Meal planning? Yay or nay?

[sassenach]

I meal plan based on what meat I have in my freezer or basic cuts that I'm continually buying. When I get to the store, I will check out the sales and pick up meat for future plans. So in a given week I might be cooking 3-4 meals out of the freezer, a couple dishes with chicken or ground turkey (which I'm pretty much continually buying), and purchasing meat for future, yet to be planned, meals.

[boscopup]

I have a 6 week rotating menu. It's somewhat flexible, in that at the beginning of the week, I look at it and decide if I want to try something new or swap something around based on what's going on that week. For example, this week was technically supposed to have Pork Carnitas on Tuesday and Pork Tenderloin on Thursday. Well, we just had two cookouts over the weekend, and my husband had done a couple pork butts and several hot dogs and brats. We had enough leftovers for another meal, so I made leftovers night Wednesday and changed Tuesday/Thursday to chicken items, so we wouldn't be eating pork all week. And hey, chicken happened to be on sale at Aldi this week anyway, so win win. :)

 

The 6 week menu has been sooooo helpful to me. I'm homeschooling 3 kids all day, along with chasing a toddler. Dinner time is at 5 (and about half the week there are activities after dinner, so dinner really needs to be at 5). With the distractions going on, I often have to start prepping dinner at 3 or 3:30 to get it on the table on time. I don't have a grocery store nearby, and making a grocery trip will take an hour. I don't have that kind of time when I'm deciding what to eat. And frankly, at the end of a long day of homeschooling and chasing toddler, my brain is ready to checkout. I don't want to have to think of something to eat. If it were left up to what I feel like making, we'd be resorting to boxed meals, and I don't want to do that. I make things from scratch every night.

 

This has cut down the grocery bill some, because I am not going to the grocery store multiple times a week (I can't walk in without spending $50+, it seems). I can go once and get everything I need for the week. I don't worry about what's on sale as much, but I do plan a Sam's trip around my meal needs so I can get chicken or ground beef at good prices and freeze the extras. Right now, my freezer stash is low because we cleaned out the freezer and moved it to the garage and plan to get another one very soon for the cow that's in the process of being butchered. So until I get another freezer (the old one has half a pig in it and won't fit a whole cow AND half a pig AND my normal freezer stash), I need to only freeze what fits in the fridge freezer, which isn't a whole lot. But on a normal day with plenty of freezer space, I'll plan ahead... If I see that a meat I use often is on sale, I can buy it and prep it for specific meals and stick it in the freezer. That makes meals even easier if it's already seasoned and ready to go! When I make tortilla soup, I make as much as my pot can hold and freeze in batches that I can use as lunch for myself a couple times in a week or use two bags for the whole family (I'm a wee bit addicted to tortilla soup).

 

I keep frozen veggies in the freezer and buy fresh ones as needed that week. I am wasting less food because I'm not buying veggies that end up getting unused (the vegetable crisper - where good intentions go to die).

 

So yeah, dinner time is so much less stressful now that I have a plan, and each week is so easy to plan because the big picture is there already, and my husband won't have to complain about having chicken every day because I've built in plenty of variety into our menu on a week to week basis. I even have 6 different Taco Tuesday dishes! The menu is there as a tool, not a master. If we really don't feel like xyz, I'll change it out for something else, maybe trying something new. But it's helpful in that I don't have to think of all our dinners for the week every week. I used to plan a week at a time, and that's when I'd end up having the same dish every other week, and my husband got tired of that dish. That doesn't happen any more. If there is a repeat on the menu, it's 3 weeks apart. Very few things repeat.

 

The 6 week menu has been a sanity saver in my house!

 

Breakfast and lunch are not planned... that's fend for yourself. You can have leftovers or make yourself whatever. The only kid not able to make their own food is the toddler.

[Bluegoat]

I save a ton of money meal planning because it helps me plan how long leftovers will last, and that way I don't overshop. It helps that there's only three of us. ;) I know roughly how long something will last, so I can say, "Okay, a big pot of homemade soup will last two days, so I won't need to buy something for dinner that second day." Before I planned, leftovers got shoved to the back of the fridge and thrown out a week later.

 

Also, when I bought whatever looked good without planning ahead, I ended up with a lot of partial meals and would have to run back to the store every day to get the rest of the ingredients for dinner. If I plan ahead, I only buy exactly what I need.

 

We don't eat much meat anymore, either. I can't say, "Okay, I have steaks, so I'll steam some green beans with them and call it good." My veg recipes tend to have more ingredients and prep work.

 

Yeah, if running to a market daily is not possible or convienient, I think what kinds of things that you eat makes a big difference.  If someone's diet has a lot of similar foods or ingredients, or it's several very seperate items, it is much easier to always just look at what you have and put something together.

 

At its simplest, if you always do meat, starch, veg, or pasta and a sauce and salad, it is pretty easy to throw things together.

 

But if you are doing more complex meal with a wider variety of ingredients, it becomes more difficult, things like casseroles and such.  You find you need more special ingredients to make it work.  I also find sticking to fewer types of nations food is a lot simpler than trying to include a wide variety of ethnic foods, because they all have their own special ingredients.

