Menu Planning Tips (merged)

System

Thanks for sharing your shopping list with us. I love reading what other people buy especially when they are trying to save money.

Magentasue

I'm making flapjacks, still toothrottingly sugary but more nutritious than shop biscuits, I figure. What I noticed on your list is how much is almost nutrient free (biscuits, curry sauce, tinned peaches, ice cream). This isn't really a criticism because you also have fruit, veg, meat, eggs, cheese but just an observation that if you make your own it's possible to sneak in some goodness (oats in biscuits, veg in sauces, milk in ice cream etc). BUT I don't think you can compete cost wise if you compare homemade with supermarket value brands. Maybe I should be on the healthy eating thread!

Lillibet_2

I tend to buy bargins for my freezer/cupboard then menu plan according to whats in there so I can't give you costs I'm afrid but I budget £43 per fortnight for 2 adults, 1 dog & 1 cat if that helps? I buy value tinned & general grocery stuff & fruit & veg that will be peeled but never value meat & better quality fruit & veg which will be eaten with the skin on plus free range organic eggs. I spend about £8 per fortnight on fresh fruit & veg ( I eat lots of fruit, hubby not so much due to stomach condition). I don't buy value cheese as I don't like it but as the big blocks are usually on BOGOF somewhere I usually get 800g for £2.99 per fortnight. Here's my menu plan for the next couple of weeks, some things I will make extra portions of & freeze :

Breakfast Choices :
Porridge topped with bran or banana
Bagles (stocked up when reduced)
Crumpets (stocked up when reduced)
Toast from home made bread
Poached eggs on Toast (weekends)
Home made waffles (weekends)


Lunch Choices :
Sandwiches/fresh home made rolls & cream cheese
Soup made from home made stock
Pasta/rice salad (leftovers)
Home made quiche
Fruit
Carrott sticks
Yoghurt (Husband)
Cereal bars (when on special offer only)

Snacks :
Fruit
Cereal bars/home made flapjacks
Popcorn (occasional evenings only)
Bagles

Drinks :
Value Orange & Apple Juice, diulted with water
Sugar free value lemon squash
Iced water
Tea/Coffee (hubby only)
About 1 bottle wine per week (hubby only as I am pregnant at the mo. Used to buy 1 large wine box per month when we were both drinking it)

Dinner plans, not necessarily in order! :
Mushroom Risiotto made with reduced price mushrooms/value rice/handful frozen sweetcorn & splash of white wine & previously frozen home made stock
Home made (& previously frozen) fishcakes made with tuna/potatos/spring onions/herbs with brocolli/parsnips & garlic bread
Steak & chips with veg
Home made fish pie with fresh cod/potato/handful mixed frozen veg/home made parsley sauce with roasted onions
Sausage casserole made with 6 medium quality sausages/whatever veg needs using up/kidney beans/stock in slo-cooker & cheesey mash
Tuna pasta bake using good quality tuna/value pasta/whatever veg is on hand/sweetcorn sauce topped with cheese
Jacket spuds filled with choice of cheese/tuna/beans/coleslaw/prawns (every tuesday)
Beef burginon (Sp?) made in slow cooker with reduced price joint of beef, onions, mushrooms & whatever else Delias recipe calls for & mash using hollowed out mash from tomorrow nights potato skins
Stuffed potato Skins (cooked at same time as jacket spuds so ready to go) using 2 finely chopped sausasges, mixed veg & sweetcorn sauce topped with cheese
Prawn curry using value prawns/jar Pataks korma sauce bought on BOGOF/2 onions & value rice
Crispy aromatic duck using 2 x 1/3 duck saved from previous ducks/pancakes & hoi-sin sauce/spring onions & cucumber
Roast chicken with roast veg/roast potatoes (all cooked in one hot oven) Chicken salad using leftover chicken/salad/veg & garlic bread
Chicken pasta bake using leftover chicken/value pasta/mixed veg
Pizza using frozen special offer pizzas with added toppings such as peppers/sweetcorn/cheese/tomatos/onions etc with garlic bread

Puddings, not every night but on an ad hoc basis, about 3 times a week :
Cheesecake (packet mix & added fruit)
Angel delight type mouse things (I just can't wean husband off of them!)
Home made rice pudding
Home made pies/crumbles using free fruit picked & frozen in summer/autum

HTH

greenlogo

This is really really interesting - cheers!
I'm just starting proper budgeting , so I'm not sure of all my costs as some of it is freezer finds All my meat comes from the farmer's market, and although some of it sounds expensive (like the orstich and salmon) it's well under a £1 a portion. In fact the cassoulet is about £6.50 for 8 or nine huge portions

Breakfast Choice
Homemade porridge (oats, 3 types of seed, dried fruit and hazlenuts) with skim milk and banana I eat the same every day because it's yummy and you can vary the taste with different fruit

Main Meal Choices
I tend to eat my main meal at lunchtime at work
Beans on Toast (end slices, new bread, yum) with two farmers market sausages
Lunch out (it's cheaper than dinner and we frequently do this on a Sunday rather than a Saturday bevvie session )
HM Spagetti bol
Ostrich and Butternut squash Cassoulet with red rice
Hotsmoked salmon with couscous
Homemade Chicken Kiev and mash
Chicken and Squash casserole

2nd Meal Choices
Baked potato and cheesey beans
Peanut Butter Sandwiches (*2)
Cheese and Tomato on Toast
Soup and Bread
Toast and Bagpuss Spagetti Shapes
cheesy baked potato

Snacks
every day Apple, pear and two clemetines
if I'm hungry
ryvita (the multi seed one) which I like dry
More Apples
Brocolli (I'm aware this might be a bit odd)
Extra Breakfast.

