Sunday meal prep can save £50 a week, but only if it replaces spending that is already happening: bought lunches, midweek takeaways, top-up shops and food you throw away. If you already cook most meals from scratch, the saving will be smaller. The method is simple: plan the week on Saturday, shop once, then spend about two hours on Sunday cooking a few base recipes that become lunches and dinners until Friday.
This guide shows how to work out what you could realistically save, a two-hour routine, a sample plan and the food safety rules that make prepping ahead work. For a broader introduction to meal prep, see our complete meal prep guide.
Where a £50 weekly saving comes from
Look back at your last two weeks of bank statements and add up food bought outside your main shop. The example below shows how £50 can build up for one person; your own figures may be higher or lower.
| Spending replaced | Example weekly cost | Prepped instead |
|---|---|---|
| Bought lunch, 5 days at £5 | £25 | Prepped lunches |
| One midweek takeaway | £20 | Freezer portion |
| Two top-up shops | £10 | One planned shop |
| Total before ingredients | £55 | Ingredient cost to subtract |
Remember to subtract what the prepped meals cost to make. The saving is the difference, so cheap bulk ingredients such as lentils, rice, pasta, oats, frozen vegetables and chicken thighs make the biggest difference. A household of four that regularly buys lunches or takeaways can save considerably more.
Saturday: plan and shop (30 minutes)
Plan around three or four base recipes that share ingredients, so nothing is left over. Check what is already in your fridge, freezer and cupboards first, and build at least one meal around it.
- Choose one big-batch main (chilli, curry, bolognese or a traybake) that freezes well.
- Choose one grain or carb (rice, pasta, potatoes or couscous) and one roasted vegetable tray.
- Choose one breakfast you can make ahead, such as overnight oats.
- Write the shopping list by supermarket section and check unit prices, not pack prices. Our guide to saving on food shopping explains how.
Sunday: the 2-hour routine
The order matters, because the oven and hob can work at the same time:
- 0:00 Oven on. Chop all vegetables at once; put trays of vegetables and any meat in to roast.
- 0:15 Start the big-batch main on the hob and leave it to simmer.
- 0:30 Cook the grains. Make overnight oats or another breakfast.
- 0:50 Make a sauce or dressing to change the flavour midweek (pesto, yoghurt dressing or salsa).
- 1:15 Take everything off the heat and start cooling. Cooked food should go into the fridge or freezer within about two hours.
- 1:30 Portion into containers: Monday and Tuesday meals in the fridge, Wednesday to Friday in the freezer.
- 1:45 Label, wash up and write the week's plan on the fridge.
Fridge, freezer and food safety
Prepping for five days only works if you store food safely. The Food Standards Agency advises eating leftovers within two days of cooking, and cooked rice within one day. That is why the routine freezes portions for later in the week: move Wednesday's meal from the freezer to the fridge on Tuesday night to defrost. Reheat food until it is steaming hot all the way through, and never reheat rice more than once.
Shallow containers cool food faster. Use the freezer for bread, milk, grated cheese and chopped herbs too, which cuts waste. Our guide to freezer meal prep lists what freezes well.
A sample week
From one Sunday session: a pot of chilli, a tray of roasted vegetables, a pan of rice (eaten by Monday), overnight oats and a yoghurt dressing.
| Day | Lunch | Dinner |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Rice, roasted veg, dressing | Chilli with rice |
| Tuesday | Chilli and couscous bowl | Roasted veg pasta |
| Wednesday | Frozen chilli portion | Jacket potato with chilli |
| Thursday | Veg and egg wrap | Frozen chilli, made into quesadillas |
| Friday | Leftover soup or freezer portion | Fridge clear-out meal |
Changing the sauce or the carb stops the week feeling repetitive, which is the main reason people give up.
Common reasons meal prep stops saving money
- Too ambitious: five different recipes on the first Sunday leads to burnout. Start with lunches only.
- Buying special ingredients: one-off spices and sauces used once wipe out the saving.
- Boredom: the same meal five days running means a Thursday takeaway. Plan two mains or vary the sauces.
- Forgetting the freezer: food left in the fridge past two days gets binned. See our tips to reduce food waste.
Make sure the saving actually gets saved
Money not spent on lunches tends to disappear into other spending unless you move it. Each time you take a prepped lunch instead of buying one, move the amount you would have spent into savings. SYM makes this a one-tap daily log and tracks your streak. Over a year, £50 a week is £2,600; put your own figure into the savings goal calculator to see what it could pay for, and set a realistic food budget in the budget planner.
Meal prep Sunday: frequently asked questions
Does meal prep really save money?
How long does meal prep last in the fridge?
How long does Sunday meal prep take?
What are the cheapest meals to batch cook?
Can you meal prep for a family?
- meal prep
- food budget
- batch cooking
- lunches
- food waste