Hellobee Boards Topic: How do you organize meal plans?

Hellobee Boards Topic: How do you organize meal plans? https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:49:41 +0000 gotkimchi on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2520062 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:10:18 +0000 gotkimchi 2520062@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @PawPrints: is there anyway you could send this to me? caterw on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2520051 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 15:52:38 +0000 caterw 2520051@https://boards.hellobee.com/ So.... I spend about $350/ month for a family of 3 (except now because I'm pregnant and can't cook :( ). Our diet is pretty healthy, but we do splurge sometimes on like... goldfish. Or pizza. Because my kid is two. For example, today we had eggs, toast, and fruit salad for breakfast, CostCo pizza for lunch because errands ran late, and dinner will be lamb chops, rice, green beans, strawberries for dessert. I buy meat in bulk once a month from CostCo and Aldi and then take it home and store it in meal-sized portions in the freezer. I don't have a deep freezer or anything like that (we like in a pretty standard size apartment). Then I do a rough meal plan for the month like this: Apr 1- chicken thigh Apr 2- pork chop Apr 3- salmon Apr 4- meatless/ pasta, etc. That way I know I will use all of the meat I bought and that I am rotating meals so we aren't left eating chicken thighs for ten nights in a row at the end of the month. Every week before I go shopping, I check my fridge and pantry to see what I still have and throw away anything yucky. I have a few things that I always buy every week (plain yogurt, eggs, milk) and then I fill in my meal plan with things that I can get from CostCo or what is on sale at Aldi. I also plan out breakfast and lunches so I know I have enough but not too much for those meals (for instance, I'll plan to make eggs and toast three times, yogurt three times, and bagels once with two or three different fruit options for our breakfasts and my husband and daughter can pick from among those options in any order they want throughout the week). I also have a super hard rule that we DO NOT go to the grocery store for any reason once I have gone shopping unless it's an emergency (which is usually defined only as running out of milk or fruit). I keep a couple of back up things in the pantry that we can eat if we run through the groceries faster than I expected for some reason (black beans, rice, and frozen tortillas for quick veggie tacos). PawPrints on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519973 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 14:48:19 +0000 PawPrints 2519973@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Google spreadsheet with a row for each week of the calendar, almost all meals are links to recipes. Stuff we like gets added to a Google doc for future reference. I have about 140 meals on the "make again" list at this point. MaryM on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519894 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 13:28:42 +0000 MaryM 2519894@https://boards.hellobee.com/ When I meal planned, I had a separate pinterest board for "Meals this week" Then it was easy enough to pull from other recipe boards and sort out stuff I wanted to try then. Mommy Finger on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519842 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 12:50:26 +0000 Mommy Finger 2519842@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I haven't implemented this but my plan is to write down all of our favorite meals on index cards with the ingredients needed for them on the back. This way, I can go through the cards and plan out our meals for the week or more using these as guidance. I also keep a list of what we have in our deep freezer so I can choose the meals based on that and know what to buy produce wise. For those meals that I need a recipe for, I'm going to print them out and put them in a binder. Again, haven't done yet but that's the plan. LuLu Mom on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519483 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 08:27:52 +0000 LuLu Mom 2519483@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I just do a word document and write out each day's meal at the top. Then below I type out the ingredients I need to buy (I look through pantry/freezer to see what I have and don't need to get.) I take the list with me and mark off so I know I don't miss something. Before this I check our store ad to see what protein is on sale (if we don't have any in the deep freeze) and usually try to base the meals around the sales to save some money. For example this week our store is having a seafood sale so we are having 2 meals of fish and chicken was on sale last week and I froze some so we will do 2 meals with chicken to save on the cost of groceries. regberadaisy on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519439 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:58:39 +0000 regberadaisy 2519439@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @lamariniere: we really need to do something like this for our pantry and freezer! We're very similar to @mrs high heel. We stock up on meats and freeze them. Then meals are planned around that, weekly with whatever is on sale/looks good/in season. We usually do better with a flex meal plan because things change. We also tend to cook big meals because we bring lunch. DH works nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays so Monday/Wednesday meals have to be big enough for dinner for two nights and two sets of lunches. looch on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519437 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:57:45 +0000 looch 2519437@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @lamariniere: Haha, that's awesome, in Switzerland we didn't have that restriction. You could buy whatever you wanted in the grocery stores that were open on Sunday (train station or gas station, lo). Oh, and also at the airport, that grocery store was open! MrsSRS on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519431 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:48:53 +0000 MrsSRS 2519431@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @lamariniere: It's great! Now veggies and leftovers are front and center for snacking and things like the cream cheese that I bought for a sauce (not for earing at midnight on crackers, DH!) are still there when I need them. We throw out way less produce now. lamariniere