Meal Planning - how do you do it?

chickywiggle

Flat_Eric wrote: »

I tried both in the end and agree landscape is much better. I have a box for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack along the side of the page and then along the top, have the days of the week with a shopping column at the end.

At the bottom of the page, I even have space for notes :j

I have already tried filling in the squares - now I just need to stop changing my mind !

that sounds a fab idea (and similar to how mine used to look) defo gonna be doing that from next week (now I've realised we have £80 to last us till the 10th november ish)

rosieben

I used to work to this sort of plan and it worked for me for several years. This list easily gave me a month's meal plan with no repetition.

Sunday = Meat
Roast Beef – lamb – chicken
Hunters chicken
Liver and onions / liver and bacon
Lamb shank done in SC
Chicken kiev
Honey and mustard chicken
Chicken breast + stuffing

Monday = Leftovers
Bubble and squeak and cold meat
Shepherds/cottage pie
Curry
Meatloaf
Hm Burgers

Tuesday = Sausages or Bacon
Sausage Toad
Sausage Casserole
Sausage egg and chips
Bangers and mash
Fidgetty pie
Bacon and eggs
Bacon potts and broad beans
Egg and bacon pie
Cabbage gallette (thanks Gingham Ribbon! )

Wednesday = Pastry/pizza
Butchers pie
Quiche
Pizza
Hm Pie

Thursday = Pasta /Rice
Spag bol
Lasagne
Pasta bake
Pasta in sauce
Savoury rice / Risotto
Chilli with Rice

Friday = Fish
Fish and chips from chippy (lunch with auntie)
HM Fish pie
HM Fish cakes
Fish fingers
Smoked haddock + mash
Poached fish mash peas parsley sauce

Saturday = Veggie or other
Cheese and potato pie / School cheese pie
Veg stew
Winter Soup / Summer Salad
Veg shepherds pie (root veg)
Cheese and lentil slice
Butterbean casserole
Cauliflower / brocolli cheese
Jacket potato
Cheese/ eggs/ tomatoes/ beans on toast
Potato bake
Egg and chips
Courgette and Tomato Bake

* * * * *

These days I eat much less meat and have simplified things a lot; now I just list enough meals to cover the month and swap them around depending on my mood. I make a note of anything that needs using up and anything I need to buy for the month. I live alone so only myself to please which makes it much simpler

Picklepud

Can I join in please i am trying to save money and food is definately my biggest issue. I have joined the grocery/dont throw anything out challanges and always read the storecupboard/freezer thread. Do try to meal plan but never works but this week i have so I will post and maybe seeing it here will spur me on this is what I have had this week and planned until Sunday;

Monday - Turkey/veg curry & Chips/Rice using lots of stuff up
Tuesday - Hotdogs usingn some buns i got late shopping at tesco for 5p and hotdogs from cupboard
Wednesday - Sausage T£sco meal for a £5 - We have got these each week and DH cooks them which gives me night off love it!
Thursday - Jacket potatoes, Beans, Bacon Chops used up last of philli tub in pots too woudl have prob binned normally
Friday - Lemon chicken pasta (tesco meal from last week but we loved it so having it again but simpler dried pasta etc using up lo mushrooms onions reduced chicken. and still have lemon & garlic from recipe last week so using them too!
Saturday - Home made pizza (not made in years) using up lo bits mushrooms/cheese/toms/peppers
Sunday - Roast chicken (from freezer) roast potatoes and cauliflower

Hope this is ok and I am ok to join in . I am very excited dont think I have ever been this organised!

Picklepud

Rosieben just saw your plan with each day having a theme but different meal choices what a fantastic idea!!! so you sort of know what you are using but can chage it about to stop you getting bored ... I love it I may steal the idea...

chickywiggle

wonders if it's safe to tell people she has done her (very uncreative) main meal plan up until 6th January??

Just debating the best way to shop - given how the weather turned last year. We are lucky to have both a small asda and tesco in walking distance (and a morrisons/ farm food a bit further walk away) Weekly, fortnightly or 3 weekly (monthly won't work as i want to ensure christmas week is all in at least a week early (panic buyers just annoy me and i couldn't be doing with shoping that late on).

So (sorry to hijack the threaad but.....) - how do you do yours?

my intial idea is weekly from 26th November.
A bigger 3 week shop on 17th December
weekly again from 7th January.

