How do you plan your meals and do your weekly food shop?

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Even-Tangelo7026@reddit

I used to have the same problem repeating the same 5 meals every week and buying random stuff at the supermarket. What actually helped me was planning the full week in advance with a shopping list grouped by categories. I built a free tool that does this automatically you just set your budget and how many people, and it generates the whole weekly menu + shopping list. Happy to share the link if anyone’s interested Its in Spanish at the moment but i’m working on the English version

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Weak_Alternative_769@reddit

I shop in person most weeks, but only after planning meals first otherwise I end up wandering and overspending. I usually pick 4–5 dinners, reuse a few ingredients across them, and then build my list from that. I keep everything saved in CookBook app so I can drag meals into the week and generate a clean shopping list instead of writing one from scratch. Biggest pain points used to be forgetting ingredients, buying random extras, and getting stuck in the same 3-meal loop planning properly mostly fixed that.

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Ok-Potato-8278@reddit

Decide I need one item from the supermarket (eg milk) stop in whichever supermarket I'm driving past on my way home, wander the aisles aimlessly until something catches my eye, think 'oh I could do a beef stew/chicken curry in the slow cooker' add meat to the trolley then look for some random ingredients to go with it, end up in the middle of lidl looking at DIY items for 30 minutes. Convince myself not to buy treats - trolley becomes 30% treats regardless. Checkout. Forgot milk. But now I have an extra set of screwdriver bits

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idreaminlowercase@reddit

I shop in person and usually have a list of things I need to get. I usually eat 2 types of meals a week however I don’t meal prep as I hate cooking left overs so I’ll cook every day. Sometimes I’m lazy and get ready made meals. Food I usually eat is pasta and I only eat a small amount so it lasts me over 2 weeks. I repeat meals a lot. Most of my meals are pasta, burgers,hot dogs and sandwiches. Sometimes I’ll get chicken dippers or other frozen foods. It really depends how busy my week is and if I can be asked to make something.

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Puzzled-Job9556@reddit

In person. Multiple shops a week. Meat delivery from butchers every other Friday. My partner and I eat at different times or different meals several times a week so we don't really plan.

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destria@reddit

I have a shared grocery list with my husband. We add any staples that we run out of as we go. I tend to meal plan on a Sunday and list out the dinners we're having for the next week. I check what we already have, try to use up cupboard ingredients and consider seasonality when planning dinners. Then I go on a Monday afternoon with the toddler to do the shop. I used to get groceries delivered but my toddler loves being in the supermarket so now it's like a fun activity for him. My husband and I alternate cooking. We pick a dinner from the list to make, trying to use up any more perishable ingredients first.

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fiveofspades94@reddit

Out of curiosity, are there any meals out of the 295 that you repeat regularly now? Any faves?

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destria@reddit

A few, or at least variations of them when it's the right season. For example, we always make Santorini style tomato fritters with garlic aioli when we have a glut of tomatoes. I was also a big fan of roasting vegetables like carrots, sweet potato or butternut squash with maple syrup and serving on some whipped tahini yogurt with crispy chickpeas and kale because it's so simple but delicious. My husband is a big fan of Korean street toast.

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Vladamir_pootinn@reddit

Wife says what I eat

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PuzzleheadedFrame441@reddit

Are you my husband 😂

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nothingnew09876@reddit

Back off, he's mine

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PuzzleheadedFrame441@reddit

😂😂😂😂

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Certain_Lemon_1601@reddit

I create a menu, then shop based on the menu... https://preview.redd.it/allwru28fvlg1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b5f12db67e3c01e326c75a0e6517589d927636f

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Intrepid_Bearz@reddit

I usually pick one meal that’ll last 3 days, like a stir fry - this week was rice. Then one meal that’ll last 2 days - this week that was tagliatelle with a Dijon, black pepper and drama sauce and Southern fried chicken. One lazy ready meal - Indian from Aldi this week . One extra nice meal to look forward to, like a Sunday roast - Going to be pulled pork with apple sauce this week. I try to change things about so we don’t get too bored. Especially with the 3 day meal. Sometimes it’s a stew, sometimes a stir fry, sometimes tacos… usually husband will say if he’s getting bored of something.

