Templates
Weekly meal planner template: the week across the page
The week across the page, not down it: seven day columns and six rows, two of which are the ones most planners leave out — what to prep ahead, and what tonight's dinner becomes tomorrow. Prints landscape on one sheet.
Or press Ctrl+P (⌘P on a Mac) and choose “Save as PDF”.
The template
This sheet is wide — print it landscape.
Weekly meal planner
| Meal | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | |||||||
| Lunch | |||||||
| Dinner | |||||||
| Snacks | |||||||
| Prep ahead (night before) | |||||||
| Leftovers → tomorrow |
How to use it
Days run across the page so you read the week the way it actually behaves: horizontally, one row at a time. Scanning the dinner row tells you in one glance whether you have scheduled four separate roasts, or whether Thursday and Friday are both nights nobody is home to cook. A column-per-day layout hides that, because it asks you to compare seven small blocks instead of reading one line.
The prep-ahead row is the one that decides whether the plan survives. Almost every weeknight dinner that fails does so because of something that needed to happen the previous evening: meat out of the freezer, beans in water, dough in the fridge, rice cooked while the oven was on anyway. Write it in the cell for the night it has to happen, not the night it gets eaten.
The leftovers row is the same idea pointed forwards. Cooking a batch is only a saving if the second meal is already claimed — write "→ Wed lunch" in Tuesday's cell and Wednesday's lunch is planned without another decision. It is also the honest way to fill the lunch row without inventing five separate lunches.
Fill it in this order: dinners, then leftovers, then prep-ahead, then breakfast and lunch last. Each pass answers the one before it, and by the time you reach breakfast most of it is already decided. Then write the grocery list from the sheet rather than from memory — a plan you shop against is the whole point of the exercise.
FAQ
Why does it print landscape?
Seven day columns plus a label column need the wide edge of the paper to leave cells you can actually write in. The print dialog is asked for landscape automatically where the browser supports it; if yours opens in portrait, switch the orientation there — the grid still fits, just narrower.
Is it free, and do I have to give an email address?
It is free and there is no email gate. The planner is on this page and the print button hands it to a printer or to "Save as PDF". We are building a nutrition and meal planning app and the waitlist is open, but the sheet does not require it.
How is this different from the plain meal planner template?
Same week, different sheet. The plain planner puts days down the page with a notes column, which suits filling in by hand on a clipboard. This one puts days across the page and replaces the notes column with two named rows — prep-ahead and leftovers — because those are the two things a week plan needs and a free-text note usually forgets.
Can I use it for a household with different meals?
Yes, with one adjustment: write the shared base in the dinner cell and the variations underneath it, rather than trying to fit two dinners in one cell. "Chilli — J. no beans" plans one pot and two plates. The cells are sized for that kind of line.
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