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 free 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.

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 user's manual).  
  • Sliding Mix & Match Scratch Pad aligns with Recipes column for coordinating perishables across each week's recipes. 
  • Auto-adding servings counter, ingredient cost fields, Recipe Cost Calculator, and Bulk Ingredient Cost Calculator.  
  • Special Servings Sticker Sheet with "Fresh & Fast", "Prep or Pass", and "Chill to go" stickers.
  • Store-Specific Stock Ups notepad. 
  • "No Frozen Leftovers" recipe ideas notepad.
  • "Intentional Frozen Leftovers" recipe ideas notepad.
  • "Prep or Pass"/"Pantry-Freezer" recipe ideas notepad.
  • Freeze-Ahead & Freezer Prep recipe ideas notepad.
  • Blank notepad/sticker space.  
  • Fun, functional stickers for coding special servings and encouraging well rounded planning.

Tasklist Builder page: 

  • Recipe titles (auto-migrated from the Plan & Shop page).
  • "How many Times" fields for tracking planned recipe repeats.
  •  Prep-ahead task fields with check boxes for tasks.
  • Recipe repeats checkboxes. 
  • Dedicated notepads for recipe leftovers and recipe notes.
  • Gallery-notepad space.  
  • O.f.O.'s Procreate-made washi, stickers, and gifs for matching prep-ahead tasks.  

Tracker pages:

  • Time:  Kitchen Time Tracker page with auto-adding kitchen workflow time-tracker, recurring weekly timeline targets, gallery-notepads, task stickers, and section 1 & 2 wrap-up stickers.
  • Meals:  Two meal tracker pages to choose from; one with auto-adding macro fields, and one without.
  • Budget:  The budget page includes auto-adding weekly & monthly food spending trackers, auto-adding Five Week Monthly Budget Balancer, Recipe Cost Recap chart and a Kitchen Time Recap chart.  Plus, gallery-notepad space.
  • Fridge & Pantry Inventory:  Gallery-notepad pages for image-based tracking.
  • Freezer Inventory:  Categorized Freezer Tracker page with item entry fields and a gallery-notepad.

Gallery-Notepad Pages:

  • Try & Buy notepad & image board.
  • Delicious Thoughts notepad & image board.
  • Fridge Gallery-Notepad.
  • Pantry Gallery-Notepad.
  • Freezer Tracker's gallery-notepad.  

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 drag-and-drop planning power.
  • Inventory image galleries can display home inventory during shopping.
  • Ingredient cost fields may be entered to display a running total during shopping, and also to calculate recipe costs on the spending tracker after shopping. 
  • Notepads & galleries can keep bright ideas from fading away.

Functional stickers.

  • Food and task stickers can cover or replace text on workflow and meal trackers. 
  • Bullet stickers can color-code matching tasks on the task list page.   
  • Section 1 & 2 wrap-up stickers stickers can pinpoint recurring weekly progress targets on the workflow tracker's timeline. 
  • Lightening bolt stickers can be dragged onto section 1 servings counter fields to confirm the weekly Quick Six:  Two fast, fresh, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.
  • Recipe category character stickers playfully encourage well rounded planning.
  • Digital planner png downloads are offered by awesome artists with super-cute sticker shops.
  • Diy stickers are fun & easy to create from personal pics or free Google images.

Notepads and image galleries.

  • Kitchen inventory galleries can display the contents of the fridge and pantry.  This method of tracking kitchen supplies can be fast and accurate, thanks to a few display enhancing kitchen organizers. 
  • The freezer tracker can display a categorized running inventory of single serving meals, sides & snacks, and raw & cooked ingredients. 
  • The Try & Buy Inspiration notepad & image board has 11 categorized columns for coordinating kitchen setup.
  • The "Delicious Thoughts" notepad & image board can be filled with even more fun kitchen stuff.
  • The spending tracker's notepad and receipt gallery can store shopping notes and images of receipts.

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.

Notes, Keep and Docs all make excellent digital recipe boxes, and it's pretty simple to sync Google with Apple Notes, or copy & move recipes between apps.  There's no harm in experimenting with each, so long as you commit to one and migrate before becoming disorganized.

Most "digital planners" and "digital recipe boxes" are simply note taking apps.  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.  The planner is easy to fill on a split screen, even on many phones. 

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. Store an extra copy of the planner for safe keeping.
  2. Retitle one copy for use with the current week's date range.
  3. Edit day-of-the-week fields to position your routine weekly shopping day of choice as your start day.
  4. Calendar recurring reminders for wrapping up weekly prep   -   Section 1 near midweek and Section 2 near week's end.  Position wrap-up stickers on the workflow tracker to coincide with calendar reminders.
  5. Start planning!

Here are five steps for reusing your planner each week:

  1. At week's end, store a copy of the completed planner in a folder for safe keeping.
  2. Retitle the original planner with the current week's date range.
  3. Blank out text fields for reuse.
  4. Uncheck (or delete and reinsert) check boxes for reuse.
  5. Start planning!

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!

  • File meal plan task lists digitally, for searchable reference.
  • Capture searchable images of paper recipes in Keep, Docs, or Notes.
  • Access recipes on cards at home or on the phone 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 freezer tracker and fridge & pantry image galleries 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!