Meal Planning - how do you do it?

princesstippytoes

Sarahsaver wrote: »

at the moment yes it would! i need things that can be flung in the slow cooker or done in the oven like the pasta bake, the pizza is easy cos i just do the dough in the BM and it takes minutes to do the toppings.

I think I understand. I thought you meant you would have exactly the same meals every week. I do agree that whatever makes life easier with a young baby is the sensible approach and you clearly intend to still cook from scratch.

Taye

It's almost the start of the new month i have my food budget in hand and im looking for THE BEST way to spend it. If possible i want to feed my family and perhaps stockpile some leftover food without going over budget ready for my possible redundancy in a few months.

I keep hearing everyone talk about meal plan's, now i understand the theory but what is THE BEST was of going about constructing one? i have a family of 3 to feed, me and 2 kids for breakfast/ packed lunch and dinner + snacks.

However i do tend to fly by the seat of my pants, although im good at making meals stretch and making things in bulk to freeze i do tend to make food in a very haphazard fashion meaning although the food i make is good value the wasted food that rot's in my cuboards because i didn't use it up in time counteracts that somewhat.

Right now i tend to shop day by day hence the problem but i want to do 1 single big shop this month maybe keeping some cash aside for "essentials/perishables" as the month go's on.

How do people do it?? do you right a list of all the meals you want to eat first then work out the ingredients? any other help?

newlywed

Hi, Start with the types of food you usually eat.

I usually go through what food I have in already, decide what I'll make with that stuff and put that down for which days...
Eg if I have sausages I'll put down toad in the hole or sausage casserole for one of the days.

Then decide what I fancy for the other days. Eg some days we need a quick meal so I think up something quick n easy or something to reheat from the freezer (usually home made first).

Then when I start getting bored of eating similar things each week - I plan which day to try a new recipe (a day when we aren't in a rush ).

I started doing a week at a time but now I do a month at a time so as to vary the meals a bit more - eg to check how many times we have fish, or shepherds pie etc and keep them further apart

Pink.

Hi Taye,

This thread should help:

Meal Planning - how do you do it?

Also you may pick up some tips from The Complete Menu Plans Collection

Pink

rachbc

I have started to compile a list of stuff we like/ eat often divided into chicken/ pork/ meat free/ sausages/ mince/pasta etc etc. In tend to start sunday with roast, mon (and poss tues) is leftovers, 1 pasta a week, 1 mince dish (cheap and easy to bulk), fish once a week, 1 night meat free etc etc.

I check freezers and cupboards for what already have and work out what i could make from the list and what else I'd need.

If I'm buying something to make a specific dish that I won't use all of I either plan to make double or find another recipe to use the rest up - so if I buy a chorizo for jambalaya then the other half will go in a pasta dish later in the week.

Bella79

hi all

Ive meal planned for the coming week trying to be more os and the bill online has come out at 29.90 wow wow wow thats a full 7 days meals

ive already got cerelas etc for breakfast includes a ham hock for sandwiches

theres no cleaning stuff there got that from homebargins yesturday so i suppiose some weeks it will be more for cerels meat etc luckily i have all my meat in

i canot believe the price so cheap i usally spend £70 a week plus bit n bobs

the only thing i havent put on is some babywipes and yoghurts whic i will need to get

SmlSave

Well done owens!

Bella79

im so pleased if i can keep this up it will save us a fortune :@)

jasperconran

Hi Guys,

I need some help wiv menu planning etc. I have tried to get my weekly food bill down to about £25 a week inc toiletries thats for 3 us of. me, hubby and a 12 year old. ashamed to say, I aint doin too well! lol. My hubby is allergic to cheese which doesnt help really and the only sort of fish he likes really is prawns. although me and my daughter like cod. last week i spent £60:eek: and wasnt too happy about it. So, I would like to ask you, my fellow MSE's if you could help me with me some meal plans/ideas. any suggestions would be gratefully received! I do make my own spag bol sauce now rather than buying the jars (used to do that alot, used to be really lazy too!). please help guys, thanks I am lost!

Cleosmum

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=346932