How many people plan meals

@KrisNY (7590)
United States
January 25, 2007 6:52am CST
How many people sit down and plan out the weekly dinners at the beginning of the week? Do you find this more helpful when buying groceries? Is it something you do to save time during the week?
4 people like this
17 responses
@suscan (1955)
• United States
16 Feb 07
I aM not a big planner. Usually when I shop I will buy groceries to make several dinners and just decide day by day what we will have for dinner.
1 person likes this
@crazynurse (7482)
• United States
14 Feb 07
Yes, we actively plan meals. We utilize Sat and Sun afternoons to fix a few things so that meals are easier on busy weeknights. For instance, we may brown and drain some hamburger and store it in a large baggie in the freezer. One night when we come home, we pop it out, add our seasoning and prepare for tacos! On Sun afternoon we will sometimes make a meatloaf and some chicken/rice casserole in teh oven then freeze them for a weeknight....voila, two meals taken care of! We have been known to have two crockpots going....one w/ veggie soup and one with chili...all day on Saturday. Once cooked, they are frozen for busy weeknights! This is the only way I have found to prevent going out to eat when crunch time comes on busy weeknights!
1 person likes this
@Lindalinda (4111)
• Canada
8 Feb 07
When I was younger and had a family we used to go shopping together every Friday. We would check out the specials and plan the meals for the next week accordingly. Now I live by myself and I still do basically the same thing. If ham is on special I might plan a few meals around it, if certain vegetables are on special I will buy those for the next week. It saves me a lot of money.
1 person likes this
• United States
8 Feb 07
I like to THINK I plan it all out.. but rarely end up doing exactly as planned. It all ends up being what I'm in the mood to make or what the kids are hungry for, etc.
1 person likes this
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
7 Feb 07
i think some do plan for their meals but i take it not as serious and would eat anything that is in front of me. :) haha
1 person likes this
@Bev1986 (1425)
• United States
6 Feb 07
We try to do this every Friday... usually it's my oldest dd and I. We'll sit down and plan the meals for the next week, depending on what is going on each evening. I'll look through the freezer to see what we still have, then plan meals around that. It truly saves us a lot of money.... Like last week, we picked meals that we had almost all the food already purchased! I went to the grocery store on Saturday morning and spend $27 on groceries for the next week! That was full meals each evening! It also saves us a lot of time. I work full time, and my kids get home from school about 1 1/2 hours before I do. Hubby gets home about 1/2 hour after me. So the girls will sometimes get dinner started, then I finish it up when I get home and as soon as hubby walks in the door, we can all eat! No worries about what I'm going to have for dinner as I'm walking in the door!
@weemam (13372)
21 Feb 07
I hate my life to be planned out , I have so many appointments to take my family too , I make my mind up the day before and sometimes just on the day , today we had a good day and some good news so we ate out and it was lovely , I like to be spontaneous xx
@wvchell78 (564)
• United States
26 Jan 07
I always try to plan meals but everything usually changes day to day. I stick to the plan but change up the days depending on how long I have to prepare dinner.
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
27 Jan 07
As me and my housemate sharing the shopping costs, we sit down and plan together once a week when we are both in, as he works shifts. So that I can have dinner when he's at work and vice versa. This gives us a varied weekly meal planner. We then shop together because I have the car, we can then check dates on food so that the days on which we have planned to eat a particular meal corresponds to the sell by date on the food. It saves a lot of time and doesn't mean buying stuff we don't need and a cheaper shopping bill at the end of the day!
1 person likes this
@beckyomg1 (6756)
• United States
21 Feb 07
I do not plan meals. It is so hard to figure out what im going to have for dinner. I sometimes think about it all day long and when it comes time to make it then i figure out what i want. I try when shopping to get different things but when it comes to the day i just dont know what to do. plus my hubby is a picky eater.
@lauriefnp (5111)
• United States
18 Feb 07
My situation is different because I'm only cooking for myself and sometimes my boyfriend if he is here. We're trying not to order out much because of the wasted money and the calories. I always have the basics in the freezer: steaks, chicken, fish, ground beef, pork, bacon,etc. We can decide in the morning what to make and generally everything we would need is here. I generally buy produce and bread, milk, and eggs with my weekly shopping, but everything else I tend to stock up on when it's on sale. I never know what's for dinner until that day- and sometimes until later in the day! I can see where it would be very different when you are planning meals for a family, though.
@Rahleah (187)
• United States
19 Feb 07
On the weeks I do this, I find that I have a much smoother week and I spend less money and waste less on extra trips to the store and through a drive through. Having said that, I also admit that I can't seem to make myself do it every week. If I have a very busy weekend and never get that part planned and done, the my whole week falls apart ... not just the meals part! I wish I could find a way to force myself to do this no matter what.
@Debs_place (10520)
• United States
21 Feb 07
I plan in the sense of the word of well I can make chicken soup in the crockpot and that is a few days worth of meals, and we have chili in the freezer from when I froze some when I made a batch before and we have burgers and ckicken that we can grill. To sit down and say...on Monday we will eat and on Tuesday we will eat...no..I don't do that. Sometimes I just get a craving. I know someone who does plan their life like that, lists for everything, times to what and when - exactly...I am not that anal retentive.
• United States
18 Feb 07
I never did sit down figure out for the whole week what we would be having for dinner. Now that it is just my husband and I at home I don't see any need to. If I use my crockpot then when I get up in the morning I put my ingrediants into the crockpot and know what I will be putting on the table that evening. If I don't use the crockpot I just wing it. When I get home and relax some I just decide at that point what will be on the dinner table to eat.
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
25 Jan 07
we plan ours as we shop buy what we need for each meal . we buy that and might forget the paper towels and tin foil lol to us it saves time seems like we dont have time to set down to do it
@lpetges (3036)
• United States
25 Jan 07
wow, we are rarely ever home all at the same time anymore. i can honestly say that we had the last meal together at our kitchen table, on christmas day. i always say that i should get rid of our table, because nobody uses it exept to throw jackets, and paper work on!
@XxAngelxX (2830)
• Canada
25 Jan 07
Wow I wish I could find the motivation to do that!!! It would make life so much easier and save a ton of time during the week. Instead a lot of afternoons at about three I start wondering well what should I make tonight, and some days it's even later before I think about it. Then we usually end up with something really quick like Kraft Dinner, lol.