Your feedback helps us all. Please share your answer in the comments below.

Here’s what Table365 partners Kimberly and Sharon have to say:

I have been making a weekly meal plan for years. When my kids were younger I planned both lunches and dinners to maintain my sanity. Now that they’re older (ages 2 and 5) I don’t feel the need to plan out lunches. Most likely that will change again once I have to start packing lunches for school. So, for now I focus on dinner.

Here’s how I use my weekly meal plan:

1. I’m flexible about moving my nights around. For example, some nights I just don’t have time to cook what I planned and something else from that week will be easier so I switch them.
2. I shop once a week to purchase my perishable staples using my weekly meal plan as a guide.
3. I have not been successful with meal plans longer than a week so I stick with what works best for me.

I’ve been making weekly meal plans (lunch and dinner with general breakfast menus) but am currently working on a 6-week plan to repeat twice a season.  I love the creativity of new menus, but feel that the time needed to plan, shop and prep for new meals each week is adding too much stress to my life right now.

I am anticipating the following benefits from the a 6-week plan (I’ll let you know how it works out!)

1.  A longer view for balancing meals (variety of proteins, healthful mix of vegetables, etc).
2.  More efficient grocery shopping with a longer planning calendar (saving money and time).
3. Cooking larger batches and freezing for multiple, repeated meals.
4. Time savings with one longer planning session for 6 weeks (to be repeated) vs. 12 times of planning for one week at a time.