does anyone do meal planning?

if so, how do you start? what are some of your family friendly fav's that are always on it? do you do it weekly/fortnightly/monthly???? would like to start and have it established before our second bub comes along to bring costs down. thanks

thanks stace. thats given me a few different meals i didn't think of.

I do ours weekly as that's how often we shop at the supermarket, and mostly its determined around what's on special at the supermarket.
Standards are mince and chicken, and sometimes sausages.
I make a lot of homemade burgers, spag bol or mexican, chicken stir fry. I also like to include at least one vegetarian meal each week - I love veges Dh prefers meat.
We usually have a home made pizza on a Friday to use up any left over lunch stuff - ham, mushroom, capsicum etc.
We have pancakes every Sunday for Brunch, after 6 days of cereal and milk its nice to have a leisurely start to the day.
I have a white board on the fridge with the days of the week marked on it, sometimes all I write is the meat we are going to have that day so I know to get it out of the freezer the night before.

I've found mexican a great vege option, I make it with kidney beans and tomatoes leave out the mince.

For more vege inspiration grab yourself a copy of Alison Holst's Meals without Meat Cookbook its got some awesome and easy vege ideas.

With Daniel he has a portion of everything we are eating but when I know there is something in the meal I know hes iffy about or hasn't had before I'll also boil some peas, carrots and corn for him as an extra cause thats always going to get eaten and its not exactly expensive.

Oh wow! Me and my cousins were all talking about our kids eating habits and between the 6 little ones not one will touch mexican!

I do meal planning monthly. I go to the butcher and buy enough meat for 4wks or sometimes I decide to buy a little bit from the supermarket, mainly chiken portions and fish. I then work out what meals I can make with the meat and then write my supermarket shopping list from that. Since having Ben I make alot of meals up in bulk at the beginning of the month and then freeze them. I don't plan what we will have each night in advance but have a list that I can look at each day and select from it.

Favourites are:
Lasagne
Shepards Pie
Beef Stroganoff (in crockpot with Maggi sachet)
Mince cooked in tomato based sauce

Same faves of ours are.

Gourmet chicken burgers and wedges (made with tegel takeouts chicken tenders, brie, sweet chilli sauce and asst salad fixings.Yum, fast, cheap and easy as.

You can do the same thing in a wrap and can make it mexican by using salsa instead of sweet chilli and plain grated cheese instead of brie.

Nachoes

Burritos

Casseroles (chicken or beef)

RoganJosh

Roast

Pork slices, stir fry veg and Rice

Steak chips mushrooms

Mince and pasta of some kind (bolognese, bake, lasagne)

BBQ anything

Chops

Sausage xcasserole (ick) bake, sos, oinions and mushcroom sauce or gool old meatloaf.

I do a fortnightly meal plan.

This fortnight its
thurs -steak fried rice (last night)
fri - lentil burgers and wedges (double wedges for tomorrow night)
sat - chilli beans on wedges w salad (double salad for tomorrow dont add dressing)
sun - quiche (using up leftovers) w salad and garlic bread (double for tomorrow)
mon - tuna patties w potato salad (extra potato for tomorrow night) and garlic bread
tues - meatloaf w mashed spud, brocolli and cauli in cheese sauce (I use half a pack of mince)
wed - stroganoff meatballs on fettucine w salad and garlic bread (other half of mince pack)
thurs - pumpkin curry w naan
fri - pizza w wedges
sat - red wine stew w dumplings (leave some meat aside)
sun - stew and cheese pie (frozen pastry plus leftover stew plus grated cheese ;)) w garlic bread (double for tomorrow night)
mon - steak chow mein w udon noodles (using steak from stewing pack)
tues - roasted vege fettucine w garlic bread (extra vege for tomorrow night)
wed - quiche w salad and garlic bread

I'll have the odd chicken dish, fresh fish, etc whenever we can add that stuff to the shopping list. I like tasty and easy and healthy but I have heaps of recipes we love so nothing on the list other than pizza, pie and quiche thats super-regular. Jake eats or goes without. I always make enough for lunches the next day too which saves us $$.

Best place to start is probably check out your cupboards and see what you have, write down some recipes you want during the week/fortnight you're planning for and go from there. Try to tie your meals in together so you can prep one night for dinner the next KWIM? This meal plan hasn't done this a huge amount coz I'm trying a couple of new recipes but check out Linky 1 and Linky 2 if you want more of an idea.

I make our naan, tortillas, pizza bases, garlic bread which helps the budget so we're able to live on $60 - $70 a fortnight.

HTH

I menu plan for us fortnightly, we mainly did it so I could try and keep food costs down and we are super busy so come 5 o'clock we didnt need to think about what we are having.

By doing it Our grocerys are $300.00 fortnight for 2 adults and 6 kids, that include disposible nappies for 2 and formula

our favs are

roasts

cottage pie

spag bol

stuffed chicken breast

homemade burgers and pizza