A weekly planning cycle
Shopping
In this section we look at shopping and budgeting
Check your Schedule
What does your schedule have this week, that will affect your plan? Exams? Birthday parties? Going out?
Make Meal Plan
Brainstorm what you would like to eat for the week.
What do you already have? Before you sit down to plan, have a look at the fresh and perishable items that need using up and note them down. How can you feature them in the meal plan and when do you need to use those things up?
Copy what worked before! Have a bank of favourite recipes that you can cook quickly without needing to follow the recipe exactly.
Mix these in with more interesting or challenging options. If you want to broaden the range of foods you eat then challenge yourself to try something new each week.
Make an ingredients list
Now you know what you are going to eat, you can say what ingredients you need.
- Each recipe has a list of ingredients.
- A good number will already be in your store cupboard, so you don’t need to buy them.
- Before you head to the shops, check for any gaps and keep stocked.
Make a shopping list
You can then start to build a shopping list. Check the kitchen, you may not need to buy everything on the list. Check your store cupboard staples to see if there are any gaps to fill. Have a place where anything you notice that has run out in the week is noted to make this easier. This could be done in a spreadsheet.
Our helpful shopping list template gives you a hand list of ingredients you might want to buy each week or month to keep your cupboards stocked and your fridges full.
Shopping list Template