meal planner - does anyone do this?

[Feijoa Mum]

Yip with four boys who could happily eat us out of home within two days of doing the groceries I am a big fan.
it does take a bit to get going but once you have you wont look back. You save not only time but also money so thats gotta be a good thing.

My tip is to write out a list of the basics mince, sausages, chicken etc and then write out what are the meals that you have using those meats.

mince - shepards pie, spag bol, lasagne, nachoes etc

then once you have all the meals that you usually have you can do your plan.
I do mine based on a two week shop. I do go back for milk bread fruit and vege every couple of days but try to keep the main shop a fortnightly one.
Ours is a six week rotation. It is not gospel and quite often gets changed or varied but generally it is followed as I know I have the ingredients for everything for that list.

Hope that helps as I know it can be a bit daunting where to start but that is what I have found easiest and it works for us.

[Kazbah]

Did anyone see on ACA or Sunrise or something like that a woman in the USA who had meal-planned an entire year in advance? Now that's OCD!

[SammyRo]

Thanks everyone for your great tips! Now, just to get round to doing a meal planner that I can laminate and stick on the fridge! Although I have to say, I was off to the shops on Tuesday (at 5pm yet again!) and rather than just get that night, I did have a think about it, and got in enough for Wedneday, THursday and tonight, so thats already an improvement

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I have a meal-planning addiction.

I have about 30 meals I make that we like - and I like to try and make a new meal every month. It used to be 10 meals and a new one weekly, but once I got into the swing of meals we liked then it became easier.

I also factor in "meal deal from supermarket" or "take-away"; two meals at least are freezer/cupboard food (not fresh) so I can substitute for a take-away if I need to. Also there's the odd week when I don't plan that well so there's a couple of meals I can easily do in the freezer for that (like this week - but then DS is ill so that is a take-away/meal deal/slow cooker week!).

I'm another one who plans meals so that ALL the cream is used. Or two cheese sauce meals are on consecutive days so I don't have to cook more than one batch (eg roast beef with all the trimmigs inc cauli cheese, followed by lasagne).