Thank you OS and everyone - Merged

pixie1 · 21 February 2006 at 8:13PM

I just wanted to reiterate what others have said here time and time before regards to meal planning.

I have never really planned all my meals for the month before, normally I would just plan nice special meals for the weekend but recently I discovered the DFW board and this board and now im converted.

For the month of February I gave myself a budget of £200 to pay for all toiletries and food for me, Hubs and Kitty. I wasn’t sure if I could do it but was willing to give it a go. As you can see from my signature my spend for the month will be just £81.93 :T and this includes a tesco home delivery (money off code

) which isn’t delivered until next week.

I cant believe just how far you can make your money go if you take the time to plan and ahead and if you are willing to put some effort into cooking in bulk etc.

Thank you all so much for all the help, recipes and advice you have given me, I appreciate it more then I can express.

My budget for next month will be £150, Ive kept it over this months spend to give me a ‘buffer’ just incase this month was a lucky fluke

Im off to re-heat a frozen chilli for my dinner now. Cooked at the weekend in my sc :j

Thanks again,

Pixie

Penny-Pincher!! · 21 February 2006 at 8:20PM

Well done hun!

I did well this month too. Just under £200 but that included our petrol...am well gob smacked!! I love meal planning too.

Have tons of food left too, so hopefully more money saved this month. Moved over £100 to the ING account today which was excess dosh:T

PP
xx

whitty999 · 21 February 2006 at 9:49PM

How do you do it,I would love to be able to do this but where do i start,Feeding 4 adults and 1 14 year old,Any suggestions?Or could you point me to the right direction of the post,Just been given a slow cooker,So please help me in the right direction.

Chipps · 21 February 2006 at 11:27PM

You don't have to dive in and start right away, you could begin by making a list of meals that you have that everyone likes.
When I plan meals (and I fluctuate wildly from being totally organised to being very disorganised - no half measures!) I write a list of the dates for the month ahead, with the days & any activities or outings beside them.
I also prepare a list of main course items in the larder/fridge/freezer eg chicken, cheese, tuna, so many pounds of mince etc
Then I fit all the meals I can make out of those things, plus meals I would like to include, against dates on the list, making sure that I don't serve the same type of thing to close to each other, eg not having lasagne next to spag bog. Sometimes there are "planned leftovers", eg meatloaf or meat hot one day then cold the next, or something like that. Also I make a note as to whether things can be cooked ahead. For example, if I am making bolognaise sauce, I might make double, then have spagbog that day, & freeze the other portion for lasagne the next week - with a note on the previous day to take it out of the freezer the night before.
Does that make sense?

squeaky · 22 February 2006 at 9:43AM

whitty999 wrote:

How do you do it,I would love to be able to do this but where do i start,Feeding 4 adults and 1 14 year old,Any suggestions?Or could you point me to the right direction of the post,Just been given a slow cooker,So please help me in the right direction.

A few helpful threads straight from the Cooking section of our MEGA Index sticky:-

Menu Planning:
[post=1255777] - Meal planning - where do I start?[/post]
[post=777936] - Meal plans and store cupboard[/post]
[post=676140] - Menus again[/post]
[post=663989] - Once a month cooking[/post]
[post=726152] - Organising recipes[/post]

HTH

pickle · 22 February 2006 at 9:46AM

I've also adopted the meal plans but only on a weekly or fortnightly basis as I don't have a big freezer. It saves me a lot of money as it stops me buying expensive cuts of meat or buying take away because I haven't got the ingredients and then can't be bothered cooking. I'm yet to get it down to £200 though and we've only got the two of us. Still working on it. The problem is that we have opposite food tastes which makes it difficult to co-ordinate! At least from reading the messages here I know it can be done.

Pixie - I can't believe you've managed to get by for a month on £81 - well done!! You've inspired me to do better next month.

Bogof_Babe · 22 February 2006 at 10:00AM

I'd love someone to do a vegetarian meal plan, as although we don't spend all that much, we end up having the same old half dozen things all the time, and it gets boring.

I can't eat Quorn as it makes me ill, and am not keen on nuts, so that narrows down the options even more. Hubby is not too fond of pasta or rice either, although he'll have them about once a month if I force him!

