Personal & Lifestyle
Weekly Meal Planner Templates
The point of planning meals is the shopping list that falls out of it, so these keep the list on the same sheet rather than on a separate one you will leave at home.
Seven day columns and a row for each meal. Type one meal per line in each column and keep the line counts equal - the rows line up on their own, and a day you are eating out is a dash rather than a gap.
Plan seven dinners rather than a fortnight of every meal, write leftovers in as a meal, and leave one night open - the version that survives past Wednesday is set out in how to plan meals for a week.
Meals This Week
Lunch
Dinner
Leftover daal
Chicken karahi
Sandwiches
Vegetable pulao
Soup
Fish, rice, salad
Leftover pulao
Chana with roti
Out
Biryani
Sandwiches
Pasta
Late lunch at Ammi's
Soup and bread
Meals This Week
Lunch
Dinner
Leftover daal
Chicken karahi
Sandwiches
Vegetable pulao
Soup
Fish, rice, salad
Leftover pulao
Chana with roti
Out
Biryani
Sandwiches
Pasta
Late lunch at Ammi's
Soup and bread
Meals This Week
Lunch
Dinner
Leftover daal
Chicken karahi
Sandwiches
Vegetable pulao
Soup
Fish, rice, salad
Leftover pulao
Chana with roti
Out
Biryani
Sandwiches
Pasta
Late lunch at Ammi's
Soup and bread
Meals This Week
Lunch
Dinner
Leftover daal
Chicken karahi
Sandwiches
Vegetable pulao
Soup
Fish, rice, salad
Leftover pulao
Chana with roti
Out
Biryani
Sandwiches
Pasta
Late lunch at Ammi's
Soup and bread
Common questions
How far ahead should I plan?
A week. Two weeks looks efficient and collapses by the fourth day, because plans made a fortnight out do not survive one late evening.
Should I plan every meal?
Plan dinners properly and leave breakfast and lunch loose - those are habits rather than decisions, and planning them adds work for nothing.
What about leftovers?
Write them in as a meal. A plan that pretends every dinner is cooked fresh is the plan that produces waste on Thursday.