The Meal Planner

The orientation page and quickest explanation of the intended workflow.

Follow the four-step route: set household/store basics, check prices, choose the week, then shop and keep the planner current. It also explains how to add custom dinner or baking recipes and which cells are intended for editing.

Nothing needs to be calculated here. It acts as the workbook guide and explains that custom recipes also need ingredient mapping before Shopping List can calculate what to buy.

The read-only weekly dashboard for budget position, store comparison, dinners and the current shopping plan.

Use it to see the weekly budget, preferred-store basket, optional alternative-store estimates, budget status, the seven selected dinners and a compact shopping-list view.

It updates from Settings, Choose Week, Shopping List and Price Book. Store comparisons remain deliberately blank or marked as setup-required until enough local pricing information exists.

The seven-dinner selector and rotation view.

Choose the mode, select a week type such as Best Value, and either accept system suggestions or choose each dinner yourself for Monday through Sunday.

Selected meals feed Shopping List and This Week Recipes. Estimated ingredient use, last-eaten information and rotation notes become more meaningful as Price Book and Meal History are maintained.

The main working list for the supermarket trip, including quantities, product choices, budget totals and optional comparison-store information.

Review the automatically required dinner items, choose products where alternatives exist and use Adjust Qty only when the calculated pack count needs a manual override. The lower baking controls can add Bake 1 and Bake 2 to the week.

Dinner quantities come from the selected recipes, Need? reacts to calculated requirement and On Hand, totals compare against the weekly budget, and comparison-store savings/coverage update only when verified alternative prices are supplied.

A read-only recipe-card view for the current week.

Open it while cooking to see the seven selected dinners and any chosen baking recipes, with fresh ingredients, pantry/staples and step-by-step instructions.

Dinner cards update from Choose Week. Bake 1 and Bake 2 update from Shopping List, so you do not need to copy recipes manually into this page.

The household item layer that tracks what the plan needs versus what is already on hand.

Most fields are system-driven. Enter On Hand when useful so the planner knows you already have an item; review the preferred product, normal quantity, unit and notes when maintaining the catalogue.

Item/product information flows from Price Book while dinner and baking requirements calculate planned quantities. The Shopping List can then avoid buying items already available at home.

The full dinner and baking catalogue, including favourites, timing, history and cost context.

Browse the included 50 dinners and 6 baking recipes, set Favourite = Yes for meals you want favoured more often, and use the reserved blank recipe IDs when adding your own recipes.

Meal History feeds last-eaten and times-eaten values. Estimated ingredient use and cost band use the ingredient/price setup, while custom recipe shopping quantities require the matching Recipe ID to be mapped to ingredients.

The source of grocery product, pack-size and price information used by the budget calculations.

Replace the starter primary-store estimates with your own checked local prices before relying on totals. Add loyalty/member pricing and comparison-store products/prices only when you want those comparisons; leave unknown prices blank rather than guessing.

The planner chooses the usable primary price, converts pack pricing into meal/shopping cost estimates and feeds Home and Shopping List. Comparison coverage and savings appear only when enough alternative-store data is present.

An extension catalogue for extra brands or pack choices beyond the core Price Book product.

Add category, requirement, retailer, brand, product/pack, pack size, unit, pricing method, regular/sale price, deal type, source URL and set Active? = Yes when the option should be available.

Active catalogue products can become selectable choices in Shopping List. Variable per-kilogram items and fixed pack/bottle items are handled differently using the pricing and pack-size fields.

The feedback and rotation memory for meals you have actually cooked.

After a meal, log the date, meal, rating, Favourite?, Have again? and any notes.

Those records update last-eaten and times-eaten in Recipe Library and give the weekly chooser better information for rotation and preference handling.

The household and supermarket setup page that should be completed before relying on the dashboard totals.

Enter country/region, weekly budget, household-size reference, primary supermarket, saving threshold, home area, up to two comparison supermarkets and whether loyalty/member pricing is used. Optional product preferences can lock in exact household choices.

Settings supply regional/currency guidance, budget targets and store labels throughout the workbook. Household size is reference-only: the included recipes are currently written for four people and do not auto-scale.