[regentrude]

I save a ton of money meal planning because it helps me plan how long leftovers will last, and that way I don't overshop. It helps that there's only three of us. ;) I know roughly how long something will last, so I can say, "Okay, a big pot of homemade soup will last two days, so I won't need to buy something for dinner that second day." Before I planned, leftovers got shoved to the back of the fridge and thrown out a week later.

 

 

 

We eat leftovers at the next meal or the next day. Only, often there are no leftovers. I found that my teen's amounts of eating are very erratic (and depend for example on how hard he trained and whether he ate a meal outside the home).

 

 

 

Also, when I bought whatever looked good without planning ahead, I ended up with a lot of partial meals and would have to run back to the store every day to get the rest of the ingredients for dinner. If I plan ahead, I only buy exactly what I need.

 

So does that mean you do not keep a pantry with staples and ONLY have the food for the next meal in the house?

 

I do not get the concept of a "partial meal" - I make the meal from whatever ingredients are there; there are always staples and spices, and whatever vegetables I bought. I don't use fixed recipes, so if there is an ingredient that is not there, I'll use something else.

 

You buy exactly what you know are going to eat - I eat exactly what I have bought.

If there is no food waste, I don't see the difference.

[regentrude]

Sometimes I like to make new things for fun, so I look up recipes on the internet. And when I do, there are inevitably comments like "Well, it cost a lot because I had to buy fresh thyme, and I could only get that in a big bunch, and lots of it was left over. So wasteful!"

 

When I plan meals, if I'm going to use something like thyme or dill or basil, I make a plan to use that in several recipes so that nothing is wasted. So let's say I buy ham - I plan all my meals for the week around using up what's left of that ham after the first day, so I don't have to throw out a chunk of ham a week later when it goes bad, or a month later when it's all dried out in the freezer.  Or if I plan a recipe that uses half a red pepper, the other half gets used within two days in a different recipe. If I had to wing it, I might end up with half a pepper going moldy in my fridge until I get around to it!

 

But I do exactly the same thing, only in reverse; as I wrote in another post:

you buy exactly what you want to eat - I eat exactly what I have bought.

 

If I buy a perishable ingredient that is not used up in one meal, of course I will use it up in the next meals. But I don't plan for that beforehand- it just happens: I look in the fridge, see what is there, and use it. Soups, stir fries, and salads can accommodate any vegetable.

I keep it in the back of my mind. For example, I bought beets at the farmers market and roasted a bunch, and I know one beet is left and should be used in something today. What exactly I'll do with it depends on what else is in the fridge: if I have lettuce left, it will go in a salad with that; if I have beet greens left, it will go in the stir fry with those; if there is nothing fresh left, it will make a salad with half a can of chick peas from the pantry (and the other half will find life at a meal in the next few days or be made into hummus).

I think as long as one is mindful of what food is there and strives not to waste ( a big sin when I grew up; my mom was a child during the post-war famine), it comes out to the same.

[Bluegoat]

But I do exactly the same thing, only in reverse; as I wrote in another post:

you buy exactly what you want to eat - I eat exactly what I have bought.

 

If I buy a perishable ingredient that is not used up in one meal, of course I will use it up in the next meals. But I don't plan for that beforehand- it just happens: I look in the fridge, see what is there, and use it. Soups, stir fries, and salads can accommodate any vegetable.

I keep it in the back of my mind. For example, I bought beets at the farmers market and roasted a bunch, and I know one beet is left and should be used in something today. What exactly I'll do with it depends on what else is in the fridge: if I have lettuce left, it will go in a salad with that; if I have beet greens left, it will go in the stir fry with those; if there is nothing fresh left, it will make a salad with half a can of chick peas from the pantry (and the other half will find life at a meal in the next few days or be made into hummus).

I think as long as one is mindful of what food is there and strives not to waste ( a big sin when I grew up; my mom was a child during the post-war famine), it comes out to the same.

 

This only works well I think when you don't tend to cook from recipes.  A lot of people do.  It's also trickier if you can't easily get to a market or need to plan market days carefully.  There are also some people who hate leftovers and just don't want to have them.

 

But as far as saving money - if you are on a very strict budget, meal planning is important to saving as much as possible, and also saving time.  It's much more like commercial cooking as it includes things like costing and counting calories, doing things once that will set you up for the week.

[regentrude]

This only works well I think when you don't tend to cook from recipes.  A lot of people do.  It's also trickier if you can't easily get to a market or need to plan market days carefully.  There are also some people who hate leftovers and just don't want to have them.

 

But as far as saving money - if you are on a very strict budget, meal planning is important to saving as much as possible, and also saving time.  It's much more like commercial cooking as it includes things like costing and counting calories, doing things once that will set you up for the week.

