Meal Planning - how do you do it?

Frogling

I have just read this thread all the way through in its entirety, and have been inspired to start meal planning! We have been wasting far too much food lately, and since my other half moved in with us a few months ago, spending far too much money at the supermarket. I have also fallen into a pattern of being lazy with cooking (or not when I don't feel like it), but it's time to turn over a new leaf.

I have copied all of the lovely meal suggestions down from this thread into a Word document so that I can take inspiration from the yummy-sounding meals you all make. Then tomorrow I am going to go through my cupboards and freezer, make a list of everything I have, and devise my very own meal planner. I might even get OH and my two lovely children involved so that we can approach it as a family challenge.

Is it sad to say that I am quite excited at the prospect of doing this?

maman

chickywiggle wrote: »

I have shopped and planned................ and am vezzy pleased with myself (tho not looking forward to boring prescriptive food).

won't take up space here but if anyone wants to check out my meal plans from now until the end of January it's this post and the one below.

Well done on organising a meal plan but are you saying you're having those same meals every week? Obviously, you don't have to do them in the same order but I can see why you might become a bit bored.

Also, next time you see baked beans on offer it's worth stocking up if you can afford it and have the space. I've got loads of Branston beans from the last time they were 4 for £1 in Asda. Same goes for cheese as you can freeze that. I try never to pay more than £5 per kg for cheddar.

maman

maman wrote: »

Well done on organising a meal plan but are you saying you're having those same meals every week? Obviously, you don't have to do them in the same order but I can see why you might become a bit bored.

Also, next time you see baked beans on offer it's worth stocking up if you can afford it and have the space. I've got loads of Branston beans from the last time they were 4 for £1 in Asda. Same goes for cheese as you can freeze that. I try never to pay more than £5 per kg for cheddar.

Oops!:o sorry, the link only took me to one week of meals. I've now found the right set of posts.

I do think the same meals are cropping up frequently. This might be because you have fussy eaters in the family but just a few ideas: why not have lasagne or cottage pie one week instead of bolognese? What about a sausage casserole? I sometimes do gammon with cauli cheese or tomatoes and mushrooms or mushy peas as a change from an egg. What about roast dinners?

Sorry if this sounds stupid but I only came to your post via the meal planning so I may have missed important bits from your diary.

chickywiggle

maman wrote: »

Oops!:o sorry, the link only took me to one week of meals. I've now found the right set of posts.

I do think the same meals are cropping up frequently. This might be because you have fussy eaters in the family but just a few ideas: why not have lasagne or cottage pie one week instead of bolognese? What about a sausage casserole? I sometimes do gammon with cauli cheese or tomatoes and mushrooms or mushy peas as a change from an egg. What about roast dinners?

Sorry if this sounds stupid but I only came to your post via the meal planning so I may have missed important bits from your diary.

fusssy eaters!!
- hubby doesn't eat any fruit, veg, mince or fish (for starters) so the plan is basically mine only (I have a drawer of frozen rubbish he can choose from).
- tend to do bolognaise cause its easier then shepherds pie (and i find freezes better).
- hubby would happily eat processed chicken/ turkey/ pizza/ sausages for every meal.
- i had been doing a roast every week but no one actually appeciated the effort so now i tend to do one a month.
- at the moment frozen chicken breasts/ gammon are reallly cheap in farm foods hence making something using chicken on sunday rather then a full roast (tho i have been known to roast frozen breasts)
- pasta bake is fab in our house but at over £2 a jar of sauce at the moment (and takes 3 a meal for us) - and the amount of cheese hubby wants in it makes it reallly pricey.
- i tend to buy the farm food cheese when i can (£5 a kg block) - if i had my way i'd buy value but fussy won't it eat.

- toddler wiggle is now a picky 3yr old and babywiggle only 7 months.

hope that makes sense - typing quickly during my cuppa tea - off to work now.

maman

Thanks for getting back to me chickywiggle. Well done you on keeping on going against all odds!

