You know that moment when it’s late, you’re tired, and the only thing standing between you and dinner is… nothing in the fridge that goes together? That’s exactly what weekly meal planning prevents. Instead of stressing out at 7 p.m., you already know what’s for dinner because you decided it once, days ago.

It’s 6:00 pm. You’ve just closed your laptop after a long day of meetings, emails, and deadlines. You’re hungry, you’re tired, and the fridge is a puzzle of half-empty jars, random vegetables, and nothing that looks like a meal.

Meal planning can be simple: write down what you’ll eat, buy the groceries, and stick to the plan. But when done wrong, you start strong on Sunday only to give up by Wednesday, and quickly find out there’s more to it than that.