 

You are right; I do not use recipes. I might browse the internet or a cookbook for inspiration about combinations, but usually end up just cooking free style. I can see how, for people who want to follow recipes to the letter, that may create problems with unusual ingredients. (Neither my grandmother who cooked for our family when I was a child, nor my mother, cook according to recipes. My grandma went to the store daily to see what was available; she had to cook whatever happened to be in the store that day, which you could never anticipate. I guess  that mode still sticks with me, LOL)

 

What you mention about strict budget: that's what I meant by "rationing". That makes sense- if the budget is so tight that you must plan out every last calory and crumb of food. (That's what we do when we are backpacking.)

 

Where it saves time, though, I do not quite understand, because the meal planning costs additional time a non-planner does not have to spend.

Edited June 3, 2016 by regentrude

[Annie G]

But I do exactly the same thing, only in reverse; as I wrote in another post:

you buy exactly what you want to eat - I eat exactly what I have bought.

 

If I buy a perishable ingredient that is not used up in one meal, of course I will use it up in the next meals. But I don't plan for that beforehand- it just happens: I look in the fridge, see what is there, and use it. Soups, stir fries, and salads can accommodate any vegetable.

I keep it in the back of my mind. For example, I bought beets at the farmers market and roasted a bunch, and I know one beet is left and should be used in something today. What exactly I'll do with it depends on what else is in the fridge: if I have lettuce left, it will go in a salad with that; if I have beet greens left, it will go in the stir fry with those; if there is nothing fresh left, it will make a salad with half a can of chick peas from the pantry (and the other half will find life at a meal in the next few days or be made into hummus).

I think as long as one is mindful of what food is there and strives not to waste ( a big sin when I grew up; my mom was a child during the post-war famine), it comes out to the same.

 

I can see how that would work for you but it didn't work well for me.  I ended up stressed because instead of planning meals once a week I was planning every single night...while I was already tired from the day.   Or I would have not enough lettuce for a salad or no ingredients for dressing or a fourth of a bag of noodles. And in my pantry I'd have one can each of odd things. Not enough to any one thing to feed all six of us.  Meal planning worked better for me - improved my spending and stress level. 

 

 

I do feel I'm mindful and strive not to waste but meal planning eliminates some of the effort it takes to be mindful of food waste.  Not all of it, to be sure, but it does help me.   

[fairfarmhand]

I do, but I don't plan it down to the day.  Meaning I don't say Monday I will make XYZ.  I pick out a number of meals I plan to make for the week and make them when and if I want to.  Sometimes I end up changing it as I go along.

 

Yup. Me too. I always include a crock pot dinner or two for days we'll be out of the house.

 

When shopping I have a baseline plan, but that may change when I get to the store and find a great bargain on a cut of meat or something.

 

When I get home, I make the list of available dinners.

[Ann.without.an.e]

But I do exactly the same thing, only in reverse; as I wrote in another post:

you buy exactly what you want to eat - I eat exactly what I have bought.

 

If I buy a perishable ingredient that is not used up in one meal, of course I will use it up in the next meals. But I don't plan for that beforehand- it just happens: I look in the fridge, see what is there, and use it. Soups, stir fries, and salads can accommodate any vegetable.

I keep it in the back of my mind. For example, I bought beets at the farmers market and roasted a bunch, and I know one beet is left and should be used in something today. What exactly I'll do with it depends on what else is in the fridge: if I have lettuce left, it will go in a salad with that; if I have beet greens left, it will go in the stir fry with those; if there is nothing fresh left, it will make a salad with half a can of chick peas from the pantry (and the other half will find life at a meal in the next few days or be made into hummus).

I think as long as one is mindful of what food is there and strives not to waste ( a big sin when I grew up; my mom was a child during the post-war famine), it comes out to the same.

 

 

This is more how I have been doing it.  I keep a well stocked pantry, stocking it from costco or sales at the store and work from what I have, rather than buying to fit a meal plan. I am going to give the flexible but planned thing a try though since lately I  just have no good dinner ideas and meals have been blah, partly because I'm working part time again.  

[HomeAgain]

I love meal planning.  It honestly saves us money.  This week my total grocery outlay will be $60, and that's with a non-stocked kitchen, making 3 meals a day, plus dessert after dinner, and keeping the plates balanced instead of carb heavy.  I sat down with the kids and came up with a week's worth of meals based on what everyone likes and were using ingredients on sale.  We overbought some (about 11lbs of chicken was included in that), so next week we'll take that into consideration and plan based around freezer/pantry/sales.  We tend to roll over ingredients during the week - using a small variety of veggies & staples in various ways - and shop the outer edge of the market which keeps costs low.   

[Mergath]

We eat leftovers at the next meal or the next day. Only, often there are no leftovers. I found that my teen's amounts of eating are very erratic (and depend for example on how hard he trained and whether he ate a meal outside the home).

 

 

 

 

So does that mean you do not keep a pantry with staples and ONLY have the food for the next meal in the house?

 

I do not get the concept of a "partial meal" - I make the meal from whatever ingredients are there; there are always staples and spices, and whatever vegetables I bought. I don't use fixed recipes, so if there is an ingredient that is not there, I'll use something else.

 

You buy exactly what you know are going to eat - I eat exactly what I have bought.

If there is no food waste, I don't see the difference.

 

No, because most of the ingredients I use in meals aren't pantry foods, beyond stuff like rice and salt and dried herbs and spices.