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romeo__golf@reddit

I look in the cupboards and make a mental note of how many days I need to cater for versus how many I'll be eating out that week. Most of my weekly meals are pretty boring, so I'll usually get 3 packets of chicken breast, some sort of fish, and then one pork or beef product then plan meals around that as I wander the aisles. Usually end up buying a few rice packets, some sort of pasta, and again just work out which grain would work with each meal. I usually eat out at least twice a week, often more so my at-home meals tend to be pretty mediocre and I repeat a handful of recipes week after week. Fajitas, bolognese, oven-baked fish with steamed vegetables and mashed potato etc etc

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WoodenEggplant4624@reddit

Shop in person twice a week and online once every two to three weeks. Sometimes make a list, have a good handle on what we have in stock Meal planning is a bit random and partly depends on leftovers. I try to experiment with new dishes regularly.

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krkrbnsn@reddit

I do one weekly shop on Ocado. I basically add 90% of the same items I had the week before so it takes about 10mins to complete on the app. Delivery on Sun evenings and have food for the whole week. Even though I mostly buy the same ingredients each week, I tend to make different meals to keep it interesting.

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TurbulentLifeguard11@reddit

I hate meal planning. I make an online delivery order weekly because the £1-2 delivery charge, thanks to purchasing an annual delivery pass, is well worth spending to relieve myself of the 60-90 mins each week it would take me to do it myself. I generally rotate through various proteins and build meals around them. Usually I end up not buying enough day's worth of food and end up doing a top-up shop, which I don't mind so much as I can do it on a lunch hour and means that any veg / meat is fresher in the middle of the week. We do tend to repeat means across a 2-3 week span, with some meals being almost weekly. We're picky eaters on the whole but I do try to get variety in terms of proteins and vegetables into my family. I want to like meal planning but I really don't. My wife keeps saying she's going to start planning, but she never does, because she hates it too and doesn't have the time in the day to properly think it through.

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terryjuicelawson@reddit

Tend to do several mini shops through the week as planning a whole week in one go is a slog as well as storing it all. Base it around whatever is run out and several meals with flexibility built into it. Always in person to see what looks best, actually found it quicker than the process of an online shop the few times we have done it.

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Rinlow05@reddit

Single person household. I plan my weeks meals mostly based on my shift pattern for that week, working on an alternating Late/Early finish time, with every Monday being a WFH day. I do home cooked food Sat & Sun, but also Mon if its my early shift. My home cooked meals are deliberately 2 person portions so I 'cook once eat twice', preserving the 2nd portions for 'leftovers' on Thur & Fri. On Tue & Wed I usually do something simple such as a 'meat & two veg' or a supermarket ready-meal that I add additional fresh cooked veg or a salad to go with it. My primary weekly shop is done Sunday morning. In summary my week looks like this: Mon - WFH - Home cook if Early, if Late meat & veg or ready-meal with side portion Tue - meat & veg or ready-meal with side Wed- meat & veg or ready-meal with side Thur - Leftovers from homecooked meal made previous weekend Fri - Leftovers from homecooked meal made previous weekend Sat - homecooked meal (2 person portion) Sun - Weekley shop & homecooked meal (2 person portion)

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PKblaze@reddit

In person (Lidl don't do delivery anyway) Most of the stuff I use is just stuff we get in on a weekly basis so it automatically goes on the list. The list is made before we set off, usually a couple of checks of things that we may be unsure of. But I have a good memory for the things I've eaten so I know when it needs a restock. For example I already know I need fruit juice this week as I've run out so it's a mental note. As for meal planning, Wednesdays and Sundays are preplanned. Thursday is leftovers from Wednesday. Otherwise we keep some general stuff in like vegetables, bread, pasta, rice, ramen etc as well as freezer stuff so we have most stuff on hand for whatever we want. When we're out we don't strictly adhere to the list, if something catches our eye we'll give it a try, or we'll decide on cooking something and then figure out the day afterwards. Overall we get through everything and have minimal food waste.

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SuperDamnZen@reddit

For dinners we have a four week meal plan that we use and always shop on the same weekday evening after work as it's the only weekday evening we are both free. Lunches my partner has the same thing every week but I'll rotate my meals to not get bored

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Harrry-Otter@reddit

Chaotically. I shop in person in a mix of supermarkets and local specialty shops. Other than staple ingredients like onions or whatever, I just decide what I’m eating for the next few days based on whatever ingredients look the most interesting in the shop I happen to be in at the time.

