Guide: How to Plan a Weekly Menu

Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 30–45 minutes weekly for planning

Weekly menu planning eliminates daily stress about what to eat, prevents expensive last-minute takeout, and ensures you buy only what you'll actually use. Instead of standing in front of the fridge at 7pm wondering what's for dinner, you'll know exactly what you're making and have all ingredients ready. This guide teaches you to create realistic weekly menus that fit your schedule, budget, and cooking skill level.

What You'll Need

Materials

• Paper and pen or digital notes app
• Your weekly schedule/calendar
• Recipe collection (bookmarked websites, apps, or cookbooks)
• Previous grocery receipts (optional, for budget reference)

Prerequisites

• Knowledge of your weekly schedule and commitments
• Basic understanding of meals you know how to cook
• 30–45 minutes of planning time, ideally on the same day each week
• Willingness to keep first plans simple (3–5 ingredients per meal)

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Choose your planning day and time

Pick the same day and time each week for meal planning—typically Friday, Saturday, or Sunday before your weekly grocery shop. Set a recurring calendar reminder for this time. Consistency turns meal planning into an automatic habit. Most people plan Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon, then shop later the same day.

Step 2: Review your weekly schedule for eating patterns

Look at your calendar for the coming week and note which nights you'll be home for dinner, which nights you'll eat out, and which nights you'll need quick 20-minute meals versus having time for 45-minute cooking. Mark busy nights (late work, activities) and relaxed nights (free evenings). Your meal plan must match your actual schedule, not an ideal schedule.

Step 3: Start with your anchor meals

List meals you already know how to cook and eat regularly—these are your "anchor meals." Examples: spaghetti with meat sauce, tacos, stir-fry, grilled cheese and soup, scrambled eggs and toast, chicken and rice. You need 5–7 anchor meals you can make without recipes. These form your base menu and prevent planning stress.

Step 4: Assign meals to specific days based on time and energy

Match your anchor meals to your schedule. Monday (busy night) gets 20-minute tacos. Wednesday (relaxed evening) gets 45-minute roasted chicken and vegetables. Friday (tired after long week) gets easy grilled cheese and tomato soup or leftovers. Saturday might be "trying a new recipe" night. Sunday could be meal prep day. Matching meal complexity to available time and energy prevents abandoning your plan.

Step 5: Plan for intentional leftovers

Cook double portions on 2–3 nights and plan to eat leftovers for lunch the next day or dinner two nights later. If you make chili Monday, eat it again Wednesday. If you roast chicken Sunday, plan chicken sandwiches or chicken fried rice Tuesday. Planned leftovers eliminate half your cooking while keeping food fresh and appealing.

Step 6: List all ingredients needed for each meal

Under each planned meal, write every ingredient you'll need, including amounts. "Tacos Tuesday: 1 lb ground beef, taco seasoning, 8 tortillas, 1 onion, 2 tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream." Complete ingredient lists prevent mid-week discovery that you're missing a key item. This list becomes your shopping list.

Step 7: Check your pantry and cross off what you have

Before finalizing your shopping list, check your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry for ingredients you already own. Cross these off your list. If you already have ground beef in the freezer, you don't need to buy more. If you have half an onion and three tortillas, adjust quantities. This prevents overbuying and saves $10–20 weekly.

Step 8: Add simple breakfast and lunch plans

Don't overthink these meals. Choose 2–3 breakfast options you can rotate: oatmeal with fruit, eggs and toast, yogurt and granola. Choose 2–3 lunch options: sandwiches, leftovers from dinner, salads. Write down ingredients for these too. Having a breakfast and lunch plan prevents buying lunch out daily, which costs $8–15 versus $2–3 for homemade.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Planning too many new or complex recipes: Your first meal plan shouldn't include five recipes you've never made before. Start with 4–5 familiar meals and maybe one new recipe. Learning to plan is hard enough without also learning to cook five new dishes. Build complexity gradually over several weeks.
• Ignoring your actual schedule: Planning salmon with roasted vegetables on your busiest work night guarantees failure. You'll order pizza instead, waste the salmon, and feel bad about abandoning your plan. Match quick meals to busy nights and save cooking projects for when you actually have time.
• Not planning for realistic eating patterns: If you eat lunch out with coworkers twice weekly, don't plan (and shop for) seven homemade lunches. If you get takeout Friday nights with friends, don't plan Friday dinner. Your meal plan should reflect how you actually live, not how you wish you lived.
• Planning meals that don't share ingredients: If every meal uses completely different ingredients, you'll buy 40+ items and spend significantly more. Better: If you buy a bag of potatoes, use them in three meals. If you buy chicken, plan 2–3 chicken dishes. Ingredient overlap saves money and reduces waste.
• Making every meal "special": Not every dinner needs to be exciting or Instagram-worthy. Some nights are "boring" staples like pasta with jarred sauce or scrambled eggs. Simple meals prevent burnout and keep you cooking. Save elaborate meals for weekends when you have time and energy.

Pro Tips

• Keep a "master meal list" of 20–30 meals: Maintain a running list of every meal you know how to make or want to learn. When planning time comes, pull 5–7 meals from this list rather than starting from scratch. Add new successful recipes to this list. Over time, you'll have 30–40 meals to rotate, preventing menu fatigue.
• Theme nights reduce decision fatigue: Assign themes to eliminate daily decisions: Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Pasta Wednesday, Slow Cooker Thursday, Pizza Friday, Clean-Out-The-Fridge Saturday, Meal Prep Sunday. Themes narrow your choices (you're choosing which pasta dish, not which meal entirely) and create comforting routine.
• Plan one "flex night" for using up odds and ends: Don't plan all seven dinners. Leave one night as "leftovers/pantry meal/freezer surprise" to use up what's accumulating. This prevents waste and gives you flexibility if plans change. Friday night often works well as flex night.
• Take photos of successful weekly plans: When you complete a week where the plan worked perfectly, take a photo of that week's menu. In future weeks when you're stuck, pull up old photos and repeat successful plans. You don't need a new plan every week—repeating working plans is smart, not boring.
• Batch your planning and shopping: Plan and shop on the same day, typically Sunday or your day off. Planning without immediate shopping means you'll forget details and need to re-plan later. Shopping right after planning means your plan is fresh in your mind and you won't forget key ingredients.

Related Skills

• How to Shop for Groceries on a Budget
• How to Meal Prep for the Week
• How to Reduce Food Waste
• How to Stock a Beginner Kitchen