Meal planner
A meal planner lays out the week's meals so you decide once and shop once. In October 2026 Mealime was free, Eat This Much started at A$13.99, and paper planners had a median of A$14.99.
Most people do not fail at eating well, they fail at 6pm with no plan. A good meal planner moves that decision to Sunday and turns it into one shopping list. Below are the real prices of the apps and paper planners people buy, a side by side of what each one does, a worked week of dinners with the sums, and the honest state of the Daily Journal today: it logs what you ate and saves your own recipes, and a week planner is on the list.
- A worked week of five dinners, with calories and protein added up
- Prices of two apps and the paper planners people buy, read in October 2026
- A side by side of what each planner does, and what ours does today
- Free to start, private by default, no card
A meal plan that writes the shopping list
Here is what a simple, good meal planner looks like: the week at a glance, a card for each recipe with quantities that scale to the people at the table, and one button that turns the plan into a list. It is an example, not something you can sign in to today.
- Plan the week in under five minutes, with cook once, eat twice built in
- Recipe cards that scale to two, four or six people
- A plan estimate before you shop, so the budget holds
- One tap from the plan to the grocery list, minus the pantry
$96 for four people. 4 of 5 dinners use something already in the pantry.
Quick facts
An example of what it could look like. Tap the boxes to try it. Nothing here is saved, and every number is an example.
What a meal planner does, and where ours is up to
A meal planner is a calendar for food. You choose meals for the coming days, the planner turns them into a shopping list, and the better ones check the week against a calorie or protein target. The saving is mental as much as money: one planning session replaces seven small decisions made when you are tired and hungry.
The Daily Journal does not have a week planner yet. What it has today is the other half: the Food page, where you type what you ate and see the day's calories and nutrients, your own recipes saved with serves so one tap logs a portion, and Plan, where you can put a task such as cook the lasagne on a day. We say that up front because the planner is a feature we will build in the order sign-ups ask for it.
What is included
- A Food page that logs the week's meals and nutrients
- Plan for tasks and reminders such as shop on Saturday
- A free printable meal planner today
- Tell us you want the planner, when you sign up
Who it is for
- People who want one decision a week instead of seven
- Households trying to cut food waste and last minute takeaway
- Anyone who has tried a planner app and found it too much
- People who like to log what they ate against a plan
Plan a week with the arithmetic done
Start from a daily energy target. For a 35 year old woman, 165 cm and 68 kg, with light activity, our calculators give about 1,900 kcal to keep her weight. Over a week that is 13,300 kcal to spread across 21 main meals and some snacks. For the same woman the national reference protein amount is about 51 g a day, or 357 g a week.
The split below is one sensible way to carve the day. It is an example, not a prescription, and you should change the shares to suit your life. The calorie calculator and protein calculator give your own numbers.
| Meal | Share of the day | Energy at 1,900 kcal | Protein at 51 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | 25 percent | 475 kcal | about 13 g |
| Lunch | 30 percent | 570 kcal | about 15 g |
| Dinner | 35 percent | 665 kcal | about 18 g |
| Snacks | 10 percent | 190 kcal | about 5 g |
| Whole day | 100 percent | 1,900 kcal | 51 g |
Worked on 23 October 2026 with the formulas on our calculator pages. Estimates for a healthy adult, not personal advice.
A worked week: five dinners, with the sums
A plan is only useful if the numbers behind it are real, so here is one built from the same nutrient table the Food page uses (USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, April 2018). Each dinner is one adult serve, weighed raw the way you buy it, and the calories and protein are the sums of the ingredients. The five dinners together come to 2,588 kcal and 154 g of protein for one person, which is an average of 518 kcal and 31 g of protein a night.