 

I have recipes that I use, so I need to have a set of ingredients on hand. If I don't have a plan but I buy mushrooms because they look good, for example, I'll end up saying, "Gee, I'd really like to have mushroom fettucine alfredo tonight but I don't have any cream." So I have to drive to the store for cream, and end up throwing a bunch of other stuff in my cart that I don't really need while I'm there. If I plan ahead for a week or two, I'll already have the cream.

 

Dh isn't super thrilled about cutting back on meat, so I try to make veg meals that he'll like. If I was like, "Here's some salad and a roasted beet and some peas because that's what was in the fridge," he'd probably revolt. ;) 

[regentrude]

No, because most of the ingredients I use in meals aren't pantry foods, beyond stuff like rice and salt and dried herbs and spices.

 

I have recipes that I use, so I need to have a set of ingredients on hand. If I don't have a plan but I buy mushrooms because they look good, for example, I'll end up saying, "Gee, I'd really like to have mushroom fettucine alfredo tonight but I don't have any cream." So I have to drive to the store for cream, and end up throwing a bunch of other stuff in my cart that I don't really need while I'm there. If I plan ahead for a week or two, I'll already have the cream.

 

I hear you. For me, this could go any of three ways:

1. I normally have cream as a staple in my fridge since we use it regularly and it keeps well, so it would be unusual for it to be gone and not having been replaced.

2. I have to leave the house daily anyway and can stop by the store on my way home from work, which just adds ten extra minutes. If I run in without shopping bag and without a cart, I am less likely to buy more than the item I intended to grab.

3. If I am already home and about to cook, I'd rethink the meal and, instead of alfredo, might make a mushroom marinara to go with the fettucine. Or I might even rethink the entire fettucine idea if I see that I have carrots and can make the Moosewood carrot-mushroom loaf instead, LOL.

Very very rarely would I feel compelled to venture out specifically to get one missing ingredient - I'm too lazy (just like I'm too lazy to meal plan)

 

ETA: I find it sooo much easier to be creative with vegetables than with meat. I dislike preparing meat, I find it boring and don't like to eat it - I just do it because of DS.

Edited June 3, 2016 by regentrude

[bibiche]

I'm with regentrude. No meal planning beyond keeping staples in the house. How do I know what will look good at the market or what we will be in the mood for? I cant see how planning meals would save money unless one never use fresh ingredients.

[Mergath]

I'm with regentrude. No meal planning beyond keeping staples in the house. How do I know what will look good at the market or what we will be in the mood for? I cant see how planning meals would save money unless one never use fresh ingredients.

 

We try to eat based on what's in season and (preferably) can be bought as locally as possible, rather than buying whatever looks good, so that makes it a bit easier to plan ahead. 

[Bluegoat]

You are right; I do not use recipes. I might browse the internet or a cookbook for inspiration about combinations, but usually end up just cooking free style. I can see how, for people who want to follow recipes to the letter, that may create problems with unusual ingredients. (Neither my grandmother who cooked for our family when I was a child, nor my mother, cook according to recipes. My grandma went to the store daily to see what was available; she had to cook whatever happened to be in the store that day, which you could never anticipate. I guess  that mode still sticks with me, LOL)

 

What you mention about strict budget: that's what I meant by "rationing". That makes sense- if the budget is so tight that you must plan out every last calory and crumb of food. (That's what we do when we are backpacking.)

 

Where it saves time, though, I do not quite understand, because the meal planning costs additional time a non-planner does not have to spend.

 

I think people in the past used a lot fewer recipes.  But they also often cooked fewer kinds of food.  I often do not cook with recipes, my sister does, because she likes to eat a wide variety of food and especially ethnic foods.

 

As far as time - in two ways.  One is that you trade your hour of meal planning for the time later when you may be busier.  That is where I am now - i often don't get much done before the baby I look after goes at 5 or so, and depending on the night I may be on a tight scedual and unable to wander down to the grocery store.  If I've some plan in place, I am more likely to be ahead of the game.

 

The other way is that you can cook things ahead.  If I need rice tonight, and I am having another rice dish later in teh week, I might cook double.  You can do this sort of thing with a fair amount of prep type things, and ever time you don't need to change tasks, or get out some piece of equipment and clean it, and such, you save some time.  You can plan a week of meals that have some elements in common that will streamline your work.  It's the same reason that many places to eat out will have menu elements in common that kind of streamlining is important in a commercial kitchen.

[Bluegoat]

We try to eat based on what's in season and (preferably) can be bought as locally as possible, rather than buying whatever looks good, so that makes it a bit easier to plan ahead. 

 

Yeah, sometimes I am way off, but I usually can make a good guess what will be in season.  And generally that is also what will be good to eat and available and cheap. 

[bibiche]

We try to eat based on what's in season and (preferably) can be bought as locally as possible, rather than buying whatever looks good, so that makes it a bit easier to plan ahead. 

