Saving money by NOT meal planning !!

frugglewump

This month being short of cash (legal fees for house) we have bought bread, milk & other short-lived stuff and the 3kg of pork I posted a thread about and that is it for food shopping all month. So because of my store cupboard I have manged to shop for this month on a grand total of £35 rather than the usual £150. I couldn't have done this with a meal plan because I guarantee you that OH would have balked at some point in the month with a sudden craving for something we didn't have :rotfl: If he doesn't know what's for dinner before it's served he can't complain.

sophistica

I am back to a technique which I used as a student which is to have a daily budget for food of approximately £1.75...this is for breakfast, lunch at home and an evening meal. And then I spend time bargain hunting to achieve my objectives...today I found 6 slices of a salmon and watercress quiche in Waitrose reduced to 9p a slice instead of £1.60 and 3 Nan breads at 14p each instead of 48p...I then put these items in the freezer to go towards my meals. When I am cooking I make a quick calculation on cost...I try to keep dinner down to £1.00 and the rest of my meals at 75p.
I am currently doing price comparisons of all the supermarkets and shops in my area...my conclusion is that Waitrose is about twice the price on everything compared with Lidl and the quality is about the same. In fact Lidl is fantastic for jams, fresh coffee, chocolate and luxury muesli.

For pulses and spices - I think it is VB Grocers in the Indian areas are very cheap...I saw a kilo of red kidney beans for £1 and 5kgs of basmatic for £3.99...worth sharing. The pitta bread and puppadums are also about 20p. There's a fair bit of pushing and shoving but well worth it. The Halal butchers have 4/5 chickens for £5. I am also trying my cat out on Lidl Opticat instead of Sheba and Purina One...if this works (she likes it I am just waiting to see if she gets an upset stomach) I reckon I can save at least £150-200 per year.

I have also picked up a tip from an American site of making a price book and this has certainly been an eye opener to see how much different supermarkets charge for simialr things...it's not just pennies.

Nelski

Edinburghlass wrote:

If I decide to use the slowcooker I do kind of plan that the night before but for the rest of the time I delve into the depths of the freezer and like Pal, pull out odds and sods and never know what the meat might be until its cooked

sounds very familiar - but when i decide to put the slow cooker on its generally from reading some fab recipe on here for example, which means that it all gets put together after the essential "nip to Asda" (my store cupboard would make most OSers faint with horror) so maybe 12 noon ish - and then by the time its done i dont want it!

Theres a lot to be said for this meal planning im sure but for me well i dont think its ever gonna happen:o Now i can give you some lovely variations on Beans on Toast!!:D

Bargain_Rzl

I'd say I strike a happy medium with meal planning.

I'm just cooking for myself and I work quite long hours. I've found that I hardly ever do a proper "grocery shop" - there are 4 supermarkets that I can basically "pop into" on the way home, and I've learnt that if I get back to my local station at 7:30pm-ish then the Co-op and occasionally Tesco are fantastic for reduced meat bargains. If I've been out or working late and I get home around 10, mini-Sainsburys is always worth a look for reasonable quality meat for a matter of pence. So I buy meat for the freezer whenever I like the look of something that's reduced to clear, and about once a week I look to see what I've got and work out what else I'll need to do certain recipes - effectively making a meal plan for the next week and a bit, cos I'll batch cook on Saturdays so I've got lunches to take to work. Then I'll go out and buy the necessaries - Lidl for pasta/rice and veggies, Lidl or Tesco Value range for tinned goods. Because I'm out a lot in the evenings, the main element of planning is not what to cook, but when - if one week I know I'll only be in for two evenings, I have to make sure that during those evenings and over the weekend I end up with have enough reheatable portions available for the rest of my lunches and dinners. I have a couple of fallback dishes I can do on the (all too frequent) occasions when I unexpectedly run out of a vital ingredient, or forget to defrost something - most are bean-based pasta dishes and I'll cook up 4 portions at a time.

I can't say exactly what I spend weekly, because I don't keep a clear line between grocery money and pocket money. But I'd hazard a guess that since Old Style the grocery element probably makes up not much over £10 of my general budget in the average week - down from nearer to £20.

sophistica - the three local cats that frequent our house think the Lidl Opticat is delicious.

filigree_2

I probably do it back to front - instead of making a meal plan then shopping for it, I buy stuff on offer then jiggle it to fit the meal plan. I'm trying to dish up fish twice a week but I know I'd just forget if I didn't have some kind of calendar arrangement. In the past I've found myself with nothing but chicken and sausages in the freezer, I know they're adaptable but I do think we need a bit more variety! So now I have a rough plan (on a spreadsheet) that tells me I've got enough chicken to feed an army and to stop buying any for a few weeks.