Set that against the example day above. Dinner was 35 percent of 1,900 kcal, or 665 kcal, so these dinners leave about 147 kcal a night of room for a piece of fruit, a yoghurt or a second spoon of rice. The average protein of 31 g is above the 18 g that the reference amount of 51 g gives a dinner. That is the point of working it through: you can see whether a plan is light, about right or generous before you shop.
| Dinner | One serve, raw weights | Energy | Protein | Cook |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon: chicken and rice bowl | Chicken breast 150 g, white rice 65 g, broccoli 120 g, avocado 40 g, olive oil 5 g | 566 kcal | 42.6 g | 2 serves, one for Tuesday lunch |
| Tue: lentil and spinach curry | Red lentils 50 g, tinned tomato 100 g, spinach 60 g, onion 50 g, brown rice 55 g, olive oil 8 g | 501 kcal | 19.2 g | 2 serves |
| Wed: pasta bake | Pasta 70 g, pasta sauce 120 g, lean beef mince 80 g, zucchini 100 g | 446 kcal | 29.1 g | 4 serves, covers Thursday |
| Fri: salmon and sweet potato | Salmon 130 g, sweet potato 220 g, green beans 100 g, olive oil 5 g | 535 kcal | 31.8 g | 2 serves |
| Sat: tofu stir fry | Tofu 130 g, brown rice 60 g, broccoli 120 g, capsicum 80 g, olive oil 8 g | 540 kcal | 31.2 g | 2 serves |
| Five dinners, one person | Sum of the rows above | 2,588 kcal | 154 g | Average 518 kcal and 31 g |
Worked on 23 October 2026 from the per 100 g values in the app's nutrient table (lib/nutrition-data.js). Raw weights, so cooked rice and pasta weigh more on the plate. An illustration for a healthy adult, not a prescription. Turn it into a list with the grocery list app page or work out your own target with the TDEE calculator.
A planning session that takes twenty minutes
This works with any tool, paper or app. The order matters more than the software.
- 1Look at the week first
Mark the nights you are out, working late or cooking for others. Plan around the week you really have.
- 2Choose the dinners
Pick three to four dinners, not seven. Plan to cook once and eat twice so one dinner covers a lunch.
- 3Fix breakfast and lunch
Most people eat the same two or three breakfasts. Decide them once and stop thinking about them.
- 4Write one list
Group it by where you shop: fruit and veg, dairy, meat, pantry, freezer. Check the cupboard before you write the line.
- 5Log it as you go
Type what you actually ate on the Food page. Plans change, and the log shows the gap between plan and week without any judgement.
Sign up to your own free journal
- Free to start, no card needed
- Private by default, and you choose who you share with
- Your account opens straight away, on your phone or computer
Free to start. Takes about a minute.
What meal planners cost: apps, vegan plans and paper
App prices were read from the Australian App Store on 20 October 2026, and the paper prices from Amazon AU and eBay AU on 21 October 2026. Marketplace figures are a first page of results, so they describe what is listed, not the whole market. A$ means Australian dollars and US$ United States dollars: we do not convert one into the other.
| Planner | What we read | Read on |
|---|---|---|
| Eat This Much (app) | Free to download. Eight subscription lines in the Australian listing from A$13.99 to A$129.99 (A$13.99, A$22.99, A$66.99, A$73.99 labelled a Winter Sale yearly, A$79.99, A$86.99, A$129.99). The listing does not label the other terms. 22,169 ratings, 4.7 stars. The description says a free account makes one day's plan and premium makes a week and a grocery list. | 20 Oct 2026 |
| Eat This Much, United States listing | Eight subscription lines from US$8.99 to US$84.99, same app, same terms. | 20 Oct 2026 |
| Mealime (app) | Free app. No in-app purchase on the Australian listing. The description says a Meal Planner Pro at US$2.99 a month, and 54,143 ratings at 4.8 stars on the United States listing. | 20 Oct 2026 |
| Vegan Meal Plan and Food Recipes (app) | In-app purchases from A$1.49 to A$48.99 (A$1.49, A$2.99, A$14.49, A$48.99). 17 ratings, so a small app. | 20 Oct 2026 |
| Vegan Recipes and Meal Plan (app) | A$6.99 for a week, A$13.99 for a month, A$70.99 for a year. No ratings yet. | 20 Oct 2026 |
| Paper and fridge planners, Amazon AU | Median A$14.99, lowest A$5.02, highest A$569.99. Magnetic acrylic fridge planners were bought 50 to 100+ times a month at A$17.99 to A$21.99, rated 4.3 to 4.8 stars. | 21 Oct 2026 |
| Meal planner notepads, eBay AU | 632 results, median A$19.43 between A$10.69 and A$43.95. A clear acrylic magnetic board had 22 sold at A$26.90. | 21 Oct 2026 |
| Daily Journal | Free to start. No paid plan is set, and the week planner is not built yet. | 23 Oct 2026 |
We have not read the prices of the last three, so they are not in the table. Where every figure comes from is on the sources page and at the foot of this one.
