Guide
Eating out, ordering in and meal skips: how to plan a realistic Singapore week
Nobody cooks seven dinners a week. The households that stick to a meal plan are the ones that plan around their hawker nights and social dinners instead of ignoring them. Here is how to do it without wasting food or money.
Why a seven-dinner plan always fails
A plan that assumes every dinner is cooked at home creates two problems. You buy ingredients for meals that never happen, and you feel like you have failed by Wednesday. Both are avoidable. Decide upfront which nights are eating-out nights, and let the plan cover the rest properly.
The four-step method
1. Be honest about the week
Look at the diary before you plan. A late meeting on Wednesday, football on Friday, grandma's place on Sunday — those are three dinners you were never going to cook.
2. Mark those nights as meal skips
In your profile, tap the days your household eats out. MakanPlan stops planning those dinners and stops shopping for them, so the plan matches real life.
3. Let breakfast and lunch carry on
Skipping a dinner shouldn't blow up the rest of the day. Breakfasts stay under 10 minutes and lunches stay portable, including cook-once-eat-twice leftovers from the nights you do cook.
4. Shop once, waste less
Your grocery list is rebuilt from the meals that are actually left, grouped by supermarket aisle, with anything already in your pantry left off.
What each option actually costs
| Option | Typical cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Hawker centre or kopitiam | S$4–S$8 per person | A quick weekday night with no washing up |
| Food delivery | S$12–S$20 per person | Late finishes and rainy evenings |
| Weekly catering / home delivery of cooked meals | S$280–S$550 a month for 3–4 people | Households that want fixed weekday dinners handled |
| Cooking at home with a plan | S$3–S$6 per person | Controlling salt, oil and portions — and the weekly budget |
Indicative Singapore prices for a household of three to four, for guidance only.
Questions we get asked
- What is a meal skip?
- A meal skip is a night you already know you won't be cooking — hawker centre, kopitiam, a family dinner, catering or delivery. You mark the day, and MakanPlan plans around it instead of pretending you'll cook.
- Does skipping a dinner break my grocery list?
- No. MakanPlan removes only the ingredients that were needed for that dinner, so your list stays accurate and you don't buy food that ends up in the bin.
- Do I still get breakfast and lunch on a skipped night?
- Yes. Marking a day only skips that dinner. Breakfast, lunch and any cook-once-eat-twice leftovers stay in the plan.
- How many nights a week do Singapore households usually eat out?
- Most households eat out or order in two to four evenings a week, usually a weekday after a late finish plus a weekend family meal. Planning for that is what keeps a weekly plan realistic.
- Can I set different skip nights each week?
- Yes. Your skip days live in your profile and you can change them any time before you generate a plan. Hawker and social-night meal skips are a Premium feature.
Plan the nights you do cook
Take the 60-second household quiz and see a week built around your real schedule — breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an aisle-grouped grocery list.