How do I plan meals for a week?

Meal planning fails when it is treated as menu design. It works when it is matched to the actual week — the evening you get home at seven needs a fifteen-minute meal, not an ambitious one. Planning against the calendar is what makes it stick.

What you'll need

• A list or notes app (optional)
• A look in the fridge and cupboards (optional)

Step by step

1. Look at what you already have first.Fridge, freezer, cupboards. Planning around what needs using cuts both waste and cost before you have decided anything.
2. Look at the week's schedule before choosing any meals.Late nights, evenings out, days someone else cooks. This is the step that makes plans survive contact with reality.
3. Assign meals by time available, not by appeal.Fifteen-minute meals on busy evenings, longer cooking on the days that allow it. A good recipe on the wrong night does not get made.
4. Plan fewer meals than there are days.Leftovers, a takeaway, an evening out. Planning seven dinners for seven days leaves no slack and produces waste.
5. Repeat meals you already know.A rotation of ten or twelve reliable meals is easier and works better than seven new recipes a week.
6. Write the shopping list directly from the plan.Go meal by meal, checking against what you have. This is where the money is saved.
7. Deliberately reuse ingredients across meals.A bunch of coriander or a tin of coconut milk in two meals rather than one. It reduces waste and shortens the list.
8. Put the plan somewhere visible.The fridge door. A plan nobody can see gets ignored, and anyone else in the house cannot help.

Tips

• Cook once and eat twice deliberately. A double batch on Sunday covers Wednesday with no extra effort.
• Keep two or three emergency meals in the cupboard or freezer for the evening the plan collapses. It stops one bad day derailing the week.
• Plan a designated leftovers night. It is the simplest way to prevent food waste and it removes a night of planning.

Common mistakes

• Planning meals before checking the calendar — An hour-long recipe on a night you get home at eight will not happen, and the ingredients go to waste.
• Planning seven new recipes — It is a large amount of unfamiliar cooking and shopping. A rotation of familiar meals is what survives a busy week.
• Shopping without a list built from the plan — You buy for meals you already have ingredients for and miss things you need. The list is where the saving actually happens.

Questions people ask