How to Meal Plan in Switzerland: 5 Steps

You can plan a week of meals in five steps: check what is in the fridge, pick four or five dinners around what is in season and on promotion this week, keep two evenings free for leftovers, write one list sorted by store and aisle, and shop once. In Switzerland the best moment to do it is Wednesday evening: at Migros, Coop and Denner the weekly promotions (called "Aktionen" in German) start on Thursday and run until the following Wednesday. A plan also tells you what not to buy.

Updated October 2026. Sources: foodwaste.ch, “Zahlen und Fakten zu Food Waste” (viewed on 5 October 2026, based on ZHAW/FOEN data, interim report 2025); savefood.ch, “Einkaufsplanung”; FSVO (Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office), “Hygiene im Umgang mit Lebensmitteln”; Migros (January 2026) and Coop (January 2025) press releases on the new promotion start; the promotion pages of Lidl Switzerland and Aldi Suisse, viewed on 5 October 2026.

Why plan your meals for the week?

For three practical reasons. The first is time: you decide once, instead of wondering at six every evening what to cook. The second is food waste: according to foodwaste.ch, which draws on the ZHAW/FOEN monitoring published in 2025, 26% of food losses in Switzerland happen in private households, and the main causes are buying more than you need, forgetting food in the fridge and cooking more than you eat. A plan tackles exactly these three causes.

The third is keeping control of your budget. On average, each person throws away about 80 kg of food a year at home, worth around CHF 600 (foodwaste.ch, 2026). How much of that you recover depends on your kitchen and your habits: nobody can promise it. What a plan does guarantee is that every purchase already has a place in the week.

How do you make a weekly meal plan in 5 steps?

1. Look at the fridge, freezer and pantry first. This is the number one tip from savefood.ch: what is still there, what needs to be eaten soon, which dishes you can make from your supplies. Write the three items to use first at the top of the plan. If you need a method for tonight, read what to cook with what you have in the fridge.
2. Choose four or five dinners, not seven. Start from what is in season (in October that means pumpkin, apples, cabbage and leeks: see the seasonal fruit and vegetable calendar) and from what is on promotion this week in the supermarket offers. One discounted ingredient can carry two dinners: chicken becomes a roast on Thursday and a salad on Friday.
3. Spread the meals out and leave two evenings free. The busiest evenings get the quick dishes, the weekend gets the dishes that take longer, cooked in a double batch. The two free evenings are for leftovers, a last-minute invitation or a pizza: a plan with no room for surprises falls apart by Wednesday.
4. Write one list, sorted by store and by aisle. For each dinner, note the ingredients you are missing, cross out what you already have, then reorder by store and by aisle, in the order you walk past them. If you prefer paper, there is a printable grocery list sorted by aisle.
5. Shop once, cook, use up the leftovers. One big shop between Thursday and Saturday, at most a small top-up of fresh food mid-week. Leftovers go straight into the fridge: the FSVO recommends storing meat, poultry and fish in the fridge below 5 degrees, keeping leftovers cool and reheating cooked dishes to 70 degrees.

When is the best time to plan your groceries in Switzerland?

The full promotion calendar through the year is in the Swiss supermarket promotion calendar; the shopping day in detail, with Sunday opening and end-of-day markdowns, is in the guide to the best day to buy groceries.

Paper, recipe app or Rappn: which method should you pick?

The best method is the one you use every week. If you like paper, the printable meal planner has seven rows for the days, columns for breakfast, lunch and dinner, a "to buy" column and a space for notes.

How to do it with Rappn Kitchen

In the Kitchen tab of the Rappn app (iOS and Android) open "Plan week": you see the days with the meals already planned and how many are covered, for example "3/7 days covered". From any recipe, tap "When are you cooking it?", pick the day and the meal and confirm with "Add to plan". Then choose a day of the plan: the app lists the ingredients of its recipes, splits them into "You have it at home" and "You might already have" (salt, water, flour), and with "Add N items" sends them to the "Weekly shop" cart. In the list, each item shows real products by store with their prices, and you can see where it is on promotion this week; prices are indicative and vary from store to store. Rappn is an independent price-comparison app with no commercial agreements with any retailer, free and with no account needed; the recipes come from external publishers named in the app. For more ideas, browse the recipes.

All our meal-planning guides

• Free printable meal planner template: the free PDF template and an example week.
• Printable grocery list template: sorted by supermarket aisle.
• Meal planning mistakes: seven reasons your plan fails.
• How to plan your weekly grocery shop: from menu to list, with a checklist.
• Best day to buy groceries in Switzerland: the rhythm of the weekly promotions.
• Portions per person: pasta, rice and meat in a chart.
• Turn recipes into one shopping list: without buying twice.
• Pantry staples list: the supplies you should always have.
• Family meal plan: seven dinners kids will actually eat.
• Cooking for one: a week without food waste.
• Work lunch ideas: a week of packed lunches.
• Balanced meal plan based on the Swiss food pyramid: a balanced week.
• Gluten-free or lactose-free meal plan: the week's menu.
• Quick weeknight dinners: a week of 20-minute meals.
• Seasonal cooking in October: squash, apples and game.
• Christmas dinner planning: your December shopping timeline.
• What can I cook with what is in my fridge?: ideas from what you already have.
• Meal planning app: how to plan around the week's promotions.