 

I think these go hand in hand: what is in season is usually going to look better.  But what if I want, I dunno, asparagus something for dinner and rhubarb for dessert. They're in season but then when I get to the market they look lifeless or are expensive. I'm not going to buy them anyway, I can change my mind and decide to buy some other vegetables and fruits that look better. Still local, still in season, but I am not a slave to some menu I planned earlier.  

 

I cook and eat based on mood, weather, and what's available at a reasonable price.  That's what works for me. If meal planning works for you, hey, more power to ya.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Cooking is also a hobby for me so I often do want to try out some new recipe.  Sometimes I plan to do that and have all the ingredients and then decide on something else.

 

Speaking of which, Aldi is once again on my shi* list.  I bought a cabbage yesterday and went to cook it yesterday and it was completely rotten on the inside.  I had to go back out to a store to get another one (I went to another store).  It was a huge part of my plan, and I had my tongue hanging out for cabbage.  Grrr

[Bluegoat]

I think these go hand in hand: what is in season is usually going to look better.  But what if I want, I dunno, asparagus something for dinner and rhubarb for dessert. They're in season but then when I get to the market they look lifeless or are expensive. I'm not going to buy them anyway, I can change my mind and decide to buy some other vegetables and fruits that look better. Still local, still in season, but I am not a slave to some menu I planned earlier.  

 

I cook and eat based on mood, weather, and what's available at a reasonable price.  That's what works for me. If meal planning works for you, hey, more power to ya.

 

It's generally pretty easy to swap out those kinds of ingredients though, with other seasonal things, or even something frozen.

[Truscifi]

I would absolutely meal plan if it was just me. I would also cook one big meal, maybe two, a week and eat leftovers the rest of the time. But dh hates to meal plan, and he doesn't like leftovers. Sigh. It's a good thing he helps cook or we would really have issues.

[vonbon]

A Simple Idea for people who garden or eat seasonal food: 

 

Print off a year's set of blank calendar pages (no dates, no year--just months and squares.)  

 

Brainstorm all of your family's favorites and make lists.  At the beginning of each month, peruse Pinterest, check out your favorite cooking websites for inspiration, and review your "favorites" lists.   Fill all of the squares for the month without writing in any dates.  

 

You'll end up with more than 30 ideas because of how calendars are constructed, so you'll have more than you'll actually need for the month.  Try to include a main dish, a side, and small reference note on where you can find the recipe (online bookmark, binder, cookbook title or recipe card, for example) so you won't have to waste time hunting for the recipe when you make it.

 

The "plan" doesn't have dates, so I just pick what I want to do on a daily basis, depending on life and what's going on.  But there is value to the planning because, for me, having 30 seasonal ideas is better than having no plan at all.  On my busiest, worst days, it's in my planner waiting for me.  If I happen upon some great sale and a new idea "bumps" the written ideas down--no biggie.  It's flexible.  

 

At the end of the month, I cross off the recipes I actually made, take the page out of my daily planner, and place it in a recipe binder I keep with my cookbooks.  

 

Next year, same month, I'll pull out the month's plan from last year--"August", for example, and either re-use it or see what I made last year at that time and write it on a new "August" sheet.

 

This helps particularly because we eat out of our garden as much as possible.  We don't buy out-of-season produce either.  Obviously, things are very seasonal that way.  Also, we live in an area with extreme heat in the summer, so what sounded good in April no longer works for June (like soups, chili, stew.)   The monthly sheets help because I don't have to "re-invent the wheel" over and over again every year.  

 

This type of planning isn't quite as helpful for those who rely on the weekly grocery store sales or who need specific items for recipes.  I buy more in bulk and staples, and just shop for dairy and some fruit on a weekly basis.  The fresh stuff comes from the garden, so the recipes have to fit what's available that time of year.  I buy almost exclusively sale items and stock up, but my priorities are frugality and health vs. particular recipes.  

 

I really enjoy these blog posts on meal planning and return to them now and then, though I don't do things exactly as the author.  They inspire me and she is/was a frugal homeschooler with a lot more kids than I have and a funny type of humor, so they're fun reads: 

 

http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2015/09/the-secret-to-planning-menus/

 

www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2014/01/12-things-to-stash-that-will-help-you-get-supper-on-the-table/

 

www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2012/10/menu-making-roundup-all-worksheets/

 

http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2009/03/secret-to-packing-lunches-without-too/  [secret to packing lunches without too much pain]

 

Edited: typos/links

Edited June 4, 2016 by vonbon

[HS Mom in NC]

Different fresh vegetables and fruits last longer than others.  Planning out a week is not a problem at all with them if you're using the lettuce earlier in the week and the carrots later. Potatoes and cabbage have longer shelf lives than avacados and spinach.  It's also possible for 2 weeks at a time, but requires a bit more strategizing. We have a very plant based diet and we don't have a problem with fresh fruits and vegetables going bad before the end of the week because we plan accordingly.
 

One way to make it easier is to make enough for dinner so that you have leftovers for lunch.  If you don't eat all the leftovers for lunch or just want to make a sandwich instead, you can put the extra serving(s) in your freezer containers, label it (labels are cheap) and save it for those times when you don't want to cook or when you're having something that one person in the family can't or won't eat.  That way it doesn't go to waste and it makes your life easier. When you put it in individual serving containers and freeze it, it's particularly efficient because you never know if in the future you'll want just one serving.  If it's in a 2 serving size container and you only need 1 serving, it's more likely to go to waste.

