please help me with meal plans with this list.

rachel83_2

ok i just set myself a huge challenge that i know i can't do but i have to in order to prove a point,

i just set a challenge for my familly because i was really annoyed with buying food that we dont need/particularly like because its on offer or the packaging looks good, i dont need to go shopping but because i was in asda buying school trousers i went into the main shop and spent £69 so here goes...

i said i refuse to go shopping untillat least 90% of the food is eaten in the house and i was just told i can't do it. I now have to do it because i will never hear the end of it if i don't. here is what i have (please understand i have never had to budget for food untill august so this is really not alot of food to us, i know to alot of you it is a bit over the top) please be nice to me



cupboard...

6 packs supernoodles assorted flavours
4 tins of beans
12 oxo cubes
1 tub onion gravy granuals
peanut butter
1 tin ravioli
2 tins corned beef
2 tins hotdogs
3 tins fruit salad
2kg sugar
2 tins ham
23 blackcurant and apple fruit shoots
1 apple fruit shoot
24 wite rolls
12 crumpets
2 white loaves
chocolate spread
jam x2 flavours
cranbery sauce left over from last christmas (still in date)


fridge

4 litres full fat milk
9 carots
1 broccoli
1 neep
4 onions
1 garlic
32 cans coca cola
750g cheese
1kg butter
1 haggis bung
1kg ham
2 packs bacon
4 scoch pies
4 square sausages
8 tomatoes
2 packs daroleah triangles
3 cans beer

freezer
1 pk (15) chicken dippers (oh wont eat chicken)
i was going to do a freezer shop but i dont want to because i am sure i can cook up this lot first

until august our weekly spend on food was over £270 i have joined in the september grocery challenge and set 400 as my limit as our income has been cut drasticly now and we can't really afford that much)

buxtonrabbitgreen

Do you have any sr flour, suet, tinned tomatoes you could make bacon roly poly, using the onion and bacon you have.
Corned beef hash. Potatoes, corned beef and onion. Sorry everything I think of requires ingredients you haven't got. Just thought you could make toad in the hole but again you would need an egg and sr flour.

moo2moo

I'm going to sound really really mean here and I don't mean to be but ...budget and 32 cans of coca cola in the same paragraph? Surely if you're going to buy soft drinks of any description its far cheaper to buy it in 2 litre bottles. The same goes for the fruit shoots. Reuse the bottles with ordinary squash. You have to have in the region of £20 of soft drink on that list, I doubt theres that much in food.

I think you'll struggle to go much more than 5 days without needing to shop, purely because theres very little carbohydrate in your list and even less veg.

As for meal planning...

chicken dippers, beans and toast (just beans on toast for OH)

tinned meat, noodles and more beans.

jam / peanut butter / dairylea / chocolate sandwiches

toast for breakfast

Cheese on toast

bacon butties

rachel83_2

moo2moo wrote: »

I'm going to sound really really mean here and I don't mean to be but ...budget and 32 cans of coca cola in the same paragraph? Surely if you're going to buy soft drinks of any description its far cheaper to buy it in 2 litre bottles. The same goes for the fruit shoots. Reuse the bottles with ordinary squash. You have to have in the region of £20 of soft drink on that list, I doubt theres that much in food.

I think you'll struggle to go much more than 5 days without needing to shop, purely because theres very little carbohydrate in your list and even less veg.

As for meal planning...

chicken dippers, beans and toast (just beans on toast for OH)

tinned meat, noodles and more beans.

jam / peanut butter / dairylea / chocolate sandwiches

toast for breakfast

Cheese on toast

bacon butties

i never ever budgeted untill august and i was so bad at it thats why i need to eat all this before doing any shopping at all. i just dont want to deprive the kids of what they are used to. on the other hand i am waisting so much money on junk.hmm maybee i need to make a mealplan and do a proper shop, i hear what you are saying about the drinks.

buxtonrabbitgreen i am happy to get ingredients in order to use these things but i think i will have to do it online because if i go in a supermarket i will buy things i dont need or even particularly want (especialy if i take the kids)




also i missed the last sentence on my post wich i wil edit now,tonight i will spend mealplanning then sorting a proper shop out with no rubbish just ingredients.

