Me: “what shall we have for dinner?”
Richard: “what do you want?”
Me: “what do YOU want?”
Richard: “I have to go.”
This is my conversation with Richard each and every day . We’re usually on the phone when I ask this and most of the time he suddenly has to go to an urgent meeting (that didn’t exist 2 seconds ago).
Even though I enjoy cooking, it’s the thinking about what to eat that drives me mad. I waste so much time thinking about what to have so this year, I realised that I have to change this, just to keep myself sane!
I wanted a really easy and quick way to plan my weekly menu; a way that wouldn’t cost me hours writing stuff down each weekend or updating an app or template. I finally came up with this weekly meal planner diy which is so easy to make and even easier to update each week. It requires virtually no time or effort to plan the weeks menu, once you’ve made it.
Weekly meal planner diy
Materials:
A4 plywood sheet
wooden clothes pegs
popsicle/lollipop sticks
wood glue
black marker (I used a sharpie and it didn’t smudge)
As you can see, this DIY meal planner is very easy to make. Simply write the days of the week on to clothes pegs and glue on to the plywood. Leave to dry. Write your menu ideas on your popsicle sticks and plan your week’s food.
Here’s a short video of the weekly meal planner DIY:
So simple right? But it really makes life simpler. No more agonising about what to eat each day. Instead, every Sunday I pull out my popsicle sticks, ask everyone to choose from the sticks and I’ve got my menu for the week.
I’ve currently got about 25-30 dishes written on popsicle sticks including things like ‘try something new’ and ‘out for dinner’. I love trying new recipes but I forget and get stuck in a rut so this has also been a good way to remind myself to do that. And as I find new recipes I like, I’ll keep adding them to my collection of popsicle sticks.
Do you find meal planning takes way too long or do you have a quick way to do your planning?
This is too cute…now only if clean up were so easy.
Ha, ha! But this will make meal planning so easy that you will have extra free time to clean up ?
I’m going to add leftovers with an upward arrow to mine because I know there are meals I make that feed us for two, even three nights 😀
Great idea! This DIY has really made my meal planning so much easier and I hope it will do the same for you.
Great idea,Nomita. But what I really liked was your weekly menu ! Can I come to your house for dinner !!
Thanks. And yes, you are always welcome.
Absolutely love this darling, looks great and serves a purpose. Adore the video too! You are so creative x
This is fantastic! I’m going to make it this weekend! I might add a magnet on the back to it can go on our fridge – low on counter space here!
Thank you. And thats a good idea to put it on the fridge. x
I’m amazed – what a clever and pretty solution! We need to try this at our house.
All the best from fan in the north,
Karin & Freja / Pysselbolaget.se
Thank you. Let me know if you find it useful. I just checked out your blog – beautiful. I look forward to looking around more later today.
This would be cute as exercise goals, too. Go for walk, Yoga, Just Stretch, etc.
Yes it would – great idea. It would be handy for quite a few things I think – I may do another one later in the year.
This is such a great idea and one I am going to have to do. It will make things that bit simpler for me and it will be great to get the girls to help. :-).
Thank you Nichole. It has honestly simplified my life! And I also ask my family every Sunday to ‘pick their sticks’ and between us we have a menu in minutes.
I will keep coming back to this post because this is one DIY of yours that my clumsy handed self is determined to make haha! So glad you’ve added a video. I love it! x
Thanks lovely. And no, you are not clumsy handed! Share a pic when you make it xx
wonderful idea!! i love the container your popsicle sticks are in, where can i find it? 🙂
Hi Nicole – thanks so much. The container is another diy of mine which you can find here:
https://yourdiyfamily.com/2017/09/make-wooden-pencil-holder-diy-gym-rings/
Happy cooking and making! 🙂
This is a great idea. The large popsicle sticks are called “tongue depressors” and you can get from the chemist in 100 packs. I colour coded the ends of mine (veg = green/beef = pink etc) and wrote numbers. The numbers and colours correspond to veg/beef recipe etc and I have placed each recipe in a dedicated same coloured folder with an index for easy finding. I also stuck magnets on the back. So easy to make. Thank you for sharing.
Wow! That sounds super organised. This meal planner has really helped me take the stress out of meal planning too. Thanks for your comment.