I keep saying I'm going to meal plan, but then I go to the shop and they've got something on special that's not on my menu plan!!

Is that what you do Olive? How many meals do you have on rotation? The one I did had one night of food that I knew the girls really liked, then the next night they had left overs and DH and I had something just for us, and then the third night was a "like it or starve" sort of choice.