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How to Create a Meal Planner in Google Sheets

Creating a meal planner in Google Sheets is a fantastic way to organize your weekly meals, track nutritional information, and closely monitor your grocery budget. It is a flexible, easy-to-use tool that can help you stay on top of your meal-planning game.

What Is a Meal Plan?

A meal plan is a detailed guide designed to organize what and when you eat, such as a week or month. It entails selecting meals ahead of time to meet specific dietary goals, managing portion sizes, and streamlining the grocery shopping and meal preparation process.

Meal plans cater to various needs, enabling individuals to maintain a balanced diet, reduce food waste, and avoid the temptation of impromptu, possibly unhealthy, food choices. Whether for an individual or a family, meal planning is a practical approach to achieving healthier eating habits and simplifying the daily meal preparation routine.

Step 1: Open Google Sheets

First, go to Google Sheets and sign in with your Google account. Click on the blank spreadsheet option to start a new document. Title your sheet by clicking on ‘Untitled spreadsheet‘ in the top-left corner. You might name it ‘Meal Planner.’

Open Google Sheets

Step 2: Set Up Your Meal Planner Layout

You’ll want to create a table with days of the week as columns and meal types (like breakfast, lunch, and dinner) as rows. Here’s how:

  • In the first row, type in the days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., until you get to Sunday.

Set Up Your Meal Planner Layout

  • In the first column, starting from the second row, type the week number and meal categories. For example, Week 1: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks.

week number and meal categories

Step 3: Enter Your Meals

Click on the cell corresponding with the day, date, and meal you plan, and start entering the meal you want. For example, if you’re going to prepare a chicken salad for Wednesday lunch, click on the cell intersecting the ‘Wednesday’ column and ‘Lunch’ row and type ‘Chicken Salad.’

Enter Your Meals

Step 4: Create a Shopping List

Add a new spreadsheet for your shopping list. Though this is optional, having a list of what grocery items you should buy for your meal plan would be very helpful.

In your new spreadsheet, label columns with headings. For example, I use ‘Breakfast,’ ‘ Product,’ and ‘Price.’

As you plan your meals, add ingredients to your shopping list. This will make grocery shopping much more efficient and prevent buying what you don’t need.

Learn to make a grocery list in Google Sheets.

Create a Shopping List

Step 6: Automate Your Shopping List

Automating your shopping list using smart Google Sheets functions is one way to make monitoring it easier.

You can add another table for your automated shopping list. I used labels such as Products, Categories, Price, and Purchased in this case.

Automate Your Shopping List

In the Products column, use the function “=if(A4=TRUE,B4, )” and then drag the cell to copy and paste the function throughout the column. This function allows you to automatically list down the ingredients you’ve chosen in column A.

copy and paste the function

In the Categories column, you can use the dropdown menu to categorize the products on your shopping list. This will help you be more organized when finding the ingredients in the grocery store.

use the dropdown menu to categorize the products

Step 5: Share and Update Your Meal Planner

If you want to share your meal planner with family members or a roommate, click the ‘Share’ button in the top-right corner. Enter their email addresses or generate a shareable link.

Share and Update Your Meal Planner

Keep your meal planner dynamic. Update your meals regularly, try new recipes, and remove things that aren’t working. It’s a living document meant to adapt to your needs.

Get a copy of the free Meal Planner template.

Final Thoughts

Setting up your meal planner in Google Sheets is a clever and simple way to track your eating habits and streamline your grocery store trips. Just follow the simple steps I’ve detailed above, and you’ll have a neat, organized system that promotes healthier eating choices and prevents time and money waste.

What’s great about using a customizable and shareable tool like this is that it becomes a critical part of managing your meals. It makes the whole planning process as enjoyable as the delicious meals you’ll make. Whether you’re just starting with meal prep or you’ve got it down to a science, this planner is an awesome tool in the kitchen.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I create dropdown menus for meal choices in my planner?

You can create dropdown menus in your meal planner using Google Sheets‘ ‘ Data validation’ feature. This lets you quickly select from pre-defined meal options and helps streamline planning.

Can I customize my meal planner for specific diet plans?

Yes, Google Sheets is highly customizable, allowing you to tailor your meal planner to specific dietary needs. For example, you can adjust the meals and ingredients to fit dietary requirements, such as vegan, keto, or gluten-free.

What happens if I accidentally delete my meal planner?

Google Sheets automatically saves your work and offers version history. You can recover deleted content or revert to earlier versions if necessary, reducing the risk of losing your meal planner.