Mads13

Come On Peeps

Mads13
xx

Galtizz

OK Mads, here goes.

Breakfast

Cereal
Fruit juice

Lunch

Me - HM soup
DH - sandwhiches

Main meal choices (all HM)


Spag bol.
Sunday dinner
chicken pasta
chicken cordon ble/ kiev
chicken with sauce
Sausage casserole
Chilli
pies/ bakes (veggie or meat)
giant yorkshire
Meat or mixed veg or leek lasagne
meatballs
fishcakes
quiche
Pizza
Mexican chicken
Stir fry

For planning I start the week on a Sunday and plan a dinner.
Monday - left overs (giant yorkshire, pies, bakes etc.)
Tuesday - experiment (poor DH) (we eat later so I've got more time to try out recipes from the Good Food Mag, 3 for £3, cheaper than my recipe book addiction)
Wednesday - vegetarian night
Thursday - Slow cooker or quick (e.g egg and chips, fishcakes) or frozen meal
Friday - Take away night
Saturday - cheap or frozen meal

I can't give exact costs but I budget for about £35 a fortnight. When I say frozen meal I mean previously frozen left overs, slow cooker meals or experiments and by Take away night I mean we have HM take away type meals i.e pizza, mexican chicken etc.

I shop at Lidl and I find that just by shopping there instead of Asda has saved me loads for example Mads, potatos were on offer at 35p for 2.5kg bag this week (usually 69p) I find the quality (especially of the fruit and veg) is much better than Asda and Tescos as well as being cheaper.

I also bulk buy my chicken portions from a big butchers who does bulk pack offers. I only go about 1 or 2 times a year, (need to go again but freezer is full of left overs and extra portions :rolleyes: this time when I go I am going to look at his joint packs to as we eat those now (instead of Tescos brand X meat with X sauce).

karenjeanadams

Hi there, was going to come on here an post a question about menu planning! Ok, so I want to give it a try, but I'm thoroughly confoosed! Do I sit down and figure out all our meals for the week/month and then do our shopping accordingly? Breakfast and lunch are simple because I'm happy with toast, while baby has weetabix and toddler has whatever I can get him to eat :-S Lunch is always sandwiches, dh takes a pack up and if he's home we usually go on a picnic. So it is our main meal of the evening that I want to make plans for. Help!

Lillibet_2

Hi KJA

I would suggest that if you always have roughly the same things for some meals you don't really need to plan these but obviously you will need to keep an eye on stocks & add them to your shopping list as required.

Main meals are most peoples bug-bears so it is a good idea to plan these, either taking into account what you already have in & planning around this or else what you want to eat but need to buy. It is a good idea to write your shopping list at the same time as you plan your meals so that you can add requirements as you come across them or you're bound to forget something.

HTH?

fazer6

Karen, firstly start with all the food you currently have in the house, I only plan the evening meal although I do cook a sunday roast and use the leftovers in sandwiches or have leftovers from last nights tea.

I think it's easiest if your days are themed, my plan goes along the lines of
Monday - Chicken/turkey
Tuesday - Cheap meat - mince/sausages
Wednesday - Carb day - pasta bake, special fried rice, pasta & sauce, jacket spuds or slow cooker
Thursday - Dairy - omlette, quiche, pizza
Friday - Fish
Saturday - Slow cooker
Sunday - Roast

To make it varied I have a few cheap meals and some proper meat meals each week, that's better than eating well at the start of the month and living off pasta in the last week.

Each week I check what is on offer in Aldi and Netto and plan my meals around that. When I buy food I plan a meal to use it. When I cook double I have the leftovers in 2 weeks time. Doing it this way means you never have anything left at the back of the freezer that's been forgotten so you don't waste money.

Galtizz

Lillibet wrote:

I would suggest that if you always have roughly the same things for some meals you don't really need to plan these but obviously you will need to keep an eye on stocks & add them to your shopping list as required.

You mean like last night, when I'd made the insides for the lasagne and got the box of lasagne sheets out only to find I only had 1 sheet left in the box :mad:

So don't forget to check *in* the boxes too


I do pretty much the same as Lillibet, I sit down on the weekend and write out a list of meals labelled Sun - Sat for 2 weeks (remembering to get your diary out so you don't plan to do a time consuming meal on any nights you are going out). I then check in the cupboards to see what I've got and write out a list for everything I need adding breakfast (we have cereals), lunch (veg to make soup or bread and filling), cleaning stuff (i.e white vinegar and bicarb ) and bathroom stuff.

If something unexpected comes up (on, for example Thursday) I grab something out of the freezer (HM left overs) and we have that instead.
If the ingredients for the meal I had planned to have Thursday are perishable we have it Friday instead but if they aren't I just make a note to have it on the next menu plan I do.

HTH