Weekly meal planning based on ads isn't really for people who choose to eat based on mood. I've been very surprised by the number of people I've come across who don't seem to realize that they're making a choice to eat based on mood and they could choose not to if they decided to-not that they have to.  They can do whatever they want but it's a little odd that choosing not to follow their impulse, even when they can afford to, isn't an option they recognize. I've actually had this discussion with other meal planners and they've noticed the same thing. We tend to stare blankly at a person who says, "But what if you've planned spaghetti and you're in the mood for tacos and you don't have taco ingredients on hand!?" Um, is this a trick question?  We still eat the spaghetti. It really is a cultural difference from family to family.    We eat what we planned for or we eat leftovers from the fridge or freezer.  Sure, there are times when one of us impulsively says, "Let's order a pizza!" or "Let's go out." But that's the exception, not the rule. That's a couple times a month for my household. Some people plan in certain number of eating out days and space them according to their situation and preferences or they keep them in mind as floating days because that works best for them.
 

[SKL]

I have not done meal planning since my kids were preschoolers, i.e., since we started having so many hectic evenings out of the house.  It was whatever worked on a given day.

 

This summer I want to start being more intentional in this area.  I bought a pile of themed cookbooks to use with my kids.  Each recipe is also a lesson in geography, history, science, or math.  Doesn't that sound fun?  But it will take some discipline for me to make it work.  Making time, finding a recipe with a theme relevant to whatever else we're doing, remembering to have the ingredients ready in advance, not letting anything get in the way of our plans.  :P  I think I'll be lucky to make it happen once a week.  But it's a start.  Eventually maybe we'll get good at it and it will be several nights a week.

 

I don't really enjoy eating.  Left to myself, I would eat very simply though healthy - raw fruits/vegetables, nuts, yogurt, some grains here and there.  Not much planning involved.  I kind of look forward to getting back to those days.  In the mean time, all this cooking stuff is more to train my kids so they can do it for themselves if they want to.  :)

[nd293]

I meal plan 7 days at a time but I pick dinner from the list based on which meal suits us on that day. I keep to a tight budget by choice not necessity so if things are on special I pick them up for next week's menu - if I run over budget this week it'll even out next week. The same applies if things fall apart and we need an emergency quick meal of ravioli or rotisserie chicken and wraps or have a craving for red meat (which we don't eat much of). I suppose of the planned 7 meals we usually eat 5 in that week and roll two over to the beginning of the next week. If the budget gets completely out of wack I plan 7 cheap meals and we stick to that exactly - that probably happens every 2 months or so.

[Zinnia]

I meal plan.  I do it for a week at a time.  I usually make a sort of meal plan before I shop, then after I shop, I add another meal or two or switch one or two out, based on what I found on sale or that looked good at the store.  But as I'm shopping, I'm doing it with the meals in mind.  And my list often says, "vegetables for a stir fry" or "green veg to go with a meat."  Pretty vague in the produce arena.  Last week, Vidalias were on sale, so I bought 7 lbs.  I also threw in some bread and cheese, and when I got home, I added soup to the menu.  

 

I really like having enough food on hand for breakfasts and lunches, because those two meals get me, and they are often the cause of me having to go back to the store.  I'll have enough dinners, but we have nothing for breakfast left.  Planning it makes sure that I buy enough cereal or bread or eggs or oatmeal or whatever to last the week.  I sometimes have enough (I bought 20 lbs of oatmeal at once not long ago with a sale), but not always.

 

My mom meal plans like The Tightwad Gazette.  She buys staples (and gardens heavily).  Every evening or morning, she'll plan out what is for supper.  She aims for 9am to have a plan in place.  That works well for her, but....  She is an empty nester, and she has a different life than I do.  She can browse cookbooks for an hour in the morning to find something to make with what she has on hand if inspiration is low.  I'm not a great morning person.  Takes me a long time to wake up, and by the time I do, the day is moving along.  By the afternoon, my brain is fried.  So, without a plan, we end up having hamburger steaks or tacos or eggs.  Or something equally easy and boring.  I don't want to eat that every night, so planning helps me have a much wider variety.  I aim for repeating a dish about twice a season (summer/winter).  

 

We do end up eating very seasonally, both with ingredients and preparation (we don't eat casseroles in summer, we don't do main dish salads in winter).  And my mom and I end up spending the same amount in food, roughly.  I really think meal planning comes down to personality.  

Edited June 4, 2016 by Zinnia

[bibiche]

Another reason meal planning would never work for us is that I am trying to teach DS to think and cook creatively. So we will look at what we have or see at the market and think quickly what we can do with it. Here is cabbage, what we can make with it. Okonomiyaki? Okay, do we have ingredients to make the sauce? What do we need for that? And what do we need to make the mayonnaise? What other things could we make with cabbage? That Indian dish you like? What else goes into it? Can you think of anything else that we could make with cabbage? Dumplings? What else do we need to make them? How about you go look in some cookbooks to see what else you could make with cabbage. And repeat with other items....