Side by side: what each planner does
Built from the App Store descriptions we saved on 21 October 2026 for the two apps, the marketplace read for paper, and our own app inventory for the Daily Journal on 23 October 2026. Where a description does not say, the cell says unknown instead of guessing.
| What it does | Daily Journal today | Eat This Much | Mealime | Paper planner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Builds the week for you | Not yet | Yes, from your targets and tastes (premium makes a week) | Yes, a weekly plan from your diet choices | No, you write it |
| Shopping list from the plan | Not yet | Yes, premium emails a grocery list | Yes, made from the recipes | You write it |
| Calorie and macro targets | Partly: day totals on the Food page, targets from the calculators | Yes, plans are built to hit them | Nutrition shown on each recipe | No |
| Log what you actually ate | Yes, the Food page | Yes, mark what you followed | Unknown | On a food diary printable |
| Recipes | Partly: your own recipes with serves, no recipe library | Yes, and you can edit them | Yes, step by step | No |
| Pantry | No | Premium virtual pantry | Unknown | A cupboard check on paper |
| Cost | Free to start | Free account, premium from A$13.99 | Free, Pro in its description at US$2.99 a month | From A$5.02 once |
| Who sees what you enter | Private by default, you choose who to share with | Unknown, not read | Unknown, not read | Whoever walks past the fridge |
Yes, Partly, Not yet and Unknown are our words, not the apps' own. Read the app's own page before you pay: features and prices change.
Which planner suits which person
The right planner depends on what you struggle with, not on which app has the longest feature list. Match the problem to the tool.
- You stand in the kitchen at 6pm with no idea. You need a plan more than software. Start with the free meal planner printable and three dinners, as in the steps above.
- You want the app to decide for you. That is what Eat This Much and Mealime are built around: you give them goals and tastes and they make the week. Try the free tier first. Mealime is free in our read, and Eat This Much lets a free account plan one day.
- You count calories or protein. Work out your numbers first with the calorie calculator and protein calculator, then check each day against them on the Food page, or read the calorie counter app page. Our macro split examples show three ways to carve a day.
- You cook for two or more. A shared list matters more than a clever plan. See the grocery list app page for what the shared-list apps charge.
- You are on a tight budget. Plan the dinners around the cheapest protein and vegetables you will really eat, and read how to compare shelf prices on our nutrition label guide. A A$5 notepad beats a A$130 subscription you stop opening.
- You already track habits. Keep it in one place: put the shop and the cook on a day in Plan with a reminder, and log the week on the Food page. The habit tracker app page shows how streaks work.
Why people still buy a fridge board
A magnetic board at around A$18 to A$22 outsells most apps in our marketplace read for a simple reason: it sits where the decision happens. The fridge door is seen forty times a day, and a phone app is seen only when you open it.
That is a design lesson, not a reason to avoid an app. If we build the planner, it should surface the plan on your Home screen each morning and keep a printable version one tap away, so the plan lives where you look.
- Put the plan where you decide: fridge door, or the first screen of your phone
- Keep it to one page so a week is readable at a glance
- Write the shopping list from the plan, not before it
What is in the app today, and what is not
The position on 23 October 2026, checked against the app's own files. A week planner is not built yet, and we will not pretend otherwise.
| Feature | In the app today | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Log what you ate with nutrients | Yes | Type foods and amounts on the Food page and see the day's totals. The nutrient table is USDA FoodData Central. |
| Your own recipes with serves | Yes | Type the ingredients the way you type food, such as 300g chicken breast, 400g rice. We add them up and divide them into serves, so one tap logs a portion. |
| Tasks and reminders on a calendar | Yes | Put shop and cook tasks on a day in Plan, set a reminder, and repeat them weekly. |
| Printable meal planner | Yes | A free meal planner printable is on this site. |
| Build a week of meals | Not yet | Not built. It is a feature we would add if people ask for it. |
| Shopping list from the plan | Not yet | Not built. See the grocery list app page. |
| Recipe library and supermarket prices | Not yet | Not built. We will not add prices without a source we can name. |
Plan this week, log it tonight
A free account opens in about a minute. The Food page is ready to log what you actually eat.
