Need OldStyle Help! ...

piratess

Exactly chipps ... i have been wondering about doing monthly shop but planning a months worth of meals and then packed lunches i think would be a nightmare! or would it !? i dont know ive never done it maybe i should like you say the less you go in the shops the less chance of buyin cr8p you dont need LOL

moggins

Actually doing a months shop is easy and works out a lot cheaper as you save on bulk buying.

In my household file I have a four weekly menu system, not one meal is repeated in the four weeks so when the four weeks is finished I just start again. It makes planning and shopping very easy. Anything that I buy regularly and is heavy and bulky I shove on the Tesco online shop, like catfood, toilet roll, kitchen towel, I invested in the largest freezer I could fit in the house and stock up on bread and milk at the same time and freeze it for the month.

Sandwiches can also be made in bulk and frozen, cheese freezes very well too if grated first. Cakes etc for lunchboxes can be whipped up in 30 minutes or less if you have all the flour etc in stock and I always have a couple of extra tubs of marg in the freezer for baking.

moggins

p.s. investing in a wally trolley has been a blessing too, it means I can either walk the 20 mins into town or get on the bus instead of having to fork out nearly £4 for parking.

Chipps

Monthly planning is one of those things that sounds very daunting! What I have done, is to write down all the meals we have had over the past week or 2, and some others we have enjoyed - sometimes I have gone through a "frugal-style" cookbook like More with Less for more ideas & write them all down.
Then I use the back of some junk mail or something & write the dates & days for the month until payday & then fit meals into those spaces. So for example, I might put "chicken" for a Sunday, then "chicken curry" for Monday, and "soup" (with the carcass) for Tuesday.
Another thing is to have perhaps one meal each week that uses bolognaise sauce, so spagbog one week, lasagne another, pasta bake another and a repeat of spagbog for the 4th week. Then on the first week of that (and I would make sure that is not a busy day) cook 4lb of mince with tinned tomatoes, basil, onion, garlic & tomato puree & divide it into 4, freezing the other 3 helpings. If I was making something with mashed potatoes for example I cook double the first time, & put half in the freezer for another meal that also needs them. Does that make sense?

Anyway, once all the month is organised I run through the list & write the shopping down.

Finally I type the finished menu plan up on the computer & print it out & put it up in the kitchen. This has 2 advantages: 1) it keeps me focussed on what to do, I don't panic about whats for dinner 2) on occasions, DH has got dinner started if I have been out & got home after him!
Oh, forgot to say, I also put things on like "get spag sauce out of freezer for tomorrow" on the menu plan.

I have loads of menu plans in my recipe folder, which makes things easier, cos I can just look back for ideas for meals that we haven't had for a while.

I hope that doesn't sound too daunting - it's not as bad to do as it is to write about it!

piratess

That sounds excellent ... altho not a great cook! so would be pretty basic!
think ill have a sit down and write a fourweekly meal thingy and then see what i need .....
if i can get my head round it ill have stuff coming out of my ears LOL the other problem i have is that we only have a tiny fridge freezer and cant afford to go buy another one at this present time ! ...

xxx

moggins

piratess don't ever let not being a good cook stop you! I was an awful cook when I first go married and we lived on M & S ready meals! I started gradually and bought myself some studenty cook books which helped start me off.

22 years later and I can rustle up a meal out of anything left in the fridge. Don't be afraid of failure, just give it a try and I bet you will surprise yourself.

And try looking in your local paper for a larger freezer, I've seem them going for as little as £20.

exlibris

piratess wrote:

Exactly chipps ... i have been wondering about doing monthly shop but planning a months worth of meals and then packed lunches i think would be a nightmare! or would it !? i dont know ive never done it maybe i should like you say the less you go in the shops the less chance of buyin cr8p you dont need LOL

Build up to it. Shop for a fortnight till you are comfortable and then 3 weeks etc.

Keep a note of what you actually eat and use it to help plan your shopping and menus. When you are comfortable with this, practice portion control so you could have some left over use up another day eg. save some of the chilli and use it the following day for filling jacket potatoes.

The main thing is work inside your comfort zone and GRADUALLY stretch the borders.

Good Luck

jcr16

oh moggins pleased would u list your menus'. i also seem to repeat meal's. i would find it so hard to plan for month. i used to shop for a month before and i used to save so much money.

although u shop for a month a do monthly meals plans , do u still buy fuit and veg each week ? and would u use a diff menu in summer to the winter.

piratess this is turning out to be a fantastic thread, even i getting some tips. thankyou.

piratess

Your more than welcome jcr .. i to would love some menu plans ~winks~
as for the freezer suggestion id love to go get one but our kitchen is so small we can just about get our small fridge frrezer in there ... and as the house is on the small side all over i dont think we could put one anywhere else either

Chipps

I now have 2 freezers, but I used to just have 1 small one, and then I used to cook up the extra spag sauce & freeze it in the large ziplock bags.
It makes a flat rectangular package, which takes up very little space, they stack well & also defrost really quickly; if you run it under the tap you can slide the frozen sauce out & into a pan very easily.