I plan my meals ahead of time and almost always have because I can't get out of the house easily with all these kids and my husband works 12 hours/days 7days a week. PLus we ARE on a very tight budget at the moment but we love love and we both love to cook...We live way out in the country and have access to fresh meats and local butchers so we oftent buy half of a beef and pig. So I have a freezer full of meat of different cuts and it comes way less expensive than getting it at the grocers. Plus I KNOW who raised my beef. So that coast a lot of money but at the end we save a lot. Then I plan my meals and recepeis and try to base it on the sales in stores. I plan 3-4 meals per week and the others I wing it. So I have a bit of both. When my budget is really tight I use Kraft Canada's website for cheap recepies. You can find some good ones on there. When I don't feel like doing a list I do wing it at the store. It does help that I have a big freezer full of meat already.