Menu Plan advice please!

clairebear16

Hi Everyone!

I am new to posting on this forum. After realising how little money I am going to have for my final year at University, I have decided to start meal planning to make better use of my shopping! (I have started early to get used to planning, and I know I will have less spare time when I start my course!) I am budgeting on £20 a week, but I would love to spend less . I shop at Tesco seeing as it is within walking distance to my house. Could I post my shopping list along with a meal plan for you advice and suggestions?

WEEK 1

Item
Cost
Porridge Oats

0.58

Semi Skimmed Milk

1

Golden Syrup

0.94

Wheat biscuits

0.99

Sausages

2.11

Bread flour

0.68

Allinson dried Yeast

0.6

Banana

1.05

Cheddar Cheese

1.5

Danone Yoghurt

3

Eggs

0.88

Potato

0.52

Onion

0.16

Soup

1.89

Crisps

1.19

Risotto Rice

0.95

Whole chicken

4

Stock cubes

0.75

Carrot

0.24

Broccoli

0.64

pasta

0.43

pasta sauce

1.89

white rice

0.73

pepper

1.36

prawns

3.29

mozzarella

0.74

pesto

1.99

orange juice

0.56

garlic bulb

0.3

margarine

1

35.96

WEEK 2

Item
Cost
Semi skimmed milk

1

Key Country foods Bacon

2

Bread flour

0.68

banana

1.05

yoghurt

3

Soup

1.89

baking potato

0.74

onion

0.16

egg

0.88

macaroni

0.74

tomato purree

0.35

mozorella

0.74

pasta sauce

1.89

carrot

0.4

brocolli

0.64

baby corn

1.5

apple juice

0.56

apricot jam

0.99

19.21

WEEK 1MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursday Friday SaturdaySundayBreakfasthomemade porridgehomemade porridgehomemade porridgehomemade porridgehomemade porridgesausage SandwichweetabixSnackbananabananabananabananabananabananabananaLunchcheese sandwich,
danone yoghurtcheese sandwich,
danone yoghurtcheese sandwich,
danone yoghurtspanish omelettespanish omelettesoup & breadsoup & breadSnackcrispscrispscrispsyoghurtyoghurtyoghurtyoghurtDinnerRisotto - chicken and vegchicken pasta bakespecial fried ricechicken, potatoes & vegpizzapesto pastafree meal

WEEK 2MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursday Friday SaturdaySundayBreakfasthomemade porridgehomemade porridgehomemade porridgehomemade porridgehomemade porridgebacon SandwichweetabixSnackbananayoghurtbananayoghurtbananayoghurtbananaLunchcheese sandwichcheese sandwichcheese sandwichcheese sandwichsoup & breadSoup & breadspanish omeletteSnackyoghurtcrispsyoghurtcrispsyoghurtcrispsyoghurtDinnersausages and mashmacaroni and sausagesfree mealsausage casserolepizzatoad in the holepasta

A few things I won’t trade are fresh milk, Richmond sausages and oxo cubes. I have tried cheaper versions but I always end up going back to these!

As I will be sharing a house with 4 other people, freezer space will be verrryyy limited, so mass batch cooking isn’t possible. After a few weeks if there is space I would like to buy frozen veg bags instead of fresh.

Thank you very much in advance!

L.L_2

its quite hard to tell from your list what you are using for what, but I would suggest using the chicken carcus for stock and making homemade soup with veg.

debtmuncher

its confusing because you have bread flour for both weeks, would one bag not do for two weeks? bacon 2? is that two pounds? could you not just get two slices off the deli counter for yourself?

have you actually done your shopping ? would be easier if you posted what you do have in your cupboards and we can see what to have and what to buy.

thats a lot of cheese you are using for two weeks? how about egg mayo, tuna, cold meat or taking leftovers into work?

debtmuncher

did a rough costing if you were doing a fortnights shopping, left prawns and pesto out cos thought they were awfully expensive. wheat biscuits? you mean weetabix or biscuits?

did do you a wee shopping list but its not loading right. that came to £32 approx. but its one bag of flour and yeast for two weeks, two packs of four yoghurts, one lot of cheese, porridge oats. included lentils, passata so that you could make your own lentil soup and pasta sauce. one bag of pasta to do both weeks instead of two different kinds. no mozzarella because you already have cheddar , but you do have money left over to get it providing you use it for other meals that week not just the one meal. 15 value eggs as well

debtmuncher

breakfast..porridge and toast

lunches..home made soup/cheese sandwich/egg mayo sandwich/chicken sandwich/left overs from previous nights meal.

meals

chicken- roast chicken with potatoes and veg, chicken curry, chicken pasta, chicken fried rice, chicken casserole.

sausages - sausages n mash, toad in the hole (two nights, keep the sausages and half the batter in the fridge for the following night.) fry up (grilled sausage,bacon, tomato, mushrooms which you need to add to your budget, some potatoes gently fried, egg)

pasta - macaroni cheese (freeze one portion for the following week).

other ideas- tortilla, pizza toast, filled crepes,omelettes,quiche, bacon sandwich, eggy bread,
oh didnt put crisps on your list lol

hope that gives you an idea.

clairebear16

Hi Guys,

thanks for all your replies, the carcas idea for stock is a really good one, that must taste a lot better than usual stock! How would I do that?

