I only plan day after day and most of the time just walk into the grocery store and grab some of the beautiful material that i have found and make our dinner out of it. Apparently, planing for a week or month would be a good start for me too, cause we could see the rest of the year on what we have got and see how we could change it better.

I have a 13 month old. Once going back to work full time the carpool on the way home with my husband became something I'd dread. What are we going to whip together tonight for dinner was the first thing we'd talke about? It has to be something the little one can eat too, so pizza for the third night in a row is out! I started weekly meal planning. Sundays I check the cupboards to see what we have and start making a list for quick thirty minute meals to whip up once home, and plan at least one crockpot meal for Tuesdays which are our busiest nights with swim lessons. It has made a huge difference in feeling organized and also providing healthy meals for the little one. I keep a list of what meal I have planned for what day so I can remember to remove any frozen contents to unthaw for the next day. I've been doing this for three weeks now and I love it!

man, so many problems with this. (1) we don't even have a plan for *who's cooking,* let alone the ability to map out complete menus. it's 70% my husband and 10% me (mostly baby-oriented food for the latter), with the remainder being food that we have delivered from our delightful range of urban food sources or pick up already made at Whole Foods. this is not about budget, but about getting the job done. whoever has time, energy, or other resources can shop or make suggestions, and otherwise we'll work with the groceries (and menus) at hand... (2) we have a toddler, and thus her range of possible foods is constantly changing -- sometimes she'll try new foods, sometimes she won't even eat the old standbys; sometimes she wants what we're eating, most of the time hah! maybe with older kids, where tastes and eating habits are more stable, such things become more possible... (3) what about leftovers? either from a meal out, or from something you cooked (which was more or less filling than imagined)? this adds a lot of chaos to planning, and trying to avoid leftovers would eliminate some of our favorite odds-and-ends dinners. those are just the first things that pop to mind, before you even get to illnesses, unexpected changes of plans (somebody has a business dinner, say), orother things that change family needs. but perhaps my response is colored by (a) having a certain degree of financial flexibility, and (b) having chosen to prioritize other things (time with family, mental health) over lots of planning here. I'm sort of anal on a lot of fronts, but dinner just isn't one of them, and the scrambles to make sure that we have enough bits to pack a lunch show how that can sometimes bite us too...

I could not imagine planning meals for a year, to me it is just not something that sounds appealing or worth it. I do try to only go to the grocery store every 2-3 weeks and plan loosely from that. I wouldn't call my family adventurous in the eating department. I will definitely be looking into trying some of the great ideas you all have suggested. join me sometime at my brand new blog http://adventuresinbittyland.blogspot.com

If I were able to plan my meals a year in advance, I would probably not have pulled out a cooked turkey breast out of my basement freezer, thawed it in the refrigerator, then been surprised when I took it out to cook and noticed it was dated 01/20/07. It's 2010, people! And that turkey breast was in my freezer since 2007!!! No joking! And I'm signing my real name to this 'cause I have to think I'm probably not the only person who has food frozen that she "planned" to use... It's just my husband and me - the kids are grown and out on their own. Who's to care if we decide on the way home that $3.73 at Costco for a hotdog combo and a slice of combo pizza is the perfect meal for tonight??? Or what about when some parent forgets to pick his/her child up from the After-School Program my husband runs and we don't leave school until 7pm (the program is over at 5:30). Odds are THAT mom didn't plan HER meals in advance either, or she'd probably have noticed the lack of a child at the dinner table... But THAT'S a different Momversation...

For those who *try* to plan...I got started with allrecipes.com You can browse recipes, then put them into your shopping list...then just print out the shopping list. AND you can edit the shopping list...so if 2 recipes call for a pound of chicken, you can just delete one entry and adjust the other to 2 pounds. You can also get rid of items you already have (like WATER, lol...and other pantry items you don't need to replace). From there, I started finding other recipes on other sites, I print out the recipes (sometimes, other times I just scribble them on a scrap of paper if it's simple) and sort of keep them in order of how I want to do them...meals with the freshest items first (so my produce doesn't go back), meals with more frozen or packaged items last. I also add those other items to my allrecipes shopping list to make it more streamlined. One thing I want to get back into is doing freezer meals. Making ahead a week or two worth of entrees or main dishes, and reheating later.

I plan out meals for my family a week in advance but it's only so I don't go crazy in the grocery store. I make a shopping list based off of those dinners and that's what I buy and that's all. I found that when I don't plan dinners I end up with a lot of random components in my pantry and fridge that go bad or I end up having to run to the store 3 times a week to pick things up that I may need. So for me it's easier this way and it also saves me some money. Alice, I also have a picky eating toddler that gets a different meal than we do sometimes depending on what it is so I have to make sure I keep up on my stock of eggs, cheese, and edamame because basically that's all I can count on him eating 100% of the time.

Hi, I'm Josh from Springpad. I came across this meal plan post and thought our product might help you. Springpad is a free personal organizer to save and use just about anything - books, notes, restaurants, articles, etc. It's great for saving recipes from any website. With our web clipper, anytime you find a recipe you want to save, you can do so with 1 click. You can then personalize the recipes with your own notes, photos or videos. You can also use our free weekly meal planner to drop any of your saved recipes into a meal plan and generate a complete list of ingredients automatically, which you can print or pull up on your phone. You can check it out at http://springpadit.com. Hope this helps!.