Meal Planning - how do you do it?

eis658

I was wondering if you'd thought of changing your sandwich fillings? I find tuna and ham are a bit expensive for me.

I have egg mayo (one egg and a dollop of mayo does one sandwich for me with salad), peanut butter with salad (honestly it works! and the cheap supermarket own brands are cheap and taste fine), and a new one for me is hummous with salad as sainsbury's has just started doing basics version of hummous that's quite nice and cheap.

pixie1

eis658 wrote: »

I was wondering if you'd thought of changing your sandwich fillings? I find tuna and ham are a bit expensive for me.

I have egg mayo (one egg and a dollop of mayo does one sandwich for me with salad), peanut butter with salad (honestly it works! and the cheap supermarket own brands are cheap and taste fine), and a new one for me is hummous with salad as sainsbury's has just started doing basics version of hummous that's quite nice and cheap.

I would love some alternative suggestions for sandwiches :beer: I dont like nuts though (can just about manage pesto) or hummous. Egg mayo sounds good though, does it smell come lunchtime? I dont want to upset my co-workers :rotfl:

Ham is very expensive over here, tuna isnt too bad as one large can 435g is approx $3.60 (£1.80) and will last him for 4-5 days depending on how much i use.

I might maybe make extra soup and take that to work for myself with a chunk of HM bread instead :T

Thanks

Pix

pixie1

Oh another thought for lunches at work is cold pasta, thats really cheap and easy to do Hubs will like that too.

Pix
x

OrkneyStar

helyg wrote: »

I find it definitely helps with the £s to limit your number of shops. The worst thing you can do is just "pop" to the shops on a regular basis as you are bound to pop little extras in your basket. I shop once a week, with a list made from my meal plan, and buy practically nothing in between.

Funny, see I used to do that but found it was not working for me.
What I tend to do is go once or twice to the main Tesco (piddly wee one compared to mainland stores), but also just buy one or two other things the day they are needed eg tomorrow's list is 1 lemon (butcher) and 1 stamp for nieces card (PO). I also now only meal plan a day or so ahead (so I know what to defrost) and to make sure that any leftovers are used up. The only time I tend to buy more at bigger shop is when I have a MOC to use.
hth.

samandsheryl

Me and my GF decide what we are going to spend before we get to the shop. We also take a list and sick to it, unless there are any decent offers on that will save us money for future shops. We also add up as we go around so we know exactly what we are spending. This helps to decide between value brands / household names and means we don't get a nasty shock when we get to the till.

eis658

pixie1 wrote: »

Oh another thought for lunches at work is cold pasta, thats really cheap and easy to do Hubs will like that too.

I second that! You can make a large amount beginning of the week and it lasts a few days (depending on ingredients) which means you don't have to make it every day! Or rice salads like tabbouleh (tomato/cucumber/mint) or the apple one (apple/rasins/cucumber) with a bit of dressing with a chunk of bread.

OH curries veg the night before and has that in a sandwich but I'm not convinced! :rotfl:

eis658

People do complain about the smell sometimes if they don't like egg, but I eat it every day and have only had complaints a few times. Depends how hot it is that day. It's my absolute favourite though so can't give it up!

clutterydrawer

I plan my meals to use up whatever is knocking about in the cupboards with minimals extra purchasing, or if there isn't anything i just plan whatever I fancy eating/whatever i know is on offer. I would get super boared having the same thing often, I dont think i eat the same meal twice in two months normally....although obviously some of them have similarities, there's only so many foods after all.

attentionseeker1

The way I meal plan is as follows, maybe unconventional but works for us:

1) Make a list of all the things you like cooking e.g. roast, chilli, bolognese, Thai curry etc etc. I came up with a list of 60 meals I make more or less frequently

2) We only do a 'big' shop every couple of weeks as no time to go more frequently (only 2 of us) so pick say 11 of these things to go into your plan (pick maybe 3 mince meals for 1 pack of mince, 3 chicken meals for 1 chicken etc).

3) For the other 3 meals, you might be out, have leftovers, or try a couple of new recipes to expand your repertoire.

4) Write a list of all the ingredients you need for these meals and only buy what is on the list (unless you decide to substitute a meal based on an offer).

5) Stick up the list of 14 meal choices BUT you do not need to eat them in any particular order. Freeze meat before cooking or batch cook it- make your chilli, bolognese etc but then spread throughout the fortnight.

The only things that influence when we eat what are
1- vegetables with a particularly short life, cream that will go off etc
2- what I remember to defrost/have time to cook!

HTH- meal plans do not have to be inflexible and if you pick different things from your list each fortnight there should be plenty of variety!

maman

My method is very simple and similar to attentionseeker. It's just for OH and I and I often have time to cook from scratch although I do keep HM ready meals (mainly mince based) in the freezer for busy/lazy nights.

I don't plan lunches just keep plenty of suitable storecupboard/freezer supplies and have whatever we fancy from there (sardines, tuna, eggs, HM soup, left-over home cooked meat etc). Breakfast is on a similar basis.

My freezer has a range of meat and fish all portioned up for two servings. Most are bought as multi-packs or special offers which I grab when I have the opportunity. I keep plenty of frozen veg as I find this very economical (of time and money). I shop weekly but am very disciplined about sticking to my list unless it's an offer that will be useful. I keep a list of everything in my freezer and have a good storecupboard of tins/dry goods.

Each week I do my 'meal plan' with my freezer list at hand. My plan is a simple list in the corner of my shopping list. I write the days of the week and cross out any where we'll be eating out or add in a simple meal if only one will be at home (filled jacket?) Then I make a list of meals based on what I have available adding any missing ingredients to the shopping list. Meals can be eaten in any order this just ensures enough are planned for the week.

This is roughly how it worked this week, things I needed to buy are in red:

Fri: baked fish, roasted vegetables and new potatoes (fish from freezer was special offer, veg bits left in fridge from previous week but bought an aubergine)

Sat: curry (weekly treat from supermarket counter adding bits at home e.g.mango chutney, pakoras from freezer)

Sun: roast (large chicken portion reduced from freezer, HM stuffing, carrots, roast potatoes, parsnips, cabbage)

Mon: beef stir fry (very small steak from freezer, bag of veg, carrot, cabbage, mushrooms and noodles from storecupboard)

Tues:baked fish with cauliflower cheese (fish as above and grated cheese from freezer, cauliflower)

Wed: sausage, mash, cabbage, carrots, onion gravy (sausages from freezer, potatoes and onions from big bag I bought cheaply a few weeks ago, cabbage and carrots remainder of what we had on Sunday - not cooked!)

Thu: spaghetti bolognese (HM from freezer plus pasta from storecupboard)

I also bought bread, milk and butter stuff and frozen peas 'cos I'd run out. This was a particularly cheap week but I find that if I buy special offers (reduced where possible) and keep them in stock then my full price shopping is very limited. HTH