Meal Planner and Grocery List Spreadsheet

About this template

This meal planner spreadsheet lets you plan the week once and have the grocery list write itself. Put recipes on the week and it adds up every ingredient they need, then takes off whatever your pantry already holds, so you stop buying things twice.

Please read: This is a tracker tool only, not financial, tax, legal, medical or any other professional advice or advisory service. It records and calculates what you enter; you are solely responsible for checking all figures, rates, dates and results and for every decision you make. By purchasing, downloading or using it, you accept these terms (your statutory consumer rights are not affected).

The dashboard

Show all meals, or only breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks, and the page follows. Nothing on it is typed; it fills itself from what you enter.

• Five live cards: meals planned, meals cooked, the week's food, cost per meal and the shop, each with a mini chart
• The week at a glance: every meal in one grid, filled in once you have cooked it
• What each day costs, with the day's meals stacked
• Your favorite recipes, best rated first, with what each costs and how long it takes
• Grocery spend against your budget and meals cooked, for the last twelve weeks
• What this week's shopping list costs against the budget you set
• Balance of the week: plant-based, eggs and dairy, chicken, fish or red meat, each as a percentage
• Cost per meal for every recipe on the menu, from most to least expensive, for your household
• What the week takes from the pantry

Nine connected tabs

A recipe book, a weekly meal plan, a shopping list and a pantry tracker that all read each other.

• Recipe Lines: the ingredients of each recipe, entered once
• Pantry: what you already have, taken off the list
• Cost per recipe and per serving, from your own prices
• Dashboard: every figure calculated, none of it typed
• Setup and Start Here

For the Sunday planner

It is for anyone who plans the week on Sunday and still ends up at the store twice. It keeps meal prep, the grocery list and the food budget in one place, and the filled copy shows exactly how it behaves before you type anything. You get it filled in and blank, in Excel and in Google Sheets.

Works with

• Microsoft Excel 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365, on Windows and Mac, and LibreOffice. No Microsoft 365 subscription needed.
• Google Sheets with a free Google account. You get real spreadsheet files, not a PDF with a link in it.
• No add-ins, no macros and no subscription

What you download

• The Excel workbook, filled with a worked example
• The same workbook, blank and ready for your own numbers
• The instruction guide, with one-click links to the Google Sheets versions (filled and blank)
• The terms of use as a PDF

Your files are ready as soon as payment clears. The template is for personal use on your own devices; please do not share or resell the files. Questions before or after you buy? Use our contact page and we will help.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work in Excel and Google Sheets?

Yes. The Excel workbook runs in Excel 2016 or later on Windows and Mac, and the instruction guide has two one-click links to the Google Sheets versions.

How does the grocery list fill itself?

Put recipes on the week and the list adds up every ingredient they need, then takes off whatever the Pantry tab says you already have.

Can I see what my meals cost?

Yes. It works out the cost per recipe and per serving from your own prices, and compares this week's shopping list with the food budget you set.

Can I add my own recipes?

Yes. Enter each recipe's ingredients once on the Recipe Lines tab and they are available to plan with.

Can I plan only dinners?

You can plan breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, and the dashboard can show all meals or just one of them.