This UK family meal planner gives you seven affordable dinner ideas, a consolidated shopping list, simple preparation steps and a repeatable way to estimate the cost per meal as shop prices change.
Overview
A useful weekly meal plan does more than list seven recipes. It should use ingredients across several meals, leave room for leftovers and match the time you actually have available. The plan below is designed for a family of four, but the quantities can be adjusted using the calculation guide.
The dinners are deliberately familiar and flexible: a roast-style chicken traybake, lentil bolognese, sausage and bean casserole, vegetable egg fried rice, tuna pasta bake, jacket potatoes with toppings, and a simple fish or vegetable curry. Together, they cover quick meals, one-pot cooking, batch cooking and a practical use for leftovers.
For more seasonal swaps, use this UK seasonal meal planner. If you want to plan breakfasts and lunches as well, see these family meal prep ideas for the week.
The seven-day plan
- Monday: Chicken traybake. Roast chicken thighs or drumsticks with potatoes, carrots and onions. Cook extra chicken for later in the week.
- Tuesday: Lentil bolognese. Simmer red lentils, chopped tomatoes, onion, carrot and herbs, then serve with spaghetti.
- Wednesday: Sausage and bean casserole. Combine sausages, tinned beans, tomatoes, onions and seasonal vegetables in one pan.
- Thursday: Vegetable egg fried rice. Use cooked rice, frozen peas, carrots, spring onions and eggs. Add leftover chicken if available.
- Friday: Tuna pasta bake. Mix pasta with tuna, sweetcorn, tomato sauce or a simple white sauce, then top with grated cheese.
- Saturday: Jacket potatoes. Serve baked potatoes with beans, cheese, leftover casserole or tuna mayonnaise and salad.
- Sunday: Curry. Make a chickpea, vegetable, chicken or fish curry with rice or flatbreads. Choose whichever ingredients need using first.
How to estimate the weekly cost
The most reliable method is to calculate from your own basket rather than rely on a fixed online total. Prices vary by shop, pack size, brand, season and whether you buy fresh, frozen or tinned ingredients.
Use this simple formula:
Weekly food cost = the cost of ingredients bought for the plan − the value of usable ingredients left over.
To estimate the cost of one dinner, divide the ingredients used by the number of portions:
Cost per portion = total ingredient cost used ÷ number of portions served.
Record the price of each pack in a note on your phone or a spreadsheet. If a 1kg bag of rice costs £2 and you use 300g, the rice cost for that meal is:
£2 × 300 ÷ 1,000 = £0.60.
Apply the same calculation to pasta, cheese, meat, vegetables and other ingredients. For items used in full, such as one tin of beans, enter the whole pack price. For oils, herbs and condiments, either calculate the amount used or add a small allowance to keep the estimate practical.
This approach is more useful than comparing headline basket totals because it shows which meals are inexpensive, which ingredients create waste and where a substitution could help. It also makes the plan reusable when prices change.
Inputs and assumptions
The example plan assumes four people, seven evening meals and a kitchen with basic equipment: an oven, hob, saucepan, frying pan and a roasting tin. It does not assume that every person eats the same portion or that all ingredients are bought from one shop.
Portion guidance
- Rice: allow roughly 60–75g uncooked rice per adult, with less for younger children and more for larger appetites.
- Pasta: allow roughly 75–100g dried pasta per adult, adjusting for children and the amount of sauce.
- Potatoes: plan one large jacket potato or two smaller ones per adult.
- Meat or fish: use the packet quantity as a guide, then stretch it with beans, lentils, vegetables or grains.
- Cheese: grate only what you need for pasta bakes, potatoes and toppings; a little strongly flavoured cheese can go further.
These are starting points, not strict rules. Appetite, age and the rest of the meal matter. Weighing a dry staple once or twice helps you learn your household's normal amount and reduces accidental overcooking.
Consolidated shopping list
Protein and pulses: chicken thighs or drumsticks; sausages; eggs; tinned tuna; red lentils; tinned beans; chickpeas or another curry protein.