Sign up to your own free journal
- Free to start, no card needed
- Private by default, and you choose who you share with
- Your account opens straight away, on your phone or computer
Free to start. Takes about a minute.
What to look for before you pay
Planner apps are subscriptions, so the sum that matters is the cost over a year, not the number on the button. Divide the price by the months in the term the app shows at checkout. Mealime's description puts its Pro tier at US$2.99 a month, which is US$35.88 over twelve months. Eat This Much lists eight subscription lines from A$13.99 to A$129.99 without naming the terms in the listing, so check which line is monthly and which is yearly before you tap, and notice that a Winter Sale yearly line at A$73.99 is a sign the price moves.
Then run this short checklist. It takes two minutes and has saved people from paying for features they did not need.
- Does the free version make one real plan, or only show you a picture of one?
- Can you export or print the plan, so you are not locked in?
- Is the shopping list part of the free tier, or only of the paid one?
- Does it check your calorie and protein targets against the floors of 1,200 kcal for women and 1,500 kcal for men?
- What happens to your data if you cancel, and who can see your food log?
- Can you cancel in the app, and does the price show before you confirm?
- Would a printed week on the fridge do the same job for A$5 to A$22, once?
Mistakes and myths about meal planning
A few ideas make planners fail. None of them is about willpower.
- Planning seven different dinners. Three or four is enough. Plan to cook once and eat twice, as the pasta bake above does, and the week needs fewer recipes and a shorter list.
- Planning for the week you wish you had. Mark the nights you are out first. A plan that ignores Thursday is a plan you break on Thursday.
- Believing meal prep means seven identical boxes. It can mean one cooked protein, one cooked grain and chopped vegetables that you mix three ways. Choose the version you will still eat on Friday.
- Treating the plan as the log. What you planned and what you ate are different numbers. Log the week on the Food page and read the gap without judging it.
- Planning below the floors. A calorie target below 1,200 kcal for women or 1,500 kcal for men is not a plan our calculators will give. See what a calorie deficit is and how large a safe one is in our deficit guide.
- Thinking planning saves money by itself. It saves money when it makes the list shorter and the bin emptier. The saving is not guaranteed and we have not measured one, so we do not promise a figure.
Planning for weight, protein or budget
Different goals change the order you plan in. For weight, fix the daily energy first and fit meals under it, always above the floors of 1,200 kcal for women and 1,500 kcal for men that our calculators hold. For protein, anchor each main meal with a protein food and check the total against your amount. For budget, plan the dinners around the cheapest protein and vegetables you will actually eat.
Our macro split examples show three ways to divide a day, and how to calculate macros explains the sums. If your goal is a deficit, read what is a calorie deficit before you plan one, and check the floor with the calorie deficit calculator. If you want water and sleep in the same plan, the water intake calculator and the sleep calculator take a minute each.
Free ways to start today
You do not need to wait for a planner to plan. Print the meal planner printable for the week, and the weekly planner printable if you want the whole week, not just food, on one page. Keep the food diary printable beside it so you can write what you really ate.
Work out your numbers once with the calorie calculator, the protein calculator and the macro calculator, and sleep on how you feel before you change anything big. Then open the free journal: log meals on the Food page, save a favourite dinner as a recipe with serves, and put the Saturday shop in Plan as a repeating task with a reminder.
Tools and guides to plan with
A free one page week to print and stick on the fridge.
→Weekly planner printableThe whole week on one page, food and everything else.
→Food diary printableA paper log to compare with your plan.
→Calorie calculatorYour daily energy target to plan under.
→Protein calculatorYour protein amount to spread across meals.
→Macro calculatorGrams of protein, carbs and fat for a calorie target.
→Grocery list appTurn the plan into one shared shopping list.
→Calorie counter appCount what you ate and see the day against your plan.
→How to read nutrition labelsCompare products on the shop shelf.
→Go deeper
Each of these answers one question this page only touches.
- How many calories should I eat a day
- How to calculate macros
- How much protein do I need a day
- Protein per kg by age
- How to calculate TDEE
- kJ versus calories on Australian labels
- kJ to calories converter
- How to start a habit tracker
- Weight loss journal
- Sleep tracker
- Journal app
- The food hub
- All ten journal tools
Ask for the planner by signing up
Sign up free, pick Food as what you want to track, and your sign up tells us the meal planner matters to you.
