You gotta do what works for you. People are different, and will enjoy different foods and different strategies for how to shop and cook.
I don’t plan meals. (Well, rarely.)
A lot of the lists, essays, and websites that give advice about how to save money on food say “Plan your meals.” I don’t do that. I keep food on hand so that I can make stuff. I’m not going to plan today what I’m going to eat next Tuesday. I will have food in the house so that I will be able to choose from a great variety of stuff to eat depending on what I feel like next Tuesday.
I might sometimes decide to cook something special, or experiment, or analyze something in particular, in which case I might have to plan ahead of shopping to buy the things I need for that special dish or meal, but ordinarily I shop for what’s on sale and for staples.
I eat what I feel like and is available in my stock of staples, or I eat what I have that needs to be eaten so it won’t go bad. If I have bread that is going to get old, I will choose that over quinoa or rice for that meal. If the cabbage and peppers in the refrigerator are starting to look like they might not be very good in another couple of days, I eat that and leave the Chinese brocolli in the freezer.
Sometimes you choose the food, sometimes the food chooses you.
I also consider what nutritional elements I may need when I’m thinking about what to eat – I try to get the right number of servings of leafy green vegetables, and fruits, and protein, I think about whether I’ve had enough calcium for the day, and so on.
By stocking up on staples, I have enough food and enough variety on hand so that I can put together good meals according to how I feel at the time. I might feel like creating something complex, or testing a recipe, or I might feel like I just want to get nutrition with as little work as possible. By keeping staples on hand, I’m ready every day, without planning meals.
I guess a lot of people do plan their meals, and that’s cool. I can see how that could work well and be one way of avoiding impulse buys that aren’t helpful for saving money or getting good nutrition. It’s just not my way. Shopping, cooking, and eating are infinitely variable – there’s not a right way and wrong way, there are ways that work for you and advance your goals, or don’t.
What’s important is not necessarily for you to do what somebody else says works for them. What’s important is to know what you want, and then act in ways that will make that happen for you.