Starchy foods: potatoes; spaghetti or other pasta; rice; optional flatbreads.
Vegetables and fruit: onions; carrots; garlic; peppers; frozen peas; sweetcorn; spring onions; salad leaves; seasonal vegetables for roasting and curry. Frozen vegetables are useful for reducing waste and keeping the plan flexible.
Tins, dairy and store-cupboard items: chopped tomatoes; baked beans; tomato purée; stock; coconut milk or curry sauce ingredients; milk; grated or block cheese; cooking oil; dried herbs; curry spices; soy sauce or another savoury seasoning.
Check the cupboard before shopping. Cross off rice, spices, oil, stock and tins you already have, but note their quantities if you will use them across multiple meals. For guidance on choosing cooking oils, see this guide to oils, smoke points and substitutions.
Worked examples
Example one: costing a traybake
Suppose your household uses chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions and oil for Monday's dinner. Write down the price of each pack, then allocate only the amount used. If a pack contains more chicken than the recipe needs, count the portion used and reserve the remainder for Thursday's fried rice or Saturday's jacket potatoes.
The important distinction is between shopping cost and meal cost. You may spend more at the checkout because you need to buy a full packet, while the meal itself uses only part of that packet. Keep both figures: shopping cost helps with this week's budget, while meal cost helps you compare recipes fairly.
Example two: stretching a bolognese
A meat-free lentil bolognese can be costed by adding the used amounts of lentils, tomatoes, vegetables, pasta, oil and cheese. To make the dish go further, add grated carrot, mushrooms, frozen vegetables or a small amount of leftover cooked meat. If the sauce makes six portions and your calculated ingredient cost is £6, the meal cost is £1 per portion. The figure is illustrative; replace it with your own prices.
Example three: turning leftovers into a new dinner
After Monday's traybake, cool leftover chicken promptly, refrigerate it in a covered container and plan to use it in a later meal. Add it to fried rice, pasta bake or jacket potatoes rather than serving the same plate twice. For more ideas, read these leftover chicken recipes.
Cooked leftovers should be cooled and stored safely according to current UK food-safety guidance, and reheated until piping hot. When freezing, label the container with the dish and date, portion food before freezing where possible, and defrost it safely before reheating.
Make-ahead schedule
- Before the week: check cupboards, choose substitutions and write the shopping list by supermarket section.
- At the weekend: chop a few onions and carrots, wash potatoes and cook a larger batch of lentil or tomato sauce if convenient.
- On Monday: cook extra chicken and roast vegetables for planned leftovers.
- Midweek: use cooked rice only when it has been cooled and stored safely; make fresh rice if you cannot manage that step.
- At the end of the week: review what remains and move the most perishable ingredients into Sunday's curry, soup or omelette.
For a slower hands-off option, adapt the casserole or curry for a slow cooker using this slow cooker meals guide. For a pasta-led week, browse these easy pasta recipes for weeknights.
When to recalculate
Revisit the plan whenever your household, routine or shopping basket changes. Recalculate the quantities if another person joins dinner, children move to larger portions, you start packing leftovers for lunch or you replace meat with a different protein.
Review the cost when you change shop, buy different pack sizes, switch between fresh and frozen vegetables or choose branded rather than own-label ingredients. Seasonal changes are also a good reason to update the plan: use cheaper or better-quality vegetables available at the time, then adjust the recipe rather than buying ingredients that will sit unused.
Once a week, take five minutes to answer three questions: Which meal produced the least waste? Which ingredient was used across several dishes? Which dinner took longer or cost more than expected? Keep the successful meals and replace only the awkward ones. That turns this seven-day menu into a flexible family meal planner rather than a fixed schedule.
To get started, choose your seven evenings, count the people eating, check your cupboards and record your local prices. Then shop from the consolidated list, prepare only what you can store safely and update the figures the next time your inputs change.
