Free printable weekly meal planner (made for Australian families)

Not everyone wants an app, and that’s fine. Sometimes a piece of paper on the fridge is exactly right. So we made one: a free weekly meal planner designed the way Australian households actually eat.

What’s on it

• A Monday-start week, with DD/MM dates (the Australian way)
• Six meal slots a day: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and dessert. Leave the ones you don’t plan blank
• A “who’s home?” row, so you can see at a glance who’s out for dinner
• A shopping list grouped by aisle: fruit and veg, meat and fish, dairy, pantry, frozen, and household
• A “use this week” box for whatever’s about to go off in the fridge
• A notes corner for school events, birthday cakes and other emergencies

It prints on A4, in portrait, and looks just as good in black and white.

How to use it (15 minutes a week)

1. Fill in the “who’s home?” row from the family calendar.
2. Check the fridge first, and write anything that needs using up in the “use this week” box.
3. Plan dinners, starting with the “use this week” ingredients.
4. Add lunches and morning tea, reusing dinner leftovers wherever you can.
5. Write the shopping list from the plan, minus what you’ve already got.
6. Stick it on the fridge. Cross things off as you go. Enjoy the calm.

Need more help? Our family meal planning guide walks through each step.

Tips for making it stick

• Print a few at once and keep them in a kitchen drawer with a pen that actually works
• Plan on the same day each week, the day before your big shop
• Keep old plans. After a month, you’ll have a ready-made rotation of meals your family likes
• Laminate one and use a whiteboard marker, if you’re fancy

When paper isn’t enough

A printable is brilliant until the plan changes on Wednesday, someone’s out on Thursday, and the shopping list is still on the fridge while you’re standing in the supermarket.

That’s when My Tomte helps. It fills in the plan for you in one tap, keeps the shopping list on your phone, and updates when things change. Same idea as the printable, minus the pen hunt.