Meal Planning - how do you do it?

clutterydrawer

£25 a week sounds very low for three people inc. toiletries :-/ any reason for that particular budget?

tessie_bear

i agree £25 doesnt sound nuch...do u need a slightly mor generous budget ?

jasperconran

clutterydrawer wrote: »

£25 a week sounds very low for three people inc. toiletries :-/ any reason for that particular budget?

Hiya,

it is low i will admit, I can reach that some weeks. its because we have got loads of debt, and i am trying to keep all our other costs as low as i can!


any advice/help as to how much i should be aiming at would be much appreciated as I as still pretty new to all of this! thanks

Toonie

I spend around £40 per week for two adults, though we buy a lot in bulk. I do a large monthly shop for tinned/dried stuff/freezer items. Then week to week we get fresh stuff. It does tend to be cheaper if you can go to an ethnic supermarket, we have a local Turkish one which is great and really cheap.

What would a typical meal plan be for you for the week, or indeed a typical shop...we can help more that way when we know what you like and buy.

clutterydrawer

I spend about £10-15 a week for one person, excluding toiletries etc. I would find it difficult to cut down further although it's not impossible, as plenty of people here have proved

There are some really good ideas on this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1157641

and i agree that it would be helpful to know what sort of thing you currently eat/buy, to see where you could cut down.

I tend to save by buying a lot of things when whoopsied/on special offer and storing them. And recent;ly by growing my own veg also i check madaboutbargains.com every week to look for special offers on things i normally buy, that i might not notice when in store.

phizzimum

one of my favourite threads on this forum is Weezls eat for 50p a day thread - (although she's raised her budget to £1 now)

It's full of great nutrious recipes that are very low cost - and everyone is very friendly and helpful.

I find that meat and particularly fish are very expensive so I try to have a few meat free meals a week, or pad dishes out with lentils or beans, which are rich in protein themselves. For example you mentioned spag bol - by adding lentils or oats (easier to hide if family is a bit picky!) you can make one pack of mince stretch several meals. And the best thing is, you're actually making the meal healthier!

jasperconran

clutterydrawer wrote: »

I spend about £10-15 a week for one person, excluding toiletries etc. I would find it difficult to cut down further although it's not impossible, as plenty of people here have proved


and i agree that it would be helpful to know what sort of thing you currently eat/buy, to see where you could cut down.

Hi, thanks for your replies so far guys. at the min, we eat mostly casseroles, stir fry, shepherds pie, spag bol, roast dinners, curries. quite simple meals really, but I do seem to keep on spending too much to do these meals.:eek: I think I need re-educating!! lol. def doin something wrong. I have read about bulking out spag bol with oats etc, how much would be a good amount to use? or would lentils be better? thanks again guys for your ideas/advice so far! :T

phizzimum

When I bulk mince out with oats, no one notices - the oats take on the same colour and flavour as the sauce and they look like little bits of mince.

I like to add lentils, but they are more obvious and sometimes I get complaints! Also lentils take longer to cook - they need at least 20 mins simmering away.

My advice would be to try a handful of oats or lentils and see how it goes. You can always add more the next time if it's been a success, but if you add loads the first time and no one eats it then you'll be put off.

pixie1

Im trying to meal plan and was wondering if people have a few core meals that they have every week and then a few different things they add here and there?

Im trying to plan meals around food groups so i can batch cook, like cooking a huge vat of mince and then making chilli, spag bol, cottage pies etc.

I have worked out a meal plan that covers two weeks a different meal everyday and was wondering if it would be too regimented to just repeat this for a couple of months but may have the odd spur of the moment meal / purchase depending on any offers i find? I know i wouldnt be able to do this all the time as the meals i have planned are warming foods for winter (its cold in oz esp at night), but i thought it may be a good start as I find i throw so much away right now.

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Pix

ubamother

I've never got the hang of meal planning - many people on here are brilliant at it. I tend to do a batch cook of things that can be used for various different recipes and freeze them. So my freezer doesn't often have fully completed dishes, but has plenty of things like:
mashed roots (pots, sweet pots, carrots) for toppings, fish cakes, side vegetable etc
tomato sauce - no herbs or spices - base for pasta dishes, chilli, mince etc. etc. adding the appropriate spices etc.
Roast vegetables - parboiled and part roasted then frozen - can be popped in oven from frozen as a side dish that goes with loads of things
soup/casserole base - onions/celery/carrot chopped fine and softened then frozen in blocks.
When I do try to meal plan I never fancy what i've planned on the right day! This way I feel I get to fulfil my particular food urges more easily!