Ah, i see that the tables from excel got a bit mixed up from postin on here, I will remember that for next time! So basically, the shopping list right hand collumn are the costs of buying that item. This is a plan format im thinking of using on a 2 weekly basis. The other mixed up bit was the meal plans for the week - breakfast, lunch dinner and snacks, and they were fairly similar to the ideas you suggested, debtmuncher....

Breakfasts - porridge with golden syrup, weetabix for convenience if i need it, bacon/sausage sandwich once a week at the most as a treat

Snacks - yoghurt - i have just noted that yeo valley yoghurt is cheaper than danone activia so might give that a try! Bananas and crisps. I notice I also have the ingredients for some flap jacks, if anyone has a tried and tested recipe?

Lunch - cheese sarnies, soup (shop bought as ive not yet found a good soup recipe!) and bread, spanish omelette to use up any left over potato/onion/peppers

dinners - the chicken will make a roast, risotto, pasta bake, chicken veg n potato, chicken fried rice, rest frozen. Sausages, i had planned sausage and mash, my mums macaroni and sausages - using tomato purree, onion, water and a dash of salt - yum! toad in the hole - doing enough for two meals is a good idea debtmuncher! and sausage casserole.

anything thats left over from these two weeks i would encorporate in the following meal plans, ie, the bacon could go into a carbonara or rap around chicken breasts etc, if you see what i mean?

Yep, the wheat biscuits are tescos weetabix! Oh and good point about cheddar and mozorella, I never thought to put cheddar on a pizza! Theres 2 bags of flour since on week 1 im baking a loaf of bread and making a batch of 6-8 pizza dough mixtures to freeze, and whats left of the flour wouldnt leave enough for a loaf the next week. I tried to make bread by hand using plain flour but it never really turned out very well. Although one of my housemates will be bringing a bread maker with him, so im not sure if it would turn out better in that?

id like to include some fish where i can, but im not too sure of how i could stretch out fresh fillets etc?

xx

Fire_Fox

I agree that you should make your own soup and pasta sauce: they are both pretty easy and very cheap compared with ready-made. There are loads of soup recipes online (here, BBC website, Allrecipes) but I just make it up as I go along - I am not the best cook and they are always yummy! You just need stock (homemade or cube), any vegetables that look iffy, something to thicken (potato/ red lentils/ pearl barley/ soup pasta), herbs and/ or garlic, OPTIONAL something to make it richer (any savoury dairy product) or a splash of leftover wine to make it more grown up. :beer:

Tinned pink salmon is pretty cheap and makes lovely 'pate' simply mixed with flavoured soft cheese. Frozen white fish can be stretched in fish pie: whole fresh mackerel are reasonably priced and small enough for one person. Is there any reason there is no mince on your shopping list? Mince can be bulked out loads, and pork or turkey mince is generally cheaper than beef.

Have you thought about having some meals based on beans and lentils? There are loads of vegetarian recipes on Weezl74's thread 'Eat healthily on 50p per day'. If you had an egg-based meal and a bean-based meal each week it would allow you a little extra money for the days you have meat, fish or cheese (all expensive).

debtmuncher

the bulky items like bacon, sausages etc freeze individual portions in cling film. so it means instead of having to use 8 sausages in two days or whatever you can just take out what you need for the day.

with bread i am a bit doubtful on this, reason being it goes stale pretty quick so you would be making a lot plus your flatmates would be pinching your food lol. how about just buying sliced bread , freezing it in two slice portions and then just take out what you need daily. the pizza dough freezing is a good idea, again put portions of pizza sauce into the freezer, some people prepare them first then freeze them? will put up a thread cos i need to be doing that as well lol

muffins are easy to make and again can be put into the freezer.

have fun!!

debtmuncher

another idea, think you have enough in your budget for mozzerella cheese. what i do is to buy the tescos grated stuff or lidls and i put it into the freezer so when i need it i use it straight from frozen (bash it a bit to break up the lumps lol)

tessie_bear

hi...your organisation is very impressive...the only thing i would say is go with a list to the shops but be prepared to change if u see a special offer or something reduced that will do just as well if u buy fish as asda or tesco they have a counter where u can buy just one which may help
good luck

msgnomey

I used to make my hubby a lot of flapjacks then I found twinks hobnobs recipe on her and now I use that instead, very easy, very quick, very delish!!