I find that sticking to a rigid shopping list doesn't work. For a start, the blooming shops don't always have what you need in stock! Also if I see a big pack of mince reduced to 50p I'm having some, blow what the meal planner says

Now I'm working the meal plan does have it's uses, I just defrost Wednesday's tupperware and reheat it for dinner. The Plan is useful for days when I can't be bothered to think creatively.

Curry_Queen

I've tried ... and failed ... to stick to a proper meal plan of allocating specific meals to certain days, so now I'm trying something slightly different.

The problems I came up against were if I stuck the meal plan on the fridge then one of the kids would say "I don't fancy that for dinner tomorrow, can't we have something else instead?" or I'd forget to take something out the freezer the night before, or I might not even feel like cooking/eating what I'd planned myself :whistle:

So anyway, what I've decided to do now is to draw up a menu list of dishes I can create from fridge/freezer/storecupboard stocks to cover say a 14 day period so we can pick and choose meals to suit depending on what we fancy that night or time available to cook etc. Anything involving perishable goods will be highlighted with a date that they need to be cooked by, so nothing gets wasted, and anything that's in the freezer already can be rolled over to the next 14 day period if it doesn't get used for any reason. This way I can slot in any bargains I pick up that need using immediately and buy things when they're on offer to stick in the freezer for future menu lists.

I don't know how well this will work out yet as I'm still trying to get used to feeding an extra mouth (who eats more than enough for two people :eek: ) and where I always used to factor in extra portions for the freezer I find I'm not able to do this anymore, even though I'm cooking extra, as anything leftover just seems to get eaten! I also feel as though I'm becoming a slave to the kitchen lately and cooking is becoming a chore instead of a pleasure

PoshPaws_3

Curry_Queen wrote:

I also feel as though I'm becoming a slave to the kitchen lately and cooking is becoming a chore instead of a pleasure

Oh, I know how that feels!! I've found that the pleasure has been restored, by venturing outside of my self-imposed box and trying some recipes that I've previously told myself were too fiddly or too complicated. Turns out that if they are fiddly or complicated, I can come up with ways of making them more user-friendly. Trying them the first time is fun because they're new - and then tinkering with them after that is fun because its a challenge. Works for me, but then I'm easily pleased, I think. :rotfl:

lynzpower

Ive meal planned a bit, but Im really flexible with it.
I used to get a job lot of meat from the butchers ( chicken quarters, frying steak, loads of chops, loads of mince and loads of sausages all for £20) and we'd always have loads in the freezer. OH has been diagnosed with high cholestrol now, so we have to menu plan around that more, and cant use butchers meat, its just too fatty.

So back in the main to supermarket meat. Ive stopped buying chicken fillets now and use turkey instead- so much cheaper and v low fat. V lean steak mince for his spag bol ( Ill have quorn with the same sauce) few lean pork escalopes and veggie options.
I write down all the store cupboard stuff I need, and then mainly use supermarket for meat & dairy stuff.

I meal plan in the morning, based on how the veg is looking ( we better use that spinach tonight, so we will have...and get the meat out of the freezer before going to work. Freeze leftovers where we can!

I tend not to throw much away, and I think we are at the cheapest we are gonna get now!

too_many_details

Hi,

interesting thread.

We have a new addition to the family (almost 4 weeks old!). Our meals were usually random affairs and the amount of food we throw away is shameful. Its partially my fault - i like the idea of something but later I can't be bothered!!!

Both me and my wife like our food (live to eat rather than eat to live) and are poor cooks. Meal planning seemed to be a good idea, but as others have posted, its very likely on the night we might change our minds!!!

The store cupboard ideas seems good but as novice cooks, its hard to know what to get. Yes, I know there is a list but as Indians, we don't really prefer English food all the time.

I liked the idea of keeping track of recipes you like but i get stumped by how to organise the recipes. Any advice? For instance, do you have sections like PASTA, FISH, SOUPS, etc. I start out like that but then find some recipes are in multiple categories and i give up!!!

I was thinking of just winging it intially and keeping a food diary and then use that to look up stuff I've had and liked. But that will take time.

I'm off work for a few weeks now so i really want to get this sorted!!

As a last resort, I could always just make a giant list of dishes and pick from that. ANy other ideas?

Cheers

R

Angelraesunshine

I never used to meal plan but, would end up getting stressed as i would not know what to cook and the kids would start to get hungry or i had forgot to get out the meat or something woudl go wrong. I do meal plan but i do it for the month and not for the week this way i have found if i don't fancy something i swap it over to something from another day, that way i always know i wont run out and don't need to stress out about it, i also have plenty of basics in the cupboards so if hubby on a w/e decided to help him self to all the pasta for lunch i know i have more.