I do bits of shopping in Farmfoods but I haven't tried their chicken breasts (don't need any at the moment) but I'll give the gammon a go.

Good luck.

chickywiggle

maman wrote: »

Thanks for getting back to me chickywiggle. Well done you on keeping on going against all odds!

I do bits of shopping in Farmfoods but I haven't tried their chicken breasts (don't need any at the moment) but I'll give the gammon a go.

Good luck.

£4.50 a bag (8) or £10 for 3 bags.
Their pork steaks on the same offer (but i don't think you can mix and match) are also yummy.

All can be done straight from frozen in the george forman. :j

VickyVics

I'm new to the forum and am too trying to find the best way to shop to maximise my savings. I've tried doing weekly meal plans, making shopping lists and then shopping to the list. For me it doesn't seem to work too well because I tend not to fancy what isn't in the cupboards (I know I need to be a lot stricter with myself lol).

So this week I am only trying to plan for 1 or 2 days in advance. This way I buy the meals that I fancy at the time that uses some of the ingredients I already have in the cupboard and then only buy the ingredients that I need (I hope that makes sense). It seems to be working so far. Tonight I am making homemade pizza...yum yum!

I also only use cash (can only buy what I have the money for) and keep all of my receipts (I can then look for improvements for future weeks).

117pauline

Hi VV

Could I make a couple of suggestions please?

Shopping often used to mean that I'd go in for a couple of things and come back with lots of other things too so I have found menu planning for a week saves money overall.

I agree with you about not always wanting what I have planned to eat so I am more likely to have say ten meals for each week within the plan that I could have (IYKWIM). The extra goes in the freezer so I have other options for later in the month.

Although it is time consuming, get a list of everything you have in your cupboards and freezer so you can use up ingredients regularly and you don't buy things you already have.

I also have kept a record over the last three months of what I have planned and then actually eaten to see if there is a pattern as well as encouraging me to keep expanding the things I cook.

I find it more difficult to "batch cook" lots of dishes in a big cook but it has worked really well when I have made a chilli, for example, and made twice as much then put the other half in the freezer for those times when I can't be bothered to cook. It doesn't take anywhere near twice the time so it helps when you are rushed too. My own "ready cooked" frozen meals are there ready.

Again, if you have time, list all the different meals you like and it will remind you of things you haven't had for a while. The Meal Plans thread is good for ideas too.

Have a look at the Coupons or Try Me Free threads to see if there are any coupons for products you can use any to help with your budgetting.

All this sounds like hard work but once you have done it, you can just update quite quickly.

Hope this helps
Pauline

Flat_Eric

Finish work tomorrow for xmas and on the list of things to do over the xmas break is meal plan..... Not intending to plan for the next year :rotfl:but certainly think up some ideas.....

ScarletRaven

I do my meal plan weekly. We shop on a Sunday, so every Saturday evening I have a look what we have in the cupboards/freezer/fridge and see if there are any meals that can be made from what is already there, or anything where I'd only need to buy one or two things to make it into a proper meal.

Once I've got those ideas down I think of some other meal ideas for the remaining amount of days so I have seven meals in total, then write them out in day order to give a bit of variety through the week but in a way that still uses up what I have/uses similar things that will need purchasing. Then I make the shopping list and just add bits in for breakfasts and lunches, though often I plan for the lunches to be made up somewhat of any leftovers that may occur from the previous days' dinners.

I started doing this about 6 months ago and it has definitely helped reduce the cost of our weekly shop because we're not just buying random things we like and hoping we can make meals from them. It also helps me plan more interesting lunches for work, and if the things we end up getting for that week's meals happen to be on offer, I buy the extra and make a bigger meal when I do the cooking to then freeze for ready-made meals later that month, which in turn saves money on the shopping later on

I definitely recommend meal plans, they are the way forward!