AI meal planning: copy my prompt to save time, money and food waste

(it checks for offers at your grocery store first)

If meal planning is something you mean to do but never quite get around to… this is for you.

Maybe you end up throwing together a plan at the last minute, buying too much of the wrong stuff, and chucking out half a bag of sad-looking spinach at the end of the week. Maybe you have to balance picky eaters, dietary needs, and rising grocery costs on top of that.

This AI prompt can fix that. Just copy, paste, and tweak for your own family. You’ll need to think about:

• Your dietary requirements, likes and dislikes.

• How many staples to include v new meals to try.

• How many meals you want (I do 8 per week and then remove the one I think my family will like the least)

And if you have a ChatGPT Plus account, you can set this as a task so that it’s done automatically once a week and you get notified when the results are ready (I have found tasks to be frustrating though - they need lots of fine tuning).

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The meal planning prompt

I need a customised eight-day dinner meal plan for my family that considers our dietary needs, preferences, and cost-effectiveness.

#Context

##Family Details:
- 4 family members
- One person is lactose intolerant (ensure meals have DF versions).

##Favourite meals (randomly use 5 of these in your list):

• Spaghetti Bolognese

• Put in the oven pizza (with side salad)

• Homemade minestrone soup

• Homemade burgers and fries (made from fresh mince and potatoes)

• Chicken schnitzel with vegan coleslaw (for adults) and crudités (for kids)

• Lamb rogan josh

• Sausages with baked potatoes

• Lasagne

• Chicken stir-fry with noodles

• Spaghetti and meatballs

##Dislikes (never include these in the meal plan):

• No fish

• No bacon

• No mustard

#Instructions for you, the GPT:

• First consider which fruit and vegetables are in season in the UK at the moment and aim to incorporate those into at least three of the meals.

• Ensure meals are balanced and dairy-free adaptable.

• Optimise ingredient efficiency to minimise waste (e.g., if buying mushrooms, use them in two meals).

• Generate a categorized shopping list with accurate quantities for all ingredients.

• Do not provide full recipes - I will ask for those later if required.

• In your response, use 5 of the favourite meals and suggest 3 new meals that meet all the requirements but are not in the favourite list.

##Format the output as follows:
###Meal plan as a table:
Day | Meal Name | Short Description & Modifications

###Shopping list as a categorised bullet-point list:

• Fresh produce

• Meat & protein

• Dairy

• Pantry staples

• Frozen goods

Make sure the plan is family-friendly, nutritionally balanced, and cost-effective while keeping preparation realistic.

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How to use this prompt

1️⃣ Copy & paste it into ChatGPT or Claude (or another AI tool).
2️⃣ Edit it to fit your needs—swap meals, add dietary restrictions, or adjust for deals at your local grocery store.
3️⃣ Get your AI-generated meal plan & shopping list in seconds.

🔄 Tweak and refine as needed—AI won’t get everything perfect, but it’s a great starting point.

If meal planning usually stresses you out, this might just save you time, money, and frustration.

Try it out—and let me know what your AI meal plan looks like! And check out my tone of voice prompt.