please help me with meal plans with this list.

SarahShattered

rachel83 Morning!

First thing is... good for you for taking a stand! :T :T :T If you've never had to budget before then it can feel very daunting to suddenly have to. I've been there with bells on! :rolleyes: But you can do it!

Second thing is, it's probably not going to be easy if the family are openly against what you're trying to do. :rolleyes:

Someone else alluded to it having to be a family challenge, we have Team Shattered in our house. We all have to pull together... whether we blooming well like it or not!!

There's been some really good suggestions about what you can make with what you've got + a few additions. Perhaps you could have a 'family meeting' and try to get everyone on board with the change of rules regarding food in your house? If it's you against the family, you're going to end up feeling like the wicked witch for stopping people having what they like....rather than what you should be feeling.... which is the super saving fairy, who's recognised that for the good of the family.... things have to change. :A
Good luck with it!

mineallmine

First things first, do not panic. Meal planning, minimising waste and doing it all to a budget are real achievements. Any progress you make is better than none at all, so pat yourself on the back.

So on using what you have:
- Making onion soup, chop up the 4 onions you have, fry them slowly until they caramelise (a pinch of sugar can help this). Once they are nice and brown (not burnt!), add some stock using your oxo cubes. Cook on low for about 45 mins. Have a taste and season. Can be left overnight and tastes even better. Have some of your rolls with this.

Like someone else said you need some carbohydrate as the basis of a meal, so we're talking rice, or pasta, potatoes, that sort of thing. Think about what you like to eat, what's really enjoyable to eat from the takeaway - could you recreate something similar? Asda sell a curry sauce for 9p and a sweet and sour one for about the same price. With a packet of plain rice, and a few bits of pork or chicken you could have a yum meal.

If you had some eggs, you could do an omelette with the ham/tinned ham.

What are your nearest supermarkets - we all have our favourites on here and maybe able to steer you to some of the bargains we seek out at these.

mummysaver

Hi Rachel! Don't know if this will be of any help to you, but we were spending more on food than we really needed to, I have enough stock piles of food if armageddon takes place tonight and I need to feed the village for the next 3 years! Well it feels like it anyway! Anyway what I did was join the grocery challenge thread, as really I know what I should be buying and cooking and I just needed some encouragement to stick to my meal plan and budget, and I told the family what I was doing and what I wanted to spend, in my case £100 per week for 6 of us plus the animals (which is less than normal!), and I've told them that if we spend less then the saving will be put aside and what should we do with them, well they voted for Disneyland Paris when we've saved enough, so that is what we are going to do.

Basically by doing this they are behind my efforts to save money and whilst it hasn't stopped the odd nag in the shops they are all a lot better, and we are now trialling the children all taking a week at doing a menu plan each, dd2's turn this week, and ds next week, I have checked that there is variety and balance though!

Good luck and I'm sure you will do it, you just need to find a way of getting them all on board. Sometimes just getting them to help with the cooking can get them to understand that homemade stuff is nicer than the shop version. Chicken nuggets or fish gougons are simple to make for kids, so long as they don't lick their fingers! Or pizza is nice and easy and very tasty, and a lot cheaper than the shops or the takeaway.

Boodle

How many is it for, for how long and how many meals (i.e. do your kids have school dinners or packed lunches)? Also, as a few people have mentioned, you might want to get some potatoes, rice and pasta in as a change from noodles and bread for your carbs.

I’m still not as seasoned to this as some of the guys on here but from your list I can see you perhaps just getting by for a week for 4 people:

Breakies: Crumpets (3 days) and toast the rest (could top with beans, sliced tomatoes, cheese, jam or peanut butter.)

Lunches: The white rolls filled with cheese, or bacon, or corned beef, or peanut butter and jam (the rolls will give you 6 days worth for 4 people, for the final day, you could have noodle salad by cooking 3 packs of noodles and some of the veggies to mix in; a nice dressing would be to loosen some cranberry sauce and/or peanut butter with a little water and add black pepper.) I would probs buy some pears to have after too (cheaper than apples)

Dinners:

1. Cheese and tomato (maybe ham too) bread and butter pudding (if you buy in some eggs) with veggies (2 slices of bread);
2. The remaining 3 packs of noodles with veggies and some ham/hot dogs mixed in;
3. Easy pizzas by topping toast with cheese, tomatoes and maybe ham too then grill to melt – would be nice with baked beans (4 slices of bread);
4. Scotch Pies with veggies (the pastry would be enough carb to fill you up if you boost your plate with plenty veg);
5. Soup with your onion, garlic, carrot, stock cube and perhaps ham – eat with a slice of bread (4 slices of bread);
6. Toast or eggy bread (should you have bought eggs) with sausage or cooked sliced ham and grilled tomatoes (4 slices of bread)

And I’m stuck for the last day – sorry! Think I’ve run out of carbs!
Anyway HTH.x.

homeaway

rachel83 wrote: »

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)

Firstly well done for realising that you need to cut down on your spending. I think that the others have given you some good ideas for some menus. You will find that it works out a lot cheaper to make food from scratch rather than buying food that is prepared by somebody else. Batch cook and freeze what you are not using, it is amazing what you can freeze. Try to go to Lidl or Aldi that is an easy way of cutting your shopping bill. If you ditch the fizzy drinks you will save a lot of money and be healthier to boot. You can buy some resuable drink containers for the kids to take to school with them . Have you tried the artisan bread recipe in five minutes recipe it is great and so easy. You can use it for pizza, naan, pitta. Hope this helps you:o