meal planning .. how far in advance ?

mumofthetwins

Hi Guys


im just wondering how far in advance everyone meal plans ?
at the minute we do it week by week but im wondering if its worth doing fortnightly ?
do you notice any difference


Thanks
Lisa x

maman

mumofthetwins wrote: »

Hi Guys


im just wondering how far in advance everyone meal plans ?
at the minute we do it week by week but im wondering if its worth doing fortnightly ?
do you notice any difference


Thanks
Lisa x

Weekly works fine for me as I think I'd have problems with storage in the fridge if I tried a longer gap. And that's just for two people. Seeing your username I assume you're cooking for a family.


I can shop to my meal plan once a week and not go near a shop until the following week. I think there could b a problem if you ended up calling into a local shop for, for example, milk and buying lots of other bits and pieces as well. Local shops can be very expensive compared with Aldi where I do my man shop.


Some people try to stretch their plan by a day at a time so maybe you could work towards a 2 week plan that way.

LameWolf

Weekly as a general rule - though it can be only for a couple of days if I am having extra problems with my health.
I am cooking for just the two of us and we are both retired; I don't shop for the whole week in one go as a trip of that length would be too much for me (I use three different supermarkets in order to get precisely what I want) but I do try and have an idea of what we are going to eat, to save my strength on busy days.

S_Wales_Saver

I always plan for a calendar month. I cook for 6 people, including 1 vegetarian and two 9yr olds. My spreadsheet is quite detailed as it includes the childrens’ school meal menu and also their after-school activities. They have various activities on 4 weekdays, which limits the time I have to cook and they have to eat. The sheet also includes columns for food needing to be bought, and things to be defrosted.

I’ve done it like this for at least three years. I use google sheets, so I can plan on my computer or tablet and have access on my phone for shopping. I can also look back at previous menus and often think “oh haven’t had that in a while”

I shop during the first week for meat and fish to freeze, frozen foods and any tinned/jarred food I don’t carry in my stash. Then fresh food is bought twice weekly. I can’t get it to once as we drink huge quantities of milk!

BearPearSun

We plan for one week at a time. It helps us stay on plan because anything we have a hankering for can just be added on to the following week. It also lets us plan around work shifts/hobbies/social activities that we might not know about much before.

PasturesNew

My planning is done before it's all on the plate. I rarely know what I'll be eating until I walk into the kitchen - and often change my mind half way through.

I've just cooked a cheese omelette and as I walked from the kitchen I thought "should have done chips and beans with this".



I couldn't plan - I am somebody who has to fancy something before I can be bothered to eat it... so it's all a last minute "what do I fancy?" thing!

Islandmaid

I am another weekly planner - high 5 to anyone who plans for a month, that's is SO organised

I never have it fixed in stone, so Chicken Thighs for example, could be used for a curry, stirfry or midweek roast, depending on how I feel, I also leave the last day of the week before I go grocery shopping open to cook what's left over in the fridge.

I bulk buy meat monthly, the shop once a week (Wednesday) and that's it.

At the end of the day it is about what works for you and your family

maman

Islandmaid wrote: »

At the end of the day it is about what works for you and your family

Exactly. I suppose it depends on lots of things including storage, time to spend shopping but also how much willpower you have if you want to save money. I've read too many threads and know too many people in RL that go into shops for a few bits and come out having spent £s!:rotfl:

katkin

I used to be quite ridgid when i started meal planning, but that was sometimes off putting if any of us didnt fancy what was planned.

Now i start with a monthly shop of the basics, butcher meat / fish, carb / startch / carbs, cupboard supplies like tin toms, spices etc. Fruit and veg are still weekly / seasonal. With this stash i then weekly menu plan and make sure it can be flexible.

It's a bit like having my own limited by price and season shop at home to pick out meals from over a week that i can cope with making easier or more complicated depending on our work hours or other commitments. Now my sons have grown up and left home it's become a lot easier.

It's what suits you and what makes life easier. That and what you need from your diet nutrition and taste wise.

I keep all this in a wee A5 household notebook with notes of what worked and what didn't.

Ilona

PasturesNew wrote: »

My planning is done before it's all on the plate. I rarely know what I'll be eating until I walk into the kitchen - and often change my mind half way through.

I couldn't plan - I am somebody who has to fancy something before I can be bothered to eat it... so it's all a last minute "what do I fancy?" thing!

Same here. I don't know what I'm going to eat until I open the fridge door. Spose it's a good idea to plan if you have a family to cook for, especially if you have fussy eaters, but no point at all if you are a single person. Just have what you fancy.

Ilona

Nelski

Childhood for me consisted of knowing exactly what would be for dinner every day week after week month after month. I hated it and so am now as a fully fledged grown up against any kind of strict menu planning. Im of the school of decide in enough time to defrost it and all will be well; . Its by no means perfect and regularly fails but at least I know beans on toast are not just for Fridays