The Trials of Menu Planning

So I've never been one to plan my weekly meals in advance. I go to the store, I buy random things, I put them in my fridge and pantry. When dinner time rolls around, I look at what I have, I sit and think for an hour or two or look up a recipe, and then I make dinner on the fly.

This system has worked for me mostly, but lately I've been getting annoyed with trying to figure out what to make without proper planning. I've started to look online at Pinterest and a few other blogs and websites that talk about meal planning and having set meals for specific days. I don't know that I have it in me to plan a month's worth of meals just yet, and I have a hard time knowing what I want to eat today, let alone tomorrow or a week from now - so this is a game of trial and error.

Today I planned meals for the next week, with 2 "flex meals" that I'll swap out in case I decide to not eat one of the planned meals. I went to the store and I bought all the things needed to make said meals, without too much extra stuff. If it weren't for the fact that I was running low on a lot of my spices, cooking wines, and other miscellaneous items that caused me to go over-budget, I do believe I saved quite a bit of money tonight with this approach.

We didn't get back home till about 8pm, so it was too late to cook tonight. We bought some fresh honey BBQ wings at the store and a package of some frozen macaroni and cheese and we're going to eat like fat kids tonight.

Here's what I've got planned for the week:

Tuesday:
Pork Tenderloin with Pan Sauce
with
Seared Ginger Carrots

Wednesday:
Leftovers

Thursday:
Lemon Thyme Roasted Chicken Breasts
with
Honey Thyme Roasted Carrots

Friday:
Leftovers

Saturday:
I've given myself two options for tonight. I'm either doing a shrimp stir-fry, or blackened fish tacos. Both of which don't really have a recipe. The stir-fry I will throw together and make up as I go. The fish tacos is a mixture of like two or three different recipes I've come across. If I make them, then perhaps I'll post a recipe and some pictures. We'll see.

Sunday:
Pesto Ranch Crockpot Chicken Thighs
with
Mashed potatoes

Have you done meal planning before? How do you manage it? Does it work for you?

Let me know!