The Seven Day Solo Meal Planner on Google Sheets.

Ready to start putting yummy plans into place?  O.f.O.'s got you covered! 

Here's an overview of the Seven Day Solo Meal Planner on Google Sheets, and how it works with free recipe box building on Google Keep, Docs, or Apple Notes.  

Planning for one is less work and more fun!

The Seven Day Solo Meal Planner was designed to advance solo kitchen-economics.  A free Google account is all that's required to start planning with a tablet (my preference), laptop, desktop, or phone.  

The planner is shareable, and may be used (but not shared) offline.

There are two versions of the planner to choose from; one with a Recipe Cost Calculator + Bulk Ingredient Cost Calculator, and one without.

While decidedly guided, a quick tour is all it takes to master this fun & functional planner. 

Here's what's in the layout:

Plan & Shop page: 

  • Eleven Steps to Plan & Prep checklist (serves as a guide).  
  • Sliding Mix & Match Scratch Pad aligns with Recipes column for coordinating perishables across each week's recipes. 
  • Auto-adding servings counter, ingredient cost fields counter, and prep minutes counter.
  •  Optional Recipe (and serving) Cost Calculator with Bulk Ingredient Cost Calculator.
  • "Quick Servings to Start the Week" notepad.  
  • Kitchen Minutes notepad (for random notes).
  • Special Servings washi for coding FRESH & FAST, BACK BURNER, and PACK TO GO meals.
  • Location Reminders for Store-Specific Stock-ups notepad. 
  • Recipe Ideas notepad.
  • "A Charcuterie of Yummy Snack & Ingredient Ideas" notepad.
  • "Recipe Ideas for Next Week's Plan" notepad.
  • Reset button for laptop or desktop only.

Seven Day Kitchen Tasklist & Time Tracker page:

Tasklist

  • Recipe titles (auto-migrated from the Plan & Shop page).
  • "How many Times?" fields for tracking planned recipe (or task) repeats.
  •  Prep Ahead Task fields with check boxes.
  • Single Serve Recipe Repeats checkboxes. 
  • Leftover Perishables fields (entries auto-migrate to the bottom section of the Mix & Match Scratch Pad).
  •  Recipe Notes fields.
  • Task Sticker-Gif Gallery featuring some of O.f.O.'s Procreate made washi, stickers and gifs for matching tasks.  
  • Reset button for laptop or desktop only.

Time Tracker

  • Days of the week are set on the Time Tracker, and auto-migrate to the Budget Page and Meal Tracker pages.  Recurring weekly timeline targets are set and tracked with washi, stickers/notes on the Tracker.  

Meal Trackers:

  • There are two meal planner/tracker pages to choose from; one with auto-adding macro fields, and one without.  Checkboxes can be used for tracking.  Reset button for laptop or desktop only.

Budget Page:

  • The Budget page includes auto-adding weekly & monthly Food Receipt Calculators, an auto-adding Monthly Food Budget Balancer, a Recipe Cost Recap chart, and a Kitchen Time Recap chart.  Receipt Gallery-Notepads are situated vertically to display paper or digital receipt pics. 

Kitchen Inventory Page:

  • The Inventory page features a Seasonings Sorter, Freezer Tracker and Kitchen Inventory Gallery-Notepads for shelf pics.

Gallery-Notepad Pages:

  • The Kitchen Treasures to Try & Buy page includes an eleven category notepad along side a Kitchen Inspiration Image Board and a Recipe Link Library. 
  • Delicious Thoughts Notepad & Appetizing Images Board:  Here, plenty of notepads and image fields hold space for planning kitchen creativity.

Functional Stickers:

  • Food and task stickers can accompany or replace text on the Tasklist and Tracker pages.  Also, Google's handy emojis can work nicely.
  • Special Servings stickers confirm flexible, convenient meal plans.
  • Timeline target washi and stickers pinpoint recurring weekly progress targets.
  • Fun recipe category & kitchen economy character stickers encourage well rounded planning.
  • Digital sticker png downloads are offered by awesome artists with super cute sticker shops.
  • DIY stickers are fun and easy to create from personal pics or Google Images.

A step-by-step system that's so comprehensive, better kitchen economy comes naturally.

The first two tabs are all you need for successful solo meal planning, but utilizing the entire layout each week can level up kitchen life even more.

  • Trackers can display a detailed overview of progress, for easy analysis and clear accountability.
  • Functional stickers add planning power.
  • The Inventory Image Gallery can display home inventory during shopping.
  • Ingredient cost fields may be filled to display a running subtotal during shopping.
  • The optional Recipe Cost Calculator and Bulk Ingredient Cost Calculator can track spending and prices closely.  
  • Notepads & galleries can keep bright ideas from fading away.

Why use Notes, Keep or Docs as a free recipe box instead of Sheets or Excel?

In my opinion, they work better!

Spreadsheets are powerful, but when it comes to building a box, automatically searchable, click-and-capture recipe keeping with note taking apps or Docs couldn't be easier; including handwritten recipes.

Keep, Notes and Docs all make excellent digital recipe boxes.

Beyond Apple & Google's free tools, there's a world of note taking apps that also work really well.

Just start a collection, then watch it grow!  Pin or file each week's recipes for easy reference. 

Is auto-updating ingredient inventory management with a spreadsheet worth it?

In my opinion, not really!  Referring to home inventory is a natural part of the planning process, but good kitchen organization makes image-based inventory record keeping easy and accurate enough to forego spreadsheet management.  

Here are five steps for using your Seven Day Solo Meal Planner for the first time:

  1. Retitle with the current week's date range.
  2. Edit the Kitchen Time Tracker's day-of-the-week fields to position your routine weekly shopping day of choice as your start day. 
  3. Set recurring timeline targets on the Time Tracker for completing Section 1 near midweek and Section 2 near week's end. 
  4. Set the meal plan & shopping list deadline for the day before shopping day.  
  5. Follow the Plan & Shop Page's Eleven Steps to Plan & Prep checklist, and start planning!

Before reusing your planner each week:

Use Reset buttons to blank out fields for reuse on laptop or desktop.  Or...

  • Highlight and clear text fields for reuse.
  • Individually uncheck (or highlight, delete and reinsert groups of) check boxes for reuse.

Love planning on paper?

What's not to love?  Paper planning is easy on the eyes, pleasing to the touch, stimulates creative thought, and supports memory recall.  Still, the power of digital planning can't be denied, even when used solely as backup.

Consider hybrid planning!

  • Capture searchable images of paper recipes in Keep, Docs, or Notes.
  • Access recipes on cards at home or on a device while out.
  • Plan and cook without a screen using a paper planner and cards.
  • Plan on the go.
  • Pre-plan with your digital planner when your paper planner is not with you.
  • Back-plan on paper utilizing digital references.
  • Reference the digital Seasonings Sorter, Freezer Tracker, and Kitchen Inventory Image Gallery while shopping.
  • Use your digital planner to calculate a running total during shopping.

Here's to laying down pretty plans, capturing kitchen inspiration, and making delicious decisions!