on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519427 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:43:58 +0000 lamariniere 2519427@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @looch: I'm pretty sure you cannot buy diapers in Austria on a Sunday. There is some wacko law that does not allow the purchase of things like cleaning supplies, aluminum foil, shampoo, etc. At the train station grocery stores they fence off that aisle on Sundays. I always joke that you can't murder anyone on Sundays here because you can't buy bleach to clean up the mess. :shocked: looch on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519426 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:41:14 +0000 looch 2519426@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @lamariniere: We used to shop at the gas stations on Sunday, lol. When my husband first suggested it, I was like, ummm no, but then I realized that they're basically extensions of the local grocery stores and carry produce! The only thing they didn't have was diapers, lol....that was fun. lamariniere on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519425 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:39:06 +0000 lamariniere 2519425@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @looch: I can't even imagine what it would be like to buy 1-2 week's worth of food at once! I've never done it as an adult. What doesn't help me though is that during the week grocery stores close at 8, on Saturdays at 6 and they are NOT OPEN on Sundays except the train station stores (which are mobbed). Every Saturday I have a freakout moment fretting about if we have enough milk or bread or whatever to see us through to Monday. The worst is when Christmas falls on a Friday. Then nothing is open for 3 whole days, which we learned our first year here. :silly: looch on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519419 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:32:39 +0000 looch 2519419@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @lamariniere: I think there is something to be said for cooking in this manner. I tried to convince my husband that we needed a deep freezer and he was like, umm no, we don't eat that much meat, you can go to a store at midnight and get it if you want it. When I lived abroad, we simply didn't have the ability to store large amounts of food. lamariniere on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519416 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:28:20 +0000 lamariniere 2519416@https://boards.hellobee.com/ @MrsSRS: I need to do this! I also need to purge the fridge of all the half used sauces that really need to be thrown out. :wink: I made a spreadsheet of all the stuff in the pantry with one column for the item and then a bunch of blank columns where we can pencil in quantities. I keep it taped to the inside of the pantry so that I can add/remove items as we buy more or use them. When I originally did this we had something like 12 packages of pasta and 7 cans of tomatoes. I always glance at the spreadsheet when thinking up meals so that I can avoid buying something that we already have. I also keep a list in the back of my agenda of meals that we like, and when I'm stumped, I'll look at the list. I also have a pinterest board with meal ideas so that I can keep track of recipes. I'm still pretty bad at meal planning though, since I can only buy about 2 days worth of food at a time. looch on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519407 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 07:21:22 +0000 looch 2519407@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I keep a small notebook in my kitchen drawer, it's right next to the fridge. I use the back side of it to write the grocery list for the week on it and i keep recipes and notes in the front section. I've pretty much eliminated specialty ingredients but I do keep some stuff in the pantry, like a small jar of pesto, enchilada sauce, etc. I know I can make all these things, but I don't have the time. Beyond that, i don't do much. I do one week at a time otherwise I get analysis paralysis. brownepiano on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519336 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 05:43:22 +0000 brownepiano 2519336@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We have a white board on the fridge. I wrote down a list of meals, usually in order that the ingredients will go bad. If there are specific things I know I'll need for then that might get used up, I wrote those down too, under the meal, so I remember what I bought them for. Then I write down a prep list of any thing that needs to be made before I can make the meals, or made for breakfasts/snacks. (IE: cook beans, make granola, make yogurt). I don't assign my meals specific days, I just make what I feel like off the list based on the day and how much time I have. babybean404 on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519331 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 05:22:43 +0000 babybean404 2519331@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I use anylist. Before this week, I used the free version and I would make one list of "meals this week" and a separate grocery list. I just bought the paid version, which allows you to import recipes from browsers on your phone or computer and then add the ingredients directly to your grocery list. It also has a meal plan with a calendar. I am loving it so far and this is the first week in a while that we've stuck to the plan. Usually I forget some key ingredient or we get lazy and get takeout. T.H.O.U. on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519324 Fri, 08 Apr 2016 05:12:57 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2519324@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pepper plate app is great! sapphire on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519220 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 21:19:58 +0000 sapphire 2519220@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I plan two weeks at a time and I plan for specific days. I put them as an event on a shared (with DH) Google calendar. He sometimes does the meal planning or makes dinner so it helps. It's also an easy way to search for a past recipe. Mrs. Sunshine on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519207 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 21:00:58 +0000 Mrs. Sunshine 2519207@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I write down the meal we are eating, then underneath I note what I need to buy for that meal specifically. I do that for every