We tend to live on things that can be eaten in a bread roll, with oven chips and veg. Our current favourite is egg mayo and cress sandwiches or rolls, which is not exactly a balanced diet

. Other things are Sainsbury's veggie burgers, Dalepak Quarter Pounders, cheese, onion & potato pie, and the occasional lasagne or pasta made with Bean Feast mix. And then I run out of ideas.

All suggestions gratefully received. We have a very small freezer (bottom half of a small fridge freezer) which doesn't help either

.

Trow · 22 February 2006 at 11:15AM

For a sunday veggie (although meat can be added) meal I do a stuffed yorkie - make a large yorkshire pud in a sandwick cake tin. While it's cooking I prepare veggie gravy (using bisto powder and marigold stock powder - YUM) and cook veg lightly (any combination, usually sauteed) and sometimes I will put in some soya mince as well. Once the yorkshire pud is cooked, I slit open the top, bung in the mix and sprinkle with grated cheese, and bung back in the oven till the cheese has melted. I usually serve it with mashed potato and some veg if I do the mince version.

Soya mince is really versatile and much cheaper than thebeanfeast mixes - I get 2kg bags for under £3 through suma, and you can use it for chilli tacos(no rice required!), shepherds pie, lasagne, meatballs, anything really that you would use mince for, although the method is slightly different to meat mince.

HM pizza is a good option, as would be soup (I make lentil soup, sometimes just with onion, stock powder and lentils, other times I add carrots, potato, swede, leek - just whatever, really). You can make your own veggie burgers by mashing up either a tin of beans or dried beans that have ben soaked and cooke, add onion, spices and some flour to bing, coat in flour or breadcrumbs (using egg if necessary) and shallow fry.

For lunches I have done stir fry veg served with strips of omlette instead of rice as its quicker, usually add some five-spice powder to the egg before its cooked.

And of course, baked tatties are very useful - can be served with anything to use it up!

BTW soya mince is dried and has a long use by date.

I hope some of this helps

Trow

muddled_midget · 22 February 2006 at 11:18AM

Bogof_Babe wrote:

I'd love someone to do a vegetarian meal plan, as although we don't spend all that much, we end up having the same old half dozen things all the time, and it gets boring.

I can't eat Quorn as it makes me ill, and am not keen on nuts, so that narrows down the options even more. Hubby is not too fond of pasta or rice either, although he'll have them about once a month if I force him!

We tend to live on things that can be eaten in a bread roll, with oven chips and veg. Our current favourite is egg mayo and cress sandwiches or rolls, which is not exactly a balanced diet . Other things are Sainsbury's veggie burgers, Dalepak Quarter Pounders, cheese, onion & potato pie, and the occasional lasagne or pasta made with Bean Feast mix. And then I run out of ideas.

All suggestions gratefully received. We have a very small freezer (bottom half of a small fridge freezer) which doesn't help either .

Does he eat any carbohydrates apart from potatoes? Have you tried noodles, couscous, polenta or bulgar wheat? I'm a veggie and some of my fave meals are sweet and sour tofu and veg with noodles, large flat mushrooms grilled with a little butter, served with either couscous and salad or stir fried veg and homemade pizzas, either made from scratch or buy really cheap ones and add all your own toppings to them, served with salad and garlic bread (also home-made). And there are some recipes on here that sound yummy, such as shepherds pie made with red lentils.

Bogof_Babe · 22 February 2006 at 1:54PM

Thanks everso much Trow and Muddled_Midget (fab name!). All those suggestions sound really tempting. I'm not much of a cook so tend to go for the easy options, but there's no excuse really so I must try harder!

I've seen those packs of soya mince but I wonder whether they taste of anything. I usually fall back on soya sauce and Marmite to add flavour where needed, and having recently discovered Knorr Vegetable Bouillon (expensive but worth it) then I am sure I can have a go!

I forgot to say that I do make soup, but hubby doesn't consider it a real meal, as he likes to get his teeth into his food!

His main preferences for carbs are chips and bread. He can eat half a large loaf at a sitting! :eek: I don't have a breadmaker now. I did have one but never got good results (it was a cheapie and I only tried it with the pre-pack bread mixes) so I gave it away. Anyway I find Co-op bread @ 45p a large sliced loaf is okay.

Thanks again for all your suggestions. I am copying them over to my Notepad recipe collection! :T

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Thank you OS and everyone - Merged

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