How to make a meal plan with a grocery list

What you need

• A handful of recipes in your kitchen: five is plenty to start
• Fifteen minutes, once a week
• No AI use: planning is free on every plan

Step by step

1. Get five recipes in first

A plan with nothing to put in it is the reason most people stop. Import the four things you already cook and one you want to try.

2. Open the Plan tab and pick the week

You can move forwards and backwards through the calendar, so last week is still there to copy from and next month is available when you want to think ahead.

3. Fill the nights you will actually cook

Three or four, not seven. Leave the rest empty on purpose. An empty Thursday is a plan; a Thursday you ignored is a broken one.

4. Repeat something

The same dish twice in a week halves the shopping and the thinking. Planning is not a variety competition.

5. Check the day and week nutrition

A day total and a week total are shown alongside the plan. This is where you notice that three of the four dinners are beige.

6. Send it to groceries

The plan becomes one combined list, grouped by aisle. That is the step that turns a plan into dinner.

7. Look back next week

Tableful keeps past weeks, so the fastest way to plan is to copy the week that worked.

When it does not work

• You planned seven nights and cooked two. Plan four. The number that works is lower than the number that feels right.
• The same three meals keep appearing. Good. Add one new recipe a week rather than rebuilding the rotation.
• You forgot what was in the fridge. Plan the perishables first, then fill in around them.
• Your household eats at different times. Plan the dish, not the sitting. The plan holds meals for a day, and who eats when is not its business.

Questions people ask

Do I need to plan every meal?

No. Most people plan dinners and leave the rest alone, and that is enough to make the grocery list worth having.

Can I plan for past weeks?

Yes, and it is more useful than it sounds: recording what you actually cooked gives you next week’s plan for free.

Does planning use AI credits?

No. Planning, groceries, nutrition viewing and cooking mode are unlimited on the free plan.

Related guides

Turn a plan into a grocery list: the next step, and the point.

Cook with what is in the fridge: for the nights the plan missed.

Calculate the calories in a recipe: day and week totals.

Import a recipe from TikTok: how the five recipes get there.

Tableful vs Plan to Eat: the established planning calendar, compared.

Reviewed September 2026. Tableful can only read content it can reach: private, deleted, region-restricted or paywalled posts may not be readable. Nutrition figures are estimates for meal decisions, not medical advice.