Black-Saturn's Menu Planner

studentnurse

Thats excellent PP, thankyou x

[Deleted User]

we had the BS soup this evening and it was lovely. I did add more veg and used celery instead of peas. I had to add more water but it did two big bowls of thick soup and 1 1/2 bowls over. It would easily make 9 small bowls, slightly thinner. There is plenty of goodness in the broth mix by the way

jcr16

it is wonderful reading other peoples meal planners, maybe it cause i nosey. but it just gives me such fresh ideas. sometimes i feel stuck in a rut and just stare at full cupboards with not a clue what to cook.

thankyou so much everyone.

anguk

Well I made the fruit cobbler and used granulated sweetener instead of sugar and OH said it was lovely. It was so easy to make, normally it's a hassle adapting recipes because you have to use the sweetener by amount not weight because the sweetener is so much lighter, but Black-Saturns recipe was simple because it was just a case of swapping the cup of sugar for a cup of sweetener. I only used about 3/4 of a cup of sweetener and it was perfect. It's probably a good slimming pud if you use sweetener & skimmed milk. So thank you Black-Saturn, I've now got another pudding to keep OH happy!

We tend to get in a rut eating the same things so your list gave me some ideas, we had fish pie for dinner too although I did it in the oven because I forgot to take the fish out of the freezer last night! Think I'll try the Strawberry mousse tomorrow using sugar-free jelly, though the Chocolate one looks very tempting!

chardonnay_2

thanks to black saturn, penny pincher and suerob (& anyone else i've forgotten) for taking the time to post their recipies & meal plans.

the good thing about this is it will give people ideas - and they are open to your own interpretation (ie depending on your budget / preference, change ingredients to suit your taste if you wish.)

furthermore, i do hope no-one feels disheartened if they can't achieve the costings suggested. if your aim is to reduce your budget and you do this even by as little as a £1 you have done well.

i just hope people aren't put off posting due to some judgemental posts

Penny-Pincher!!

I am still amazed how little we spend on food compared to 18 months ago. I only ever shopped at M&S and Waitrose before and the ingredients were so much more expensive, but some quality of products were far superior. We used to waste alot of food too, where as now, we buy basically on needs and the meal plans are excellent for less food wastage.

PP
xx

halloweenqueen_2

Thanks to black saturn for her recipes and meal planners, while I couldn't get down to the same money it has given me a few ideas and also given my get up and go a bit of a boost!!
I've decided to keep a diary (a freebie!!) of all the things I cook and make, we very rarely eat any processed foods now, so personally I would buy more fresh fruit than tinned but its the ideas that count!
I'm happier to get some organic cous cous,or locally sourced fruit and veg, it may cost a bit more, but with people like black saturn, penny pincher etc its helping me to plan good home cooked food for pennies.

makingendsmeet_2

My other half used to spend £85 a week on food shopping to feed 2 adults and 4 children,since shes been addicted to this site she has cut our weekly shopping down to a fantastic £28 using the menu planner idea even down to planning the childrens lunch boxes also her budget includes nappies and wipes for our littlest one and if im honest we eat better than before now. :T

halloweenqueen_2

makingendsmeet wrote:

My other half used to spend £85 a week on food shopping to feed 2 adults and 4 children,since shes been addicted to this site she has cut our weekly shopping down to a fantastic £28 using the menu planner idea even down to planning the childrens lunch boxes also her budget includes nappies and wipes for our littlest one and if im honest we eat better than before now. :T

thats great!!:beer:
If she could post some of her ideas and possibly recipes, maybe she could help/inpsire someone else to do the same. The lunch box 'menus' could also be quite helpful, I try and vary them but sometimes they are a bit boring if the stuff I've made at home isnt suitable for carrying!!

Becles

Curry_Queen wrote:

but my childrens' diets are far more important to me than material possessions and holidays, and I would sacrifice anything to ensure they were receiving an adequate and healthy diet.

That's my line of thinking too.

There are items on the shopping list that I would never feed to my children. I know from working in a food technology lab that value mince is basically all the scraps left on a cow that are no good for anything else, bulked up with fat because it's cheaper than meat. My local butcher sells beef steak mince from local cows that have been hung for 21 days. The price comparisons are £0.97 for Tesco Value mince, compared with £1.40 for 500g beef steak mince from the butchers. For the sake of 43p, I'd personally rather give my children better quality mince that is much lower in fat.

I was concerned about the lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in the menu. It has been said that black saturns children are given vitamin pills, but personally I'd rather spend the extra and buy fresh fruit for natural nutrition, rather than use tinned fruit and vitamin pills. Tined fruit is blasted with heat to kill bacteria so it lasts for years, but unfortunately this destroys all the vitamins. I never buy tinned fruit/veg and prefer to buy an organic box from local farms instead. Yes it's more work as nothing is washed or prepared (eg carrots are literally dug up and delivered complete with dirt!), but I'm happier feeding my children that as I know it's a lot better for them than tins.

In my opinion there should be a balance between cutting food bills as low as you can, without compromising on balanced nutritional meals made with quality ingredients. In the past year, I've got from the "weekly mega shop" at Tesco, to sourcing local fresh produce which has saved money and it's better quality food.

To the people getting cut up about not being able to cut back to that level, I think it's more finding the right balance between cost and quality that works for you, rather than copying someone word for word. Use the menus and shopping list as inspiration, but tweak it to suit your circumstances.

I have been a single parent of 2 for some years. When I first returned to work after my ex left, I was managing on an income of £7.5k for the 3 of us, after tax and housing costs. Even on that level of income I wouldn't entertain value mince or tinned fruit!

Hope I haven't offended anyone with this. Just trying to provide a different viewpoint for thought.