Plan your meals in advance on the weekend or whenever you have a little spare time. Look over online catalogue specials to see what proteins you can get the best value for, and how many meals you can make utilising the same product. I also do this with veggies to cut down on waste. See what meal combinations are a family fave that use the same vegetables. I personally only keep cooked food in the fridge for 3 days max, so if you can just prep the veggies for meals later in the week and have them in containers ready to add to meals you’ll save a lot of time in the evenings.
When making spag bol, bulk it out a bit more either with finely chopped mushrooms or red lentils and portion some sauce out into freezable containers to add pasta to in future. Stews, soups, sauces are the best to freeze. So are pre prepped but not yet baked pasta dishes, just add an extra splash of water prior to baking. Just some things I find handy.

Try to make time, for instance, if your cooking pasta, make double and freeze 1 lot!

I get the kids involved in our meal plan, once a fortnight we sit down and as a family work out next months meals
We include a make your own night and a fake away night, so only need to come up with 5 meals a week, we have tacos, chicken, pasta on rotation as kids love these dishes.
The 1st time took ages to write up but now it’s easy and fun

Have a look at the One Handed Cooks family mealtime group on Facebook and see if you can pick up a copy of their recipe book. They have some great ideas on how to meal prep in advance. The book has ideas for meals that can be used for multiple meals. It makes better use of the ingredients and your time.

Write down whenever you have an idea. When you are in bed just record your ideas.

Sandwiches and wraps are easy meals for us at home when we are too busy to cook

Get the slow cooker out. Makes life easier.

If you want to meal prep you need to make time to do it. I usually do it on a Sunday.

I have a folder of recipes that are family favorites (or at least acceptable to everyone). I choose six recipes – one night will always be leftovers – and then write down all their ingredients. That’s my meal plan plus shopping list. This is hardest to do in the first few weeks, but then you’ve got a routine going. It takes me about ten minutes a week now – 15 if I’m umming and ahing over recipes.

Do not only think about it, write down some where all your plans for meal prep, then take a day off n cook

I feel this is a never ending issue in our house! I just try to give myself a few options that are simple to buy some of that time. I make sure there is always pita bread and grated cheese in the freezer, and always have a bottle of pizza sauce in the fridge. Then I have pizza options available with a few fridge additions or a quick purchase of pepperoni. Then that night I have bought some time to make something for the freezer. I also try to make sure I make more than I need when I’m cooking. A bolognaise sauce is easily doubled and you have a whole stash ready, all you need to do is boil some pasta on the night and reheat the sauce. I’d also recommend a slow cooker, a meal on in the morning can mean a roast for dinner that night with little effort. It also cooks that bolognaise sauce easily and the taste so much better. Consider what things you can chop and freeze. I’ve started the habit of chopping say two onions instead of one and freezing the other portion ready to use. Or if a recipe only needs half an onion I chop the whole thing and freeze. When you’re frying a chopped onion, it’s not going to be noticeable that it was pre-frozen. I also do this for celery and grated cheese. I also pre chop my veg on a Sunday. I keep chopped carrots in a container with water, and pre cut broccoli and pumpkin ready to use. It just means on the nights I cbf’d (!) we at least have a veg option to work with and then it might just be frying some meat. Start slow, start small and build up your practice of stocking up on meals and shortcuts. It takes time and practice but it’s doable and helps a heap. My go to recipe sites are one handed cooks (hello frozen dump bags!) and recipe tin eats. Recipe tin eats also has a “Charlie” sauce which is great to have in the fridge ready to make a stirfry on any given night, just add protein veg and noodles/rice. I also pre do rice and freeze it in portions ready to go.

Good luck! Just start small, you’ll get there.

You said no hello fresh, but you can use the recipe cards as your meal planning. We got the free box, then reinstate it every few months when we receive a 40% off deal, then we use the recipe cards to meal plan.

Start with listing recipes you know have had success with the family and see if there are ones you can group to have similar ingredients to make shopping easier. Even just having a small list of good recipes can help you plan for the week. I’m a big fan of Recipe Tin Eats’ one pot meals.

If you want to save money then using basic and cheap ingredients is the key.
Things like bangers and mash would be a really cheap meal to make. Kids love sausages and potato! Add things like frozen carrots, peas and corn.
Another cheap break that kids love is spag bol! Even creamy pastas like boscaiola are cheap to make because the ingredients are so simple. Also burgers, sausage rolls and the like. Just use frozen veg as sides!

I can completely relate. I’m not always in the mood to prep or eat what I’ve prepped. I do have a small list of meals that take no time at all to make when I’m having those days. I always have stuff available at home to whip together. This is the microwave low GI rice, fish, halloumi, cucumber, corn, sriracha mayo, green goddess dressing & bagel seasoning.

Another idea is to prepare meals with less ingredients which will save time and again save dollars. Meals with less ingredients can be quicker to prepare and cook.

If your wanting to start out, make extra each tea time for a week and see how that goes.
Maybe Google 15 minute meals for some inspiration

Start with what you usually buy
Cook something and then use left over meat for other meals.
Whatever meat I have tends to last 2-3 meals… we do eat much less than we used to due to the increase in prices but we still get it in every meal.
As a hint to make sausages go further don’t serve them on their own! In my family if we eat sausages and veg for example we use 8 sausages. But if I cut them up and make them part of a dish like fried rice or stir fry I use 6 sausages

Chicken:
Roast
Wraps
Fried rice
Stir fry
Crumbed
Curry

Beef:
Roast with chips and veg
Fried rice
Wraps
Stir fry

Lamb:
Roast
Fried rice
Wraps
Stir fry

Mince:
Spaghetti
Tacos (night two, don’t add more sauce as you need it a bit dry)
Lasagna

I love to cook in large batches – i.e. three or more meals – and freeze the extra in nightly portions. Then you have less effort by doing it once rather than each night, and avoid fatigue from the same food. I paticularly like this with slow cooker meals like slow cooked meat and veg, soup, and also savoury or bolongese mince/lentil mince. Pumpkin soup would be quite cheap at the moment.

Maybe pick one recipe, buy ingredients for a few batches and then freeze. One dish at a time.

Meal planning helps with budgeting, cutting back on costs and ultimately saves time. Buy specials and then double batch cook and freeze some meals for other times. Label all meals/food with dates and names.