 

Maybe it is a personality thing, but for me it is much more important to teach DS how to work with what he has than to sit down and plan a menu weeks in advance. And too, it is fun and exciting to go to the market and see all the vegetables and fruits and think of all the possibilities. I like to see that excitement passed on to DS so he views cooking and eating as a joy and not a chore.

[regentrude]

I like to see that excitement passed on to DS so he views cooking and eating as a joy and not a chore.

 

Yes, I was wondering whether the different attitudes may have to do with attitudes towards food.

 

This

 

 

 

We tend to stare blankly at a person who says, "But what if you've planned spaghetti and you're in the mood for tacos and you don't have taco ingredients on hand!?" Um, is this a trick question?  We still eat the spaghetti. It really is a cultural difference from family to family.    We eat what we planned for or we eat leftovers from the fridge or freezer

 

greatly puzzles me - the idea of eating something just because it is planned, even if you don't feel like it (I am not talking about situations where there is no choice. Of course, if spaghetti is the only food you have available, you eat spaghetti.). I love food and find eating good food one of the great pleasures in life, so that I cannot conceive of the idea of forgoing a meal that I would love to eat and could make just because it is not "on the list".

 

But obviously family food cultures vary.

[Zinnia]

I *love* to cook.  I love to get my hands in the kitchen, and cooking can often be a great creative outlet for me.  I have hundreds of cookbooks, watch cooking shows on TV (oh, Pati Jinich, I love you!), go to cooking classes, love to browse farmers' markets leisurely, etc, etc.

 

I do NOT love the pressure I feel at the end of the day when we get home at 6, everyone is hungry and asking about supper, I'm trying to look in the fridge to see what's there, cursing because there is no meat thawed out, and they are all still clamoring in the background.  Difficult for me to think. And I revert to breakfast for supper, hamburger steaks with gravy (because I freeze in 1/4 lb patties--quick to thaw), and tacos.  I don't want to eat tacos 4 nights a week.   :)

 

It's a lot more pleasant to take an hour on the weekend to browse my cookbooks and pinterest and actually THINK in a time when it's (relatvely) quiet, and I can do it in a relaxed manner.  Meal planning gives me that relaxed state while I cook.  It helps me to plan ahead (oh, we're going to get home at 6, so let me do the bulk of prep work in the morning; this day, we'll be home all afternoon, so I can pick something with a long cooking time; we need onions today and tomorrow, I can chop double with no effort; let me get the chicken out to thaw).  It's not a non-enjoyable thing to me.  It just helps cooking be *more* enjoyable.

 

I also have 4 kids that are not yet at an age they can stay home alone.  They come everywhere.  So a "quick trip" to the store for "just one thing" interrupts the flow of our day, takes 30+ minutes, and usually costs me over $30.  And it's angsty and not.fun.not.fun.at.all.  So I never want to run to the store for just one thing.  This is the biggest motivator for planning out breakfasts and lunches so that I can only shop once a week.  Keeps grocery shopping in its appropriate spot.  It usually takes me 2 hours once a week, we don't have enough storage for all the food, and it's a pain, but it's still worth it to knock it out all at once.  Grocery shopping with kids every day is crazy making.

Edited June 4, 2016 by Zinnia

[medawyn]

I hear you. For me, this could go any of three ways:

1. I normally have cream as a staple in my fridge since we use it regularly and it keeps well, so it would be unusual for it to be gone and not having been replaced.

2. I have to leave the house daily anyway and can stop by the store on my way home from work, which just adds ten extra minutes. If I run in without shopping bag and without a cart, I am less likely to buy more than the item I intended to grab.

3. If I am already home and about to cook, I'd rethink the meal and, instead of alfredo, might make a mushroom marinara to go with the fettucine. Or I might even rethink the entire fettucine idea if I see that I have carrots and can make the Moosewood carrot-mushroom loaf instead, LOL.

Very very rarely would I feel compelled to venture out specifically to get one missing ingredient - I'm too lazy (just like I'm too lazy to meal plan)

 

ETA: I find it sooo much easier to be creative with vegetables than with meat. I dislike preparing meat, I find it boring and don't like to eat it - I just do it because of DS.

This is how I used to cook/keep my kitchen, but part of this is a season of life issue. I frequently don't use recipes (baking and new, complicated dishes aside), prefer to cook from fresh, in season produce, and prefer to cook the evening meal based on the day's inspiration.

 

BUT right now, I have three small children, none of whom are old enough to help in any meaningful way and one of whom is young enough to contribute to an extreme lack of sleep. I'm a SAHM, so there's no stopping by the market for an ingredient or two after work anymore, and stocking up for the week includes shopping with three children. Sometimes it takes me an hour to unpack my groceries, and I assure you, I do not buy that much food! At 5:00 pm the baby is fussy and the kids are whiny; my brain is not functioning well enough to contemplate "What can I prepare from the available ingredients?" Thus, I meal plan. It is a sanity saver for the time being.