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ThatBandicoot4769@reddit

I shop for a family of 4. I have a list of meals (about 40) and I choose randomly from that each week, making sure we never have something 2 weeks running. I make a list on Saturday ready to go to the supermarket first thing on Sunday morning.

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elvpak@reddit

I shop online - such a huge timesaver compared to shopping in person (especially having to do it at the weekend because of working Mon-Fri). Could never go back now. Meal-plan on Thursday or Friday and get the delivery on Saturday morning. Cook on Saturday and Sunday evening and one evening during the week and always get two nights out of each meal (Friday is the 'wildcard' day when we have a pizza/ready meal/takeaway).

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throwawayonathrow@reddit

In person always! I write key items on the fridge as I run out but generally check the fridge after deciding meals for the week before shopping. List of meals lives on the fridge, husband and I each pick a couple and I make sure ingredients are available to cook said meals.

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vipros42@reddit

Go through what we've saved on Instagram that week, what we might fancy from one of the extensive collection of cookbooks and magazines. So far we haven't eaten the same thing twice this year. I would like an app I could use to save recipes from YouTube, Instagram or Facebook that doesn't cost a fucking fortune.

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Gold_Information9677@reddit

We plan our meals for the week based on what we have on each night such as late night gym classes or meetings. So those nights we pick quicker meals. We get our recipes from either recipe books or online. We only live 5 mins walk away from Morrisons and Lidl so just go to Lidl and stuff we can’t get there we get at Morrisons.

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GeggingIn@reddit

We do mega tins, booze and dry once a month at Aldi. Then just pop to local Morrisons to pick fresh up when needed. My partner does all the cooking so he just picks what’s for dinner that day and I eat it.

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moderatlyinterested@reddit

Stashcook app allows us to have a rotation of meals we like, each week we just pick the meals we are going to eat it then gives a list of required ingredients and quantities.

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Scotland4ever6481@reddit

Might be boring but I have the same meals on rotation - smoothies, avo/eggs on toast for breakfast or lunch (they're interchangeable). Then once a week I'll prep one meal which I can have either for lunch or dinner, just depends how I'm feeling / hunger levels on any given day. Usually will be about 4 meals worth. My bf and I food shop together in person but when I was single I did an online food shop delivery which kept me organised! And yes I check the cupboards before shopping. The way I do it means I keep healthy in general, but I never like having too much food in as I do eat out a decent amount during the week so don't want things to go to waste. I tried to be one of those people who has fun and exciting things for their meals every night but it just isn't me!! I try to take out as much decision fatigue as possible.

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RippledBarbecue@reddit

We work out when we next want to/can fit in shopping then work back from then, how many main meals do we need, how many lunches,how many breakfasts? Breakfast/lunch we do our own thing, evening meals we have some recipes from when we did hellofresh previously and we have a look through them and decide which of them we want to make this time

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Shot-Preparation-540@reddit

Usually I didn't plan my meal what's my mood wants I ate that most of the time

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How do you plan your meals and do your weekly food shop?

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34 Comments

Even-Tangelo7026@reddit

Weak_Alternative_769@reddit

Ok-Potato-8278@reddit

idreaminlowercase@reddit

Puzzled-Job9556@reddit

destria@reddit

fiveofspades94@reddit

destria@reddit

Vladamir_pootinn@reddit

PuzzleheadedFrame441@reddit

nothingnew09876@reddit

PuzzleheadedFrame441@reddit

Certain_Lemon_1601@reddit

Intrepid_Bearz@reddit

romeo__golf@reddit

WoodenEggplant4624@reddit

krkrbnsn@reddit

TurbulentLifeguard11@reddit

terryjuicelawson@reddit

Rinlow05@reddit

PKblaze@reddit

SuperDamnZen@reddit

Harrry-Otter@reddit

ThatBandicoot4769@reddit

elvpak@reddit

throwawayonathrow@reddit

vipros42@reddit

Gold_Information9677@reddit

GeggingIn@reddit

moderatlyinterested@reddit

Scotland4ever6481@reddit

RippledBarbecue@reddit

Shot-Preparation-540@reddit

AutoModerator@reddit