Saving money by NOT meal planning !!

I meal plan religiously, usually 2 weeks in advance but it is very flexible. When shopping I always budget £5 or so for reduced items, most of which go into the freezer and get added to my freezer inventory & incorporated into future meal planning, but sometimes I change what I have planned due to a good bargain, change of circumstances or whimsey. I just roll the planned meal over to the start of the next week or whenever my next unplanned day is or add it back to my avaible freezer inventory to be re-planned sometime in the future. If I have leftovers but am already defrosting the next nights meal components that's OK, most leftovers will keep for 48 hours in the fridge or much longer in the freezer. Often I plan for leftovers too though!

thriftlady wrote:

My pantry list is pretty comprehensive.

Can you tell us what's in it???!!! My own storecupboard is pretty comprehensive too, but I'm always nosy about other people's!!

I do a bit of both... I meal plan at the beginning of the month, based on what's in the freezer/storecupboard and I check my plan before going shopping, but if there's something at Tesco's on special offer then that goes into the meal plan for that week and one of the meals gets bumped on to the next week.

I've just had the kids off sick and not eating for a week while the DH was in France, so my meal plan for that week just didn't happen - everything got lobbed into the freezer until next week (or didn't come out of it in the first place).

thriftlady wrote:

Hi,Sarah,can you tell me how many you cater for and pass on your meal-planning strategies?

I did do it on £20 a week for me and 3 kids, now theres 2 adults and 2 kids so sometimes it moves toward £30.

I get £20 out of the bank on Saturday.
It goes in a separate purse which is groceries only. Comes from a separate account which only has child benefit in it.
Occasionally do the odd tesco order which i did today for heavy stuff, as we don't like to shop with the kids. I want them not to take being a consumer for granted if you get my drift!?
I do not buy detergent I make laundry gloop.
No crisps, ready meals, pop, instant coffee, hardly any 'branded' anything.Got a lot of herbs growing in the garden.
Dishwasher powder or tablets from poundland.
Saturday trawl of the market Apples, bananas, carrots, one or two other veg, and one or two other fruit though i usually top that up mid week so it stays fresh. Have a look at the meat market and maybe get something like fish or a rabbit (had pigeon for valentine's £1.30!!!)
Then I use a butchers which I know has things from 'major high street retailer - not just food... just unlabelled. £2 for a tray of good sausages, which i get about fortnightly. Didnt buy eggs till my hens got killed by a fox.
I tend to but meat whole rather than in pieces, i.e. a joint of meat rather than chops etc. I do go to the co-op and get the reduced to clear stuff same in sainsburys, and freeze it, but only go there if I'm passing.
Zam Zam's halal butchers does excellent chicken, lamb, mutton, and huge bags of chicken legs for £1! If Im low at the end of the week its a great treat to have cajun chicken legs and the bonus is you get to make lots of stock too!

My meal plan is done on a sunday after we have had the roast, which will usually become rubber something or other, i.e. rubber chicken. Last week we had roast chicken on sunday, chicken biryani on Monday. I plan according to what I have in and try not to get any extra stuff. I saw a recipe I fancied today as I had left today as a '?' as i sometimes do, and in fact i had all i needed i just had to think really hard about it! So my meal plan is not like my friend Jane at school who always had egg and chips on a set day of the week, every week :rolleyes:

hope this makes sense.