes, frozen veg and a few sauces around, but I'm veggie, and neither of us are into cooking or foodies in any way... and DS2 has autism and is utterly uninterested.
Most weeks it's pasta one night, jacket spuds with something the next, crusty bread and pesto (or Aldi's lovely cheese fondue) another and as long as I have fresh peppers, onions, courgettes and mushrooms I can cobble something together in 20 mins. I might do a roast at the weekend if any of my adult kids come round. I'll pick up fish for dh if it's on offer but otherwise we eat very simply, but with loads of veg and I don't ever think about it before about 6pm!

I just have to meal plan, the times when I have not it’s taken twice as much effort to firstly think of what to make for lunch for example and then to actually make it. Then repeat again for dinner.

Most of the posts on here do meal plan. But seem to think it's some sort of dirty word.
I too have fully stocked kitchen, with pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans, coconut cream.

I have freezers full to bursting. And a list of what's in every drawer, meat, chicken Kiev's, left over /batched cooked spag Bol and meatballs.

But I still need to meal plan a bit. We might discuss what we have / what we want to eat for the next 3 days. And buy stuff. But I still need to take bits out to defrost. That's still basically meal planning.

Only those Who literally go shopping every night and buy stuff for that night can claim that they don't meal plan. If that suits you fine. But the most families want to know or need to know what they're having tomorrow night - if they're having Chilli before say dc go to their sporting activities.

most people can't get away with leaving it till the last minute. plus it's probably more expensive.