Do you plan meals?

[EasterLunch]

Exciting topic I know but do you meal plan? And do you prefer to do one main shop or lots of small shops?

I do lots of small shops throughout the week from various different supermarkets as I’m disabled and don’t drive and also because I often find it difficult to think what I want to eat until that day plus what I can prepare varies depending upon how bad my disabilities are that particular day. I’ll occasionally plan meals but not often as much of the time I’m not in the mood for a particular dinner or my disabilities/pain issues are particularly bad so anything involving a lot of chopping and stirring is out.

What’s your preference?

I eat what i fancy when i get hungry i dont plan any meals.
I live out the fridge i hate cooking so i dont do it.

Plan a weekly menu and shop at least once a week in a mixture of shops for value / quality balance / weight when carrying

saves thinking too much and if we don’t fancy the plan or have more leftovers than expected then we think around what we have but basically low stress With minimal food waste

I meal plan. I rotate about 8-12 mains with a few cupboard/freezer options in case I fancy something slightly different on the day. It means I can do a weekly shop and not worry/think about what I'm eating. I'm pretty boring with lunches and this time of year its a sandwich and soup everyday, but easy and practical.

I meal plan partly so I can budget but also I've been on a journey with my health and now I'm trying to maintain weight loss I find it helps.

Yes, I do plan, very much so. Keeps cost down & helps variety & nutrition.
I don't necessarily plan what we will eat on each specific day though, I plan say the next 3-4 days.
This is partly also due to health issues so probably 2 will be super easy, others more effort if I feel like it.

E.g. next 4 days might be:

• Sausage and bean casserole (make double and freeze half)
• omelette and oven chips with mushrooms and tomatoes
• chilli from freezer with jacket potato
• pasta with bacon, peppers, mushrooms

So one day is big effort to be done on the day with most energy/ least other activities, one medium/low and two very low effort.

I’ve tried to start to lately due to going part time and wanting to save money, but I used to just buy a bunch of veg and whatever and no plan and just decide when I’m about to make dinner what to do

I meal plan over 10 days.
I am disabled and cant get out the house very often or reliably and can no longer drive so have a delivery.
Although I have a plan its flexible in that those 10 meals will get eaten but may change what we have /when. Many of the meals are batch cooked and frozen so on my bad days I just defrost something. I have a few simple meals for when I don't feel like much eg Jacket potato or something on toast which can be slotted in when I want.
Also eat by freshness to so soft fruits first, tinned /frozen end of week.

We plan twice a week….on a Monday morning for meals until Thursday dinner, and on a Thursday morning for meals until Monday breakfast. I have a look at what’s in the freezer, work out our menu, write a shopping list for whatever’s needed and go shopping.

We started this very organised approach in January when we started a healthy eating regime. We have lost 3st each, waste a lot less food and are saving a fortune on unplanned meals out and takeaways when we were disorganised or couldn’t be bothered cooking. We both love cooking and always cooked from scratch but we weren’t very disciplined about planning before.

We do sometimes swap meals around from day to day, and I do cook some recipes for 4 and freeze half, so I have homemade meals ready in the freezer if we don’t feel like what we have planned or stuff happens and we run out of time. It’s really worked for us.

I would say though that we are both retired, enjoy cooking and shopping together and have time to organise it all. I know that’s not the case for everyone.

I plan for the week and get a weekend delivery plus a midweek delivery so food doesn’t go out of date

Absolutely or I'd just spend every night eating bread from the bag dipping it in anything runnier than bread.

Plan the whole week's meals and do one shop a week.

I’m bad at it but I really want to do it in order to save money and visit the supermarket less…I really hate meal planning but the pay off is good.