Questions people ask
What is the best meal planner app?
It depends on whether you want a plan made for you, recipes, shopping lists or calorie targets, and the free tiers let you test that before paying. Mealime is free in our 20 October 2026 read, and Eat This Much starts at A$13.99.
Does the Daily Journal have a meal planner?
Not yet: the Daily Journal does not build a week of meals, although it logs what you ate with nutrients, saves your own recipes with serves, and holds shop and cook tasks in Plan. Sign up with Food chosen and your sign up is a request for the planner.
Is there a free meal planner?
Yes, several free options exist: our meal planner printable is free, Mealime is a free app in our 20 October 2026 read, and a paper notepad can cost as little as A$5. Choose the one you will actually open on Sunday.
How much does Eat This Much cost in Australia?
The Australian App Store listing we read on 20 October 2026 showed eight subscription lines from A$13.99 to A$129.99, with one labelled a Winter Sale yearly at A$73.99. The app is free to download, and the listing does not name the other terms.
Is Mealime free?
Mealime is a free download with no in-app purchase on the Australian App Store listing we read on 20 October 2026, though its description mentions a Meal Planner Pro at US$2.99 a month. Check what the free version includes before you rely on it.
How do I plan meals for the week?
Look at the week first, choose three or four dinners, fix breakfast and lunch, then write one shopping list grouped by aisle. The steps above take about twenty minutes and work on paper or in an app.
How many dinners should I plan?
Three or four dinners is enough for most weeks, because you cook once and eat twice and some nights are takeaway or leftovers. Planning seven different dinners usually means a longer list and a plan you abandon by Thursday.
What is a meal planner template?
A meal planner template is a one page grid of days and meals that you fill in by hand or on screen. Our meal planner printable is a free one, and the weekly planner printable covers the rest of the week.
How many calories should my meal plan add up to?
It depends on your age, height, weight, sex and how active you are, so work out your own estimate first rather than copying a number from someone else. The calorie calculator gives one, and a plan should stay above 1,200 kcal for women and 1,500 kcal for men.
How much protein should a meal plan include?
The national reference amount is 0.75 g per kg for women and 0.84 g per kg for men aged 19 to 70, which is about 51 g a day for a 68 kg woman. The protein calculator shows yours.
How do I make a shopping list from a meal plan?
Write the meals, list every ingredient with its weight, subtract what you already have, then group the rest by where you shop. The grocery list app page works one through for five dinners and two people.
Can I plan meals for weight loss?
Yes, by fixing a daily energy target first and fitting meals under it, never below the floors our calculators hold. A gentle deficit is usually 300 to 550 kcal a day below maintenance. See the deficit guide.
Who can see my food log?
Your food log is private by default, and you choose who to share it with, one person or a group, and can stop at any time. If anyone is ever given access to read an account, the person is told inside the app. The privacy policy has the detail.
How much does the Daily Journal cost?
The Daily Journal is free to start and no paid plan is set today, so you can log meals, save recipes and plan tasks without paying. If a paid plan is ever added you will see the price before you pay, and your entries stay yours. See the terms.
Where these figures come from
- App prices, plans and descriptions: Eat This Much and Mealime from their Australian and United States App Store listings, read on 20 October 2026 and saved in our competitor file, App Store price files and teardown (habit-teardown-2026-10-21). The two vegan meal plan apps come from the 20 October 2026 niche app read. Prices are in the currency of each listing and are not converted.
- Paper planner prices: Amazon AU and eBay AU first pages of public search results for meal planner, read on 21 October 2026 and saved in our marketplace file. Bought and sold counts are shown on some listings only, so they are a floor.
- Energy and protein: formulas and reference amounts as coded in our calculators (Mifflin St Jeor 1990; NHMRC Nutrient Reference Values), worked on 23 October 2026. See how we calculate.
- Food values in the worked week: USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, April 2018, as held in the Daily Journal's Food page nutrient table, per 100 g, worked on 23 October 2026. Dinner weights and the meal shares in the day table are illustrations we chose, not a recommendation from a source.
Updated 23 October 2026. A figure that was not read from a file is written as unknown. Prices change: check the supplier's own page before you rely on one. We are not affiliated with any app named here.
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