Which way round do you do it?

conradmum

Your answer may not be what I mean.

I'm talking about budgeting and meal planning. We're saving up to move abroad next year so I've been picking up some great tips from this board (thanks everyone!). But I'm wondering which is the best/cheapest/most efficient method of meal planning.

For those who do a monthly meal plan, do you base your plan on what's on special offer or reduced at the shops, then do your plan? Or do you have a look in your cupboards, plan your month's meals, then go out and buy what you need, just trying to get the best deals, but not buying something if it doesn't fit in with your plan?

I've just done a big home delivered Asda shop of special offers and staples and will be planning my meals (not skilled enough to do a month's worth yet ) according to what was going cheap, but of course this is making life a bit more difficult for myself. I'd be interested to hear how other people tackle this.

Julie67

Hi,

I always look in the cupboards and freezer first and then write a list of what I need based around the meals I have planned. I only buy something that's not on the list if its a super special offer!! Moving abroad sounds exciting, where are you hoping to go?

Penelope_Penguin

Bit of both My meal plan is written on a chalk board, not a tablet of stone That way I can plan what to cook based on what I have, but also take advantage of bargains and seasonal produce.

Penny. x

Little_Vics

we have a list of the 20 most popular meals for dinner in our house, and I tend to use those as a base for a vague monthly meal plan. Lunches are normally hm soup/sarnies/left overs. So when we do a big shop at the beginning of the month, we get what we need to make those meals (obviously not buying anything we already have) and I then do a more solid weekly plan based around this and whatever whoopsies we pick up. It works - most of the time!

conradmum

Julie67 wrote: »

Hi,

I always look in the cupboards and freezer first and then write a list of what I need based around the meals I have planned. I only buy something that's not on the list if its a super special offer!! Moving abroad sounds exciting, where are you hoping to go?

We'll be moving to Taiwan if everything goes to plan. For a year at first then we'll stay on for another five if everything works out okay (and we don't die of culture shock :eek:)

Sounds like this meal planning isn't an exact science. I was hoping for easy to follow steps.

ChocClare

conradmum wrote: »

Sounds like this meal planning isn't an exact science. I was hoping for easy to follow steps.

It's difficult to know where to start sometimes, isn't it? How about you say to yourself, I will do three meals a week (or two, or however many, up to you) based around stuff I've got in the freezer or the storecupboard. Then I will see what's on special offer at Mr T's (which you can do online) and build the rest of my week around that?

Or you could say, I will have a roast on Sunday, another meat-based dish Monday, leftover roast-based dish Tuesday, vegetarian Wednesday, completely out of the storecupboard on Thursday, fish on Friday, pasta on Saturday. Or whatever takes your fancy, just assign "categories" of the food you prefer. Then when you're planning, you're saying to yourself, right, I've got my roast and my other meat dish, that means I need to find a pasta dish, a fish dish, a vegetarian dish etc. Just makes it a bit less overwhelming!

rachbc

i check the cupboards and frozen whoopsies first, then look online for offers, the make a plan and shop for what I need. If I find whopsies that don't fit the plan I stash them for anther time or tweek the the plan

Norman_Bean

I plan by writing a list of what I have in cupboards and freezer and using that.
There aren't many good deals here in France so I stick to my plan and buy stuff as I need it.
I bulk buy from butcher every four months (€80) and buy about five chickens when they are on special offer and freeze them. We have rubber chicken a lot
HTH a bit and good luck
Norman x

maman

It is a bit of a chicken and egg situation:rotfl:

You need to start from what you've got in.

I do a weekly plan from what's in my cupboards/freezer.

If there's not enough there for a week's meals plus buying fresh(although I often use frozen) veg/milk/bread then look for special offers/whoopsies as you go.

If you can afford it, buy enough offers/whoopsies to gradually build up your strorecupboard then over time you will have enough to do a week's meals from the freezer.

Try to keep a stock of all the staples like rice, pasta, noodles, tomatoes, herbs&spices.

From batch cooking and rubber chickens etc you can add meals to your freezer stock. For example if you've got bolognese sauce in the freezer you could have spaghetti, lasagne, cottage pie for one meal over three weeks or chicken strips frozen would give you the base for a stir fry etc etc

HTH

conradmum

ChocClare wrote: »

It's difficult to know where to start sometimes, isn't it? How about you say to yourself, I will do three meals a week (or two, or however many, up to you) based around stuff I've got in the freezer or the storecupboard. Then I will see what's on special offer at Mr T's (which you can do online) and build the rest of my week around that?

Or you could say, I will have a roast on Sunday, another meat-based dish Monday, leftover roast-based dish Tuesday, vegetarian Wednesday, completely out of the storecupboard on Thursday, fish on Friday, pasta on Saturday. Or whatever takes your fancy, just assign "categories" of the food you prefer. Then when you're planning, you're saying to yourself, right, I've got my roast and my other meat dish, that means I need to find a pasta dish, a fish dish, a vegetarian dish etc. Just makes it a bit less overwhelming!

Thanks for this. I think this is a really good idea as a starting point for a beginner. It'll help me to structure everything a bit and ensure some variety (rather than having fish and chips every night because I found some fish on special offer).

It seems that most people start with using up what they already have, which is the cheapest of all because it's already paid for. I suppose at the top of this list are things that are going to get past their best before dates.

Then if you need more the next thing to do is to look for things going cheap and plan other meals from those.

Then finally buy the things that you really must have even if they're full price, although obviously buying wisely with these too.

Have I got it? :A

ChocClare

That sounds like a plan!

I got a book out of the library a while back which promised a new way of meal planning - sadly, I really couldn't get excited about the recipes in it, but the ideas were pretty good.

As I remember, you bought one big thing - a chicken, a joint of gammon - the kind of things which are often on offer - and used that as the basis of several meals (like a rubber chicken). You then had something very cheap one day - split pea burgers or something, you know, where split peas cost 50p for 500g and that'll feed your family . Another day you plan something EASY - those are for the evenings where your kids have got swimming or you know you're going to be late. And at least one day a week, WITHOUT FAIL, you make double portions of something and freeze half. After a few weeks, your easy day can then be something homemade out of the freezer, so even cheaper. (If you make a huge batch of bolognese sauce and bulk it out with lentils or tvp then you can usually divide it into 3 and put two portions in the freezer.)

Anyway, I think that was the sort of thing. I found it quite helpful, particularly on days when I have a whole load of "ingredients" but find that I only apparently know about three recipes and don't have the essential components of two of them...