 

Do I see myself creating detailed meal plans forever? Most likely not. But for now, I very much appreciate a specific shopping list when I'm navigating the store with two toddlers and an infant, and I love not having to think about what I'm going to cook when most of my energy is being funneled into surviving the arsenic hour. Interestingly, for this moment meal planning actually makes me enjoy cooking more rather than less, because I can still prepare a meal I enjoy even on a stressful day.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I *love* to cook.  I love to get my hands in the kitchen, and cooking can often be a great creative outlet for me.  I have hundreds of cookbooks, watch cooking shows on TV (oh, Pati Jinich, I love you!), go to cooking classes, love to browse farmers' markets leisurely, etc, etc.

 

I do NOT love the pressure I feel at the end of the day when we get home at 6, everyone is hungry and asking about supper, I'm trying to look in the fridge to see what's there, cursing because there is no meat thawed out, and they are all still clamoring in the background.  Difficult for me to think. And I revert to breakfast for supper, hamburger steaks with gravy (because I freeze in 1/4 lb patties--quick to thaw), and tacos.  I don't want to eat tacos 4 nights a week.   :)

 

It's a lot more pleasant to take an hour on the weekend to browse my cookbooks and pinterest and actually THINK in a time when it's (relatvely) quiet, and I can do it in a relaxed manner.  Meal planning gives me that relaxed state while I cook.  It helps me to plan ahead (oh, we're going to get home at 6, so let me do the bulk of prep work in the morning; this day, we'll be home all afternoon, so I can pick something with a long cooking time; we need onions today and tomorrow, I can chop double with no effort; let me get the chicken out to thaw).  It's not a non-enjoyable thing to me.  It just helps cooking be *more* enjoyable.

 

I also have 4 kids that are not yet at an age they can stay home alone.  They come everywhere.  So a "quick trip" to the store for "just one thing" interrupts the flow of our day, takes 30+ minutes, and usually costs me over $30.  And it's angsty and not.fun.not.fun.at.all.  So I never want to run to the store for just one thing.  This is the biggest motivator for planning out breakfasts and lunches so that I can only shop once a week.  Keeps grocery shopping in its appropriate spot.  It usually takes me 2 hours once a week, we don't have enough storage for all the food, and it's a pain, but it's still worth it to knock it out all at once.  Grocery shopping with kids every day is crazy making.

 

So true.  Things are getting easier now that I can run to the store alone.  But then yeah it really takes quite a bit of time.  It certainly would be too time consuming to operate this way regularly. 

 

And while I enjoy cooking, it's not the same when you are under pressure daily to get it done...clean up...etc. etc.....

 

 

[Alessandra]

I don't meal plan, nor do I want to. We live close to multiple stores, so shopping is not much of an effort. I typically shop every day, often with a basket, rather than a cart, and it doesn't take long. With produce especially, I want to see what is fresh and in season. I remember last fall, my local supermarket had cauliflowers about 15" across, plus a wide crown of leaves. We had lots of cauliflower that week, lol, as I kept going back for more. Now, in spring, I am seeing giant bunches of dandelions, so we are having those. I also check sales flyers for meat, poultry, etc.

 

I cook a combination of tried and true dishes that I could cook in my sleep and new recipes. I don't mind putting a new ingredient on my list and waiting until I can get it. So, the berbere I got for an Ethiopian recipe is now a staple in my kitchen for brightening up dull cooked greens. One of my favorite websites is kitchn.com -- they have lots of ideas for using seasonal ingredients.

[LuvToRead]

I plan week to week and it helps us a lot.  I also enjoy it.  I consider cooking (including planning and shopping for cooking) one of the few creative things I can do well, so the whole process is enjoyable for me.  What I do, is draft a general idea of a plan first -- recipes/meals I want to try to have that week -- and then I shop with a list.  If the sales don't work with my idea, then I substitute and will change menus if I find something special that works better for the budget that week.  Once I get my shop home, I go through and organize an order to menus so that there is variety from day to day, but also so that I am using the items most perishable first in the upcoming week. 

 

I dislike the notion of planning a month at a time or more.  It works fine if you use a lot of processed and frozen foods over fresh, but if you are a family who prefers fresh foods, then it's very limited and, frankly, boring, IMO. 

 

I actually try to plan a months worth of meals, but I don't shop once a month.  (Is that why you said those of us who plan monthly use processed foods?)  I don't know anyone who only grocery shops once a month.  I still go to the farmer's market, stop by roadside stands, pick up my produce biweekly from my coop, and am in the grocery store at least 5 times a week.  I hate to cook, so for me, I like having a basic skeleton to work with.    I try to pick 4 or 5 things from my monthly plan for the week, then make a list of what is needed. 

[Sukale]

If I don't meal plan I go to the store and don't know what to buy. I will also forget things to make complete meals. Then an hour before dinner I am standing in the kitchen and can't think of what to make. I only meal plan for usually 3 meals at a time because I got to the store a couple of times a week. Without a little meal planning we have lots of pasta and breakfast for dinner. 

 

Planning any more than 3-4 meals at a time overwhelm me.