Meal Planning - how do you do it?

sonastin

Can you use the location of the supermarkets to your advantage? My OH has a massively sweet tooth. Fortunately for me, his preferred biscuits are the Asda smartprice range. However, the nearest asda is almost 10 miles away. I'll stock up there once a month but everything else comes from the various supermarkets on my route home from work - Aldi, Morrisons, Lidl or Tesco. If he runs out of biscuits mid-month, I refuse to make a special trip to Asda just for him (even though they're probably cheaper than HM!) and he's learnt to discipline himself so that the biscuit rations last. Unless he knows I'm heading in the direction of Asda anyway and then I have no excuse not to "pop in" on my way past!

My baking skills are improving thanks to this site so my HM baking efforts are starting to be palatable at last - it certainly wasn't just him being fussy in the early days! But the discipline of not making special trips to particular shops has certainly helped with the budget.

sapanga

well, there is an Iceland next to work and I sometimes pop down to Tesco on my lunch but lidl and Asda are miles away and I dont drive. I sometimes will do an online shop in Asda but not very often. I usually try to compare prices before I shop to make sure I'm getting the best deals

KingTVYN

I would just buy the cheaper brand and put it in a box of more expensive cereal and they'll never know the difference :P

Kitchenbunny

I'd definitely do the ribs, if you can. That can be a treat meal for certain - one meal we normally have chips with, and it becomes a luxury. Mr M normally do sides of ribs and I marinade them in something similar to those recipes above. Another fakeaway meal I serve (that always goes down well) is meatball subs. Part-baked baguettes (although I'm going to try and learn to make them myself ) split while warm, and then make some meatballs with a tomato sauce based on passata with some garlic, herbs and a bit of chilli in it. You can use any mince, really, and sometime sausages work out well in it too. Spoon some meatballs on the bread and top with grated cheese. Definitely gets a thumbs up from Mr Kitchenbunny!

Just also thought I'd add this: Cola at MySupermarket might help a bit, in the meantime.

K xx