How to meal plan when you hate meal planning

Meal planning, for you, is a chore that defeats the point of saving effort. This works around that: you tell it your busy days, your proper-cooking days and your usual takeaway nights, and it builds a minimal system that asks for decisions once a week, plus a starter week of meals and a grouped shopping list to match your household and budget.

Step 1: I'll tell you my schedule: [busy days], [days I can cook properly], and [nights I usually get takeaway]. Step 2: Based on that, suggest a minimal meal planning system that requires decisions only once a week. Step 3: Generate a starter week of meals that fits this pattern, with a grouped shopping list. My household is [household size] and my weekly food budget is [amount].