Planning out your meals based on your current food stock and what's on sale that week is optimal, and can lead to massive savings.
With this method of meal planning, you're able to use what you currently have, which means you're not spending additional money on new items. The added benefit is that you're able to utilize your stockpile, making your meal plans cost less per serving. It also gives you a way to make more creative meals by swapping recipe ingredients with items you already have in stock.
Meal planning in combination with shelf cooking (using what you have in you have on hand) can add up to notable savings in your food budget.
Every Sunday, I sit with my family and get their input on the meals they'd like to eat for the week. Usually each person picks a meal or two and I can easily compile seven meals that will be on our menu. This way, everyone looks forward to dinner and I don't have to rack my brain trying to come up with a meal plan for everyone.
Then, once the meal plan is set, I shop my stock and start making my shopping list for the minimal ingredients we might need.
Our dinners are pretty simple, using almost the same staple ingredients. We just switch up the flavors. For example, chicken and pasta might be chicken alfredo for one meal and chicken chow mein for another.