A week on paper, before the week starts arguing

A menu plan is a set of dates. Five dinners, or seven, or just the nights you are home. Choose the kind of cooking those nights can bear: easy, a bit more effort on Sunday, something rapid after football. Cuisine is a seasoning on that, not the structure. "Mediterranean all week" still needs to be shoppable.

The plan should notice leftovers. A roast on Sunday that does not reappear is how you throw away food you paid for. Say you want the chicken used twice. The second meal ought to look like a decision, not like penance.

If the shopping list is longer than the week deserves, the plan is showing off. Grouped by aisle, it should read like a path through the shop: produce, dairy, tins, bread. Quantities for the number of people, not a vague "some".

Cross off what you know is in the house before you go. A plan that ignores the pantry will buy a second bottle of soy sauce and another bag of rice. You can start the plan from a photo of the fridge so the list is the gaps.

Someone will be out. Someone will not fancy the stew. A gap is not a failure of the system. It is how the week stays bearable. Fill the other nights properly, shop for those, and keep eggs or beans for the hole.

Recipes and a short cooking guide sit under each day so you are not re-deciding at 6pm. If a day looks like a project and you know you will be late, swap it now, on Sunday, when swapping is cheap.