PolarBearGirl

I've been meal planning for a while but keep tweaking it to try and keep it fresh/make it easier... At the moment I'm working on weekly cards (SHE style ) and have a rough overall plan every week. This is mainly as I'm feeding 8m old and 3.5 year old who doesn't eat everything whereas DH and I are keen on food and like lots of variety.

Wed - Stir fry or Chicken (or chicken stir fry!)
Thu - Pasta with some kind of sauce
Fri - Home made takeaway night eg pizza, burgers, omlettes & part baked bread, or we have real takeaway and the boys have kids tea
Sat - I choose something new
Sun - Roast or stew or cottage pie/lasagne (not often roast lately as if I order for weds I'm never sure it'll be an ok date for Sun)
Mon - Something and Chips
Tue - Reheated Sunday Tea/ Cold roast and baked Potatoes

(I order on Mon for delivery on Weds)

I try to make sure we have fish once a week and preferably two meat free nights, to be healthy and keep the cost down! I would normally pull the card, look whats in the cupboards/fridge and write a detailed plan and list, the plan goes on the fridge. I do usually stick to it as with two kids cooking time is short and I hate panicking at 5 weekends are more flexible.

Weekday breakfasts are porridge, toast or cereal and at the weekends we have drop scones/eggs/bacon sarnies. I've given up planning for lunches as it's too random and just keep basic lunch stuff in the cupboards.

I've been buying meat from Costco for the freezer and buy frozen chicken from Waitrose as they do free range and it works out much cheaper than fresh- We often use odd amounts due to the boys, I'd love to know if anyone else does free range frozen! I also use frozen fish as I haven't got organised enough to catch the fish van. We use a lot of frozen veg and I make batches of pasta sauce etc too, I need a bigger freezer . As we're avoiding salt for my 8m old at the moment we're making most things from scratch, but I'll prob try and keep doing it as it's cheaper.

I've been thinking about trying having meals on cards for each day with the ingredients (eg half a dozen popular pasta dishes for pasta day...) and I like the idea of the cards for keeping track of the freezer when I get more room!

This came out really long but I don't find it that hard - I'm glad to see I'm not the only one spending time thinking about how to organise my meals - I thought I was the only one and was feeling a bit

Flat_Eric

Before I return to work on Tuesday, I am aiming to have my meals planned certainly for November and hopefully December too I am terrible for changing my mind so think I may mix all the various ideas on here to do my meal plans. I particularly like rosieben's idea where each day is designated a food type (eg Monday leftovers) (Tuesday Sausages or bacon) so may plan to do something like this :j

Flat_Eric

i'm also going to share my menus on here. I know there is a designated meal plan thread for each week but I can never find it and I'm aiming to plan as far in advance as possible :T

Here is the menu plan for the next week as it stands at the moment....

Sunday 30 October

Breakfast: cereal bar and pasta muffins / may be beans
Lunch: pasta salad (home made)
Dinner: M&$ curry meal deal

Monday 31 October

Breakfast:
Lunch: Pumpkin soup ?
Dinner: Home made chilli

Tuesday 1 November

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:

Wednesday 2 November

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:

Thursday 3 November

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:

Friday 4 November

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:

Saturday 5 November

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:

Sunday 6 November

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:

Monday 7 November

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:

Tuesday 8 November

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:

Wednesday 9 November

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:

chickywiggle

Flat_Eric wrote: »

Before I return to work on Tuesday, I am aiming to have my meals planned certainly for November and hopefully December too I am terrible for changing my mind so think I may mix all the various ideas on here to do my meal plans. I particularly like rosieben's idea where each day is designated a food type (eg Monday leftovers) (Tuesday Sausages or bacon) so may plan to do something like this :j

i have to say big thanks for this idea too was the basics of mine.
first i drew up a list under the heading (meat, fish etc) of what we eat.
Then i worked out (from the list) which days they would best suit (i.e. a meaty meal on my day off so i can cook them, pizza on his day off).
i then picked something appropriate for each day from the list, trying to make sure no meals were too similar (i.e. chips, chips chips)
then i saw things i hadn't used and replaced one or two meals.

i tried not to have the same meal more then twice in the 6 weeks planned.
if I'd only put something in once (i.e. plaice in week 1, scampi in week 4) then i took one out and replaced with the other (so i had no scampi and 2 plaice --> therefore needing to buy 1 box (4 portions) and not 2 different products.

hope that makes sense.

ianbar0

i find meal planning pretty easy, however the main problem is the variety. that said now the weather is changed, the slow cooker is back out and at least there is a pretty easy 2-3 nights a week there. i have had a period freezing meals well in advance....need a bigger freezer!