DinnerSorted
Meal planning
How to make a shopping list from your meal plan
Quick answer
List every ingredient from every recipe in the week's plan, cross off what's already in your fridge, freezer and cupboards, combine duplicates into one line with a total amount (two recipes needing an onion each becomes '2 onions'), then group the list by section of the shop. Add the weekly basics like milk and bread last.
A meal plan without a shopping list is a wish list. The list is what makes the plan real: it's the difference between "we're having fajitas on Wednesday" and opening the fridge on Wednesday to find no peppers.
Here's a five-step way to turn a week of dinners into one list you can shop in a single trip.
How to turn a meal plan into a shopping list
1. Write down every ingredient, recipe by recipe
Go through each dinner on the plan and copy out every ingredient with its quantity. Do it from the recipe, not from memory. Memory forgets the tablespoon of tomato purée that the whole sauce depends on.
2. Check what you already have
Take the list to the fridge, freezer and cupboards and cross off anything you've got enough of. Check quantities, not just presence: one sad carrot isn't "carrots". WRAP estimates that UK households threw away 4.7 million tonnes of food that could have been eaten in 2021, and buying things you already have is an easy way to add to it.
3. Combine duplicates
If Monday needs one onion, Wednesday needs two and Friday needs one, that's one line: 4 onions. Combining stops you buying a bag of onions three separate times in your head and still running out. Watch for the same ingredient in different units (a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes and "200g chopped tomatoes" are one tin and a half; buy two).
4. Group by section of the shop
Reorder the list into the order you walk round the supermarket. A typical UK layout:
- Fruit and veg
- Meat and fish
- Dairy and eggs
- Bakery
- Tins, jars, pasta and rice
- Herbs, spices and sauces
- Frozen
- Household
It sounds fussy. It saves ten minutes and the walk back to the veg aisle for the coriander you missed.
5. Add the weekly basics
Last, add the things you buy every week regardless of the plan: milk, bread, fruit for lunches, tea. Keeping a fixed list of these means you never forget them.
Plan dinners that share ingredients
If Monday's curry uses half a bag of spinach, put a pasta or omelette that uses the other half later in the week. Overlapping ingredients make the list shorter and cut waste.
An example
Three dinners: spaghetti bolognese, chicken fajitas and a vegetable curry. Written out and combined:
| Section | Item | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| Veg | 3 onions | Bolognese, fajitas, curry |
| Veg | 3 peppers | Fajitas, curry |
| Veg | 1 bulb garlic | All three |
| Meat | 500g beef mince | Bolognese |
| Meat | 4 chicken breasts | Fajitas |
| Dairy | Soured cream | Fajitas |
| Bakery | 8 tortilla wraps | Fajitas |
| Tins | 3 tins chopped tomatoes | Bolognese, curry |
| Tins | 1 tin coconut milk | Curry |
Garlic and onions appear in all three recipes but only once on the list.
Common mistakes
- Not adjusting for how many you're feeding. If the recipe serves two and you're feeding four, double the quantities before they go on the list. Our guide to scaling a recipe covers what to watch for.
- Skipping the cupboard check. This is how households end up with four jars of cumin.
- Buying "just in case" extras. If it's not on a plan, it probably won't get eaten. NHS budget advice, such as this healthy eating on a budget guide, recommends planning meals and sticking to a list.
- Making the list on paper, then leaving it at home. Keep it on your phone, or photograph it.
If you haven't got a plan yet, start with our weekly meal plan template.
Doing this automatically in DinnerSorted
I make DinnerSorted, and doing these five steps by hand every week is exactly why I built it. Once your dinners are on the week's plan, the grocery list builds itself from those recipes: matching ingredients are combined into one line, quantities are scaled to the number of people you're cooking for, and everything is grouped by section of the shop. You tick items off as you go round.
The meal planner and grocery list are free on iPhone. Recipes can be typed in, scanned from a cookbook photo or imported from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and websites, with three free imports a month and unlimited imports on DinnerSorted Pro.
Questions people also ask
Should I write my shopping list before or after meal planning?
After. The meal plan decides what goes on the list. Writing the list first is how you end up with ingredients that don't make a full dinner.
How do I stop forgetting things on my shopping list?
Go through each recipe's ingredients one by one rather than writing from memory, and check your cupboards before you cross anything off. Keep a running list of basics like milk, bread and washing-up liquid that you add every week.
Is it cheaper to shop with a list?
Shopping with a list is standard money-saving advice because it cuts impulse buys and stops you buying food you already have. NHS budget guidance recommends planning meals and shopping with a list.
Is there an app that makes a shopping list from recipes?
Yes. Several recipe apps build a list from the recipes you plan. DinnerSorted builds one from your weekly plan on iPhone, combining matching ingredients and grouping them by section of the shop.
Sources
Outside facts in this guide link to their source. The advice and examples are our own.