lucysmam

beans on toast. pasta bake with the toms made into a sauce and cheese on top. Some sort of stew with the veggies, or corned beef hash. You could do with some spuds though. How about the square sausages with chips although you either need spuds or chips for chips. you could stir fry some of the veggies and serve up with the supernoodles. or egg fried rice with the veggies chucked in is always a good one here. the bacon, if you have pasta/cream could be used to make spaghetti carbonara, although mine's usually 'whatever pasta i have in' carbonara. Not a lot of actual food there, more stuff we would buy to put with other things we're going to have but hope that's some help

EssexHebridean

Hi Rachel - well done for having your "lightbulb moment" and recognising that you need to address the issue you have with food shopping.

First off, when you shop (and shop you will have to, for basics, fruit and veg, that sort of thing) make a list, go alone, eat before you go (so you're not hungry whilst you're in the Supermarket) but most of all STICK TO THAT LIST! I do sympathise with you - I used to buy more than we needed (possibly not quite to your extent mind!) and end up throwing stuff out. We have a "Don't throw food away" challenge thread running on here that might prove to be useful to you.

You've obviously got a bit of freezer space at the moment so first off, plan your meals for the next few days using as much fresh stuff as possible before it goes off then work out what you can do about freezing anything which will go to waste.

You have plenty of packed lunch material with your rolls - use the ham or maybe somke cheese but either way you'll need to get some of those rolls in the freezer before they go mouldy.

Hows about getting yourself some potatoes - choose a bag with some of a reasonable size in then you can have jacket spuds with cheese and beans, bacon, sausage, chips and beans, Haggis, neeps & tatties (good old one there!), you could use your fresh veggies to do a stip fry - use the noodles to go with it but leave out those nasty additive-filled flavouring bags and have them plain (assuming they've got the bags rather than being ready-flavoured?) - you could use some of that bacon as the meat content or just leave it veggie.

Breakfasts can be toast or crumpets with Jam or chocolate spread.

Hope this helps - stick around on here and we'll give you all the help we can with your quest to cut back.

MrsB_2

Who said you cant do it?? Maybe you could make it into a family challenge. Depending how old the kids are you can explain the situation to them and the reasons why not doing this is not an option. Then see if they have any suggestions for things you can make that they would enjoy eating.

Is this list the absolute definitive list of everything you have in the house or do you have basics like flour / herbs aswell?

tattoed_bum

if you get some potatoes you could do ,
corned beef pie( corned beef mixed with beans mashed potato on top )lush
stovies (square sausage onions and potatoes boiled together add bisto to thicken)
haggis ,tatties,neeps
ham soup
scotch pies beans and chips ,or pies mash gravy
bacon with mash and beans
use the leftover ham for ham and cranberry rolls (lunches)
supernoodles with chopped ham
rolls with dairylee and tinned ham(lunches)
hot dogs on rolls
hope this helps

ceebeeby

Soup with the veg ... and rolls for dipping

Curried beans and scotch pies

Fry up, using the butter .... bacon, sausage, tomato and fried bread (from the rolls)

Bread and butter pudding, made with jam!

Blairweech

There are some things on that list which I would not worry about using up, as they are essential storecupboard items e.g. beans, oxo cubes, jam, peanut butter

moo2moo

If you know you're going to buy things that you don't need then cost out using the supermarket website exacvtly what you need and how much its going to cost then take that amount of money in cash to the supermarket and buy the things you need. That way you won't be paying for the delivery charge and you won't have any money left ver to buy things you hadn't planned for.

As a start I'd consider purchasing:

mince
lentils (to make the mince go further) (use your oxo cubes for flavour)
butter or marg
plain flour (basis of a cheese sauce)
lasagne sheets
veg (whatever you like)
cheese
tinned tomatoes

The above ingredients give you lasagne. Changing the pasta for potato and changing the flour and marg for gravy gives you cottage pie.

A few eggs would give you pancakes, omelettes, toad in the hole (with sausages) as well as cakes and buns.

If you need noodles again try the 6p ones. There really isn't 40p worth of flavour difference between them and Supanoodles.

Good luck!