meal. I'll forget so many things otherwise MrsSRS on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519204 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 20:58:25 +0000 MrsSRS 2519204@https://boards.hellobee.com/ We moved all our veggies to the top shelf of our fridge and use our crisper drawers to store meat and ingredients that are for certain dinners specifically so they don't get used accidentally. I tend to use frozen meats and sturdier veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts) for later in the week. We also do pizza or pasta later in the qeek. Early in the week is more delicate veggies and proteins that are time sensitive. I make my meal plan on paper first, then make my grocery list on my phone so I have what I need. rattles on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519100 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 19:18:15 +0000 rattles 2519100@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I made a spreadsheet of our favorite meals and add to it when we try a new recipe we like. The first row has the meal name, the second the source, and then each column lists the ingredients. I scan the list, pick a few for the week and then copy and paste the relevant columns of ingredients to a note for shopping. I have a wipe off board on the fridge with the menu for the family's reference. ineebee on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519087 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 19:10:25 +0000 ineebee 2519087@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I sit and think of 5-6 meals at a time, assigning a date for each (Wunderlist is awesome for this), and always making enough for leftovers for lunch the next day. Then I make my grocery list and shop for it. I try to start the week with fish (which we eat the night I go shopping), then chicken/turkey, then to legumes/pastas at the end of the week to account for keeping meats fresh. petitenoisette on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519057 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 18:52:13 +0000 petitenoisette 2519057@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I started meal planning monthly, rotating 10-12 different meals throughout the month. Trying to do one big shop to cover anything non-perishable for the month and then a smaller weekly shop for perishables. I guess I don't make anything that requires ingredients that go bad within a few days! We don't eat a ton of meat and if I'm not going to cook the meat within 2-3 days after purchase I just stick it in the freezer. If you find that you keep using ingredients up for a different meal, maybe try to see if it's always the same ingredients? Maybe you just need to stock up more on those items. gingerbebe on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2519046 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 18:38:15 +0000 gingerbebe 2519046@https://boards.hellobee.com/ Meal templates also helped a lot when I started. It would be like: Meatless Monday Crockpot Tuesday Mexican Wednesday Italian Thursday Pizza Friday Leftover Saturday Grill Sunday By having a templates like that I could mentally fill in the blanks better than start from nothing. It would switch around seasonally too, like a soup/stew night or an entree salad night, etc. when I started I did templates and meal planned monthly - so I'd think up 4 kinds of pizza toppings, or 4 vegetarian meals, or 4 Mexican meals, etc. Pumpkin Pie on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2518824 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:10:40 +0000 Pumpkin Pie 2518824@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I've been trying to meal plan 2 weeks before so I'm not stressed out every week about what to plan for the next week. I simply try to come up with 5 meals (includes leftover), and write them down, and base my shopping list on those meals. Thats it. gingerbebe on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2518763 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 15:45:36 +0000 gingerbebe 2518763@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I try to take a gander in my pantry and freezer at what I already have, and see if I can think of meals that can be made from them and what I'd have to buy to complete the meal. Usually I'm looking at a starch and a protein combination and need to fill in veggies or seasonings. Once I come up with several possibilities, I check to see if they are too similar (i.e. all pasta dishes, or all ground beef dishes, or something), and try to get a balance of different cuisines. Then I set the menu for the week and make a grocery list. So this week, I had rice and pasta in the house for starches. I had chicken thighs, ground turkey, and peas in the freezer. I also had spaghetti sauce, an open bottle of wine, zucchini, onions, carrots, and a bell pepper. So I decided to make teriyaki chicken served with rice and veggies and spaghetti with turkey bolognese right off the top since I had all the ingredients. I bought ground beef to make hamburger stroganoff and Thai basil beef, since I had all the ingredients already for the sauces and had veggies, noodles, and rice to serve on the side. 4 meals, leftovers twice, dinner for a week. Added to the grocery list were fresh fruit, milk, eggs, and salad fixings to serve with dinners. And anything we need for breakfast and lunch, like sandwich stuff and yogurt. Mrs. High Heels on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2518702 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 14:59:40 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 2518702@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I have a deep freezer, so buy meat in bulk. I usually plan around what proteins I have available, then look up recipes, and buy additional ingredients for the week from there. I'll usually just buy veggies as needed to supplement my main dish. Bao on "How do you organize meal plans?" https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-organize-meal-plans#post-2518694 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 14:54:32 +0000 Bao 2518694@https://boards.hellobee.com/ I'm currently making my grocery list, and also meal planning as I go along. I just have a note in my phone with a list of the meals I want to make, but nothing more. I usually end up using an ingredient for something else and then I can't make my originally planned meal. I'm trying to figure out a better way to organize it so this doesn't happen. I also want to make sure meals that require ingredients that go back within a few days get used first, I struggle with that too!