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I recently came across this quote: ‘My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.’ And while certain tasks in life are necessary and need to be on your to-do list, such as cooking dinner for your family, I found that there is a way to make the process simpler.
In this article, I am sharing with you seven habits that I do every week that make the whole process take so much less time and effort and really help me stay organised with this.
7 Habits to Simplify Meal planning
Keep reading below or watch the video:
1. Meal spreadsheet
The first habit I’ve incorporated is to make a general spreadsheet. This is nothing fancy; it’s simply a list of meals that I love to make and are also loved by my family. It’s a list of recipes I’ve made multiple times before. I know how to make them by heart, without having to place the recipe in front of me, which saves me time. I haven’t counted exactly how many I have on there, but probably around 20 or 30 recipes.
This is something I’ve incorporated after seeing other minimalist moms do a similar process, which I thought was absolutely brilliant. I do still sometimes add things to that list, but it’s really helpful to have it all in one place.
I keep my list in my ClickUp board because that’s the system I use for organising my business. So I keep my personal stuff on there too, as it’s just helpful to have everything in one place. I have a column for chicken meals, one for fish meals, and then one for random meals.
What this means is that every week, when I want to meal plan for the week ahead, I simply go to that spreadsheet and pick the meals from there. It makes the whole process so much easier—I don’t have to be scrambling and trying to find recipes at the end of each week. This has simplified the process a lot for me.
2. Grocery delivery
The second habit I’ve incorporated is to use grocery delivery. I know this is not for everybody, but for our family, it has been working really well.
I have a toddler and a six-year-old, so going to the shop every week to do a big food shop is overwhelming and stressful. Taking care of two young kids in the shops, I feel like I can’t focus on everything I need to find. I have to keep going back and forth between aisles to locate everything.
So ordering online, on my phone, and having the groceries delivered has helped a lot.
It has also saved me a lot of money because it means fewer impulse buys. I can see my total and how many items I have in my shopping cart before I actually check out, whereas in the shop, seeing items and offers left and right can lead to more impulsive shopping.
I used several delivery services in the past, but at the moment, I use Tesco. They have a little subscription service too, about £8 per month. That’s £2 per delivery for us, which I think is great for having all our food delivered and saving me all that time of going to the grocery shop with the kids.
How I use Tesco is I go on their app and secure my delivery slot about a week in advance. I simply check out quickly with a few items in my basket. During the week, I can modify the order as many times as I need. Then I make the final changes about a day before the delivery.
3. Meal plan every Sunday
The third habit I’ve incorporated is to meal plan every single Sunday. Of course, it doesn’t have to be Sunday—it can be any day of the week that works best for you.
For me, Sunday has just become my routine, and that’s the day of the week when I take a little bit of time to do this. I go through that general spreadsheet and pick five meals to have for dinners the next week. This process usually takes me less than 5 minutes. I write them down in a Notes app on my phone, following my ‘5/30’ rule: I pick five meals out of the 30 or so that I have on there.
I know some people might plan more or fewer dinners, but for us, five dinners are plenty to get us through the week.
On Fridays, we usually have a takeaway—it’s our pizza party Friday night. Or, if we don’t feel like pizza, we’ll get a different takeaway. But usually, it’s pizza. One day a week, we have delivery. Then one day, we usually have leftovers from the night before or if we go out on the weekend, we might eat out. And this is how five dinners work for us.
4. Add ingredients to the food order
The next thing I do is open the food ordering app with my meal plan list ready in the Notes app.
For example, let’s say it’s the Jamie pasta—since I already know what ingredients I need for that recipe, I’ll add spaghetti or penne pasta, some sausages, tomato sauce, Parmesan, and so on. I add everything needed for this recipe to my food shop. This process usually takes about 5 to 10 minutes; it’s not very long.
Another thing I also do throughout the week is if I remember we’re running out of sugar, I’ll quickly go to the Tesco grocery app and add it to my next food order. It’s so much simpler than having a million shopping lists everywhere and trying to scramble to find them when it’s time to go to the store. For me, this has simplified the process a lot.
5. Add the usuals
Once I’ve added the ingredients for my five dinners into my food shop, I move on to the next habit, which is adding the other essentials we need for the week.
Many food ordering apps have a personalised ‘favourites’ list of items usually ordered, so I’ll go through those. It’s really helpful as a quick reminder of what I might need to incorporate for lunches.
I keep lunches very simple—maybe a salad, soup, sandwich, or sometimes eggs and bacon. Nothing intricate. I’ll go through our usuals and just add the essentials like eggs, milk, and anything else I know we need for that week.
6. Scan cupboards and fridge
Before saving my order, I always do a quick scan through my cupboards, fridge, and freezer to make sure I’m not ordering something we already have. This helps avoid duplicates and reduces food waste.
That’s kind of my goal, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job. I’m not saying it’s 100%—we still have some waste occasionally—but with this system, our fridge is usually pretty empty by the end of the week, which I always see as a good sign.
Don’t get me wrong, we still have a few things here and there—we’re not starving by any means—but an empty fridge means we’ve eaten most of the food I planned for that week. That’s a good sign in my book.
7. Give everything a home
On Mondays, when we get our food shop delivered, I make sure to put everything in its place straight away. One thing that’s helped here is giving everything a home—like having a little bin for snacks, a spot for bread, and clear canisters for pasta so I can see when we’re running low.
If you have any meal-planning tips or habits that have made life easier for you, I’d love to hear them. Share your tips in the comments below, and here’s to a smoother week ahead!
