Free templateWeekly meal planner
Week meal plan
Seven days of breakfast, lunch and dinner where each double batch is threaded to the lunch it becomes, with the shop by aisle.
Free. It opens in the Motionix editor as your own copy.
Download the pictureWebP, 1200 × 848, free to use. To change the words or colours, open it in the editor.
- Size
- 1754 × 1240 px
- Pages
- 1
- Motion
- Yes, plays live and in GIF or video
- Category
- Plans
What it shows
- Leftovers threaded to their meals
- Shopping list by aisle
- Threads that draw on
Good for
How to use it
- Open the template. It becomes a project in your account.
- Change the words, colours and pictures. Every part is an ordinary shape, line or text box.
- Press Play to watch it build, then present it or export it.
What is a weekly meal planner?
A weekly meal planner is a grid of the week's meals, usually breakfast, lunch and dinner for each day, drawn up before you shop. Planning the week at once lets you cook some dishes in double batches and turn them into later meals, buy only what the plan needs, and skip the nightly question of what to eat.
When it helps
- A family of four planning the week on Sunday so one supermarket trip covers everything.
- Batch cooking three dinners that become the next day's lunches.
- Cutting food waste by buying only the ingredients the week's meals use.
- Balancing the week so fish, vegetables and meat-free meals all appear.
Tips
- Plan one or two flexible nights, such as pasta or eggs on toast. Plans that schedule an ambitious meal every night tend to collapse by Wednesday.
- Cool leftovers quickly, refrigerate them promptly and eat them within a couple of days. Batch cooking only saves time if it is also safe.
- Keep past weeks' plans. After a month you will have a rotation of family favourites that makes planning a five minute job.
How to make a weekly meal plan
Check the week ahead
Look at the calendar first: late nights, after-school clubs and evenings out decide which days need a quick meal and which leave time to cook.
Plan dinners first
Choose the evening meals, since they take the most time and ingredients, then fit simpler breakfasts and lunches around them.
Cook once, eat twice
Pick two or three dinners to make in double quantity and plan where the leftovers go, such as a traybake of chicken becoming wraps the next day.
Use what you have
Check the fridge, freezer and cupboard before writing the list, and plan meals that use anything close to its date.
Write the list by aisle
Add up the ingredients across the week and group them by shop section, such as fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, dairy and cupboard, so the shop is one quick loop.
FAQQuestions
Common questions.
How do you start meal planning?
Start small: plan dinners for the next five days, using meals you already know how to cook. Check what is in the fridge, write a shopping list from the plan, and shop once. Add breakfasts, lunches and batch cooking once the habit feels easy.
Does meal planning save money?
It usually does, because you buy only what the week's meals need, waste less food and make fewer impulse buys or takeaway orders. The saving depends on how closely you stick to the list and how much food you used to throw away.
How long do leftovers last in the fridge?
Food safety agencies generally advise eating cooked leftovers within two days in the UK, or three to four days in the United States. Cool them quickly and get them into the fridge within about two hours of cooking, and reheat until steaming hot all the way through.
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