A question for all you bargain menu planners

valk_scot

Buying whoopsies for the freezer works for me. If I can incorporate them into the current week's menu I will, but otherwise into the freezer. The Plan isn't set in stone.

foxgloves

I wouldn't be able to plan while walking around the supermarket. I've been doing weekly menus for a couple of years now, but have recently changed to doing monthly ones and it sems to be working better. Like zarazara says, you can instantly see at a glance if you've got loads of meat based things, so it's meaning that we're eating a better balance of meat, fish & veggie meals. You can also see where you could roll leftovers over into different meals or what it's worth looking for offers on. So now, we do a big shop at the beginning of the month when the new budget starts and buy everything that we know will keep that we need for the meals that month. Fresh fruit & veg is picked up weekly from the local market which always saves on supermarket prices and we do a quick weekly supermarket trip for fresh stuff like milk, yoghurt, etc. It does seem to be working better than when I just planned for a week at a time. I also use the freezer loads if I make double quantities of anything so some of the monthly meals will be straight from the freezer stash.