Shopping, meals and other tips!

Becles

After the other menu planning/shopping list thread predictably ended in the usual arguments then closure, I thought I'd start a thread asking what works for you? Maybe we can all pick up tips from each other.

Personally I never do meal plans. I enjoy food, and prefer cooking what I or another family member fancies that day. I would hate to be stuck eating a meal I didn't fancy, just because it said so on my plan.

I also never do a weekly shop, and just buy a few days food at a time. You have to be disciplined to do this - if you just pop in for a couple of items, you must only pay for those items and not a basket full of other goodies! I get milk delivered direct from a local dairy.

We usually have cereals or toast for breakfast. I make HM bread for the toast and sandwiches at lunchtime. Sometimes I have salad. I cook for 2 adults and 2 children.

I didn't need to buy cereals or cooked meats for sandwiches today, as I stocked up on special offers on Friday, and I didn't need bread flour as I prefer Sainsburys own brand and stock up when I'm in there. I have some salad bits left from the last shop, but needed a lettuce.

Been to Tesco today and bought:

5kg value potatoes £1.33
2kg value carrots £0.89
Savoy cabbage £0.50
Mushrooms £0.77
Lettuce £0.71

Large pork shoulder joint reduced to £3.85
This will do as a roast for Sunday lunch (it's in freezer now!) with veg from above and Yorkshires from store cupboard ingredients.

Will have enough meat leftover for a sweet and sour one day next week, using rice, tinned pineapple and staples for sauce from store cupboard.

800g beef steak mince £2.29
Value cheese £2.00

Will use this to make a lasagne. From store cupboard: tinned toms, white sauce ingredients and a packet of lasagne sheets (other half of a BOGOF last time I made it). The quantities here will stretch to 2 meals for 4, so I'll freeze half for another day.

2 packs of bacon on BOGOF £2.69
Single cream 0.50
Eggs £0.92

Will freeze one pack of bacon for another day. Will use rest to make carbonara with pasta from stock cupboard. Already got some garlic baguettes (from a previous BOGOF) in the freezer to go with it.

12 Cumberland Sausages £1.99

I already ate a couple tonight as husband brought some liver in and I can't stand liver! Will make toad in the hole, with batter ingredients from stock cupboard and veg from above.

2 x 500g mature cheddar cheese (BOGOF) £3.06
Just to keep in fridge as an alternative to cooked meats for sandwiches.

2 x paracetamol (husbands wisdom tooth growing and hurting!) £0.32
Tesco roll-on deodorant (mine is nearly empty) £0.58
Tesco Fabric Softener (like the smell!) £1.25
Mint Imperials (for the car!) £0.64

Total = £24.29 which is making 6 main meals, plus some other odds and ends.

Lydia.42

Just a quick tip for now, as i was reminded by one of the other threads today:

Add dried soya mince to mince lamb/beef dishes. It's really cheap, and if you add it dry to the pot when cooking, it soaks up the liquid/sauce and takes on the flavour. It's hard to tell the difference and blends in with the meat. We use it all the time for bulking up meals. Cheap and makes loads for freezing without affect the flavour. Also healthy too.

Ajax18

Lydia.42 wrote:

Just a quick tip for now, as i was reminded by one of the other threads today:

Add dried soya mince to mince lamb/beef dishes. It's really cheap, and if you add it dry to the pot when cooking, it soaks up the liquid/sauce and takes on the flavour. It's hard to tell the difference and blends in with the meat. We use it all the time for bulking up meals. Cheap and makes loads for freezing without affect the flavour. Also healthy too.

Hi Lydia,

where do you buy your soya mince from? We are vegetarian and usually buy quorn, but the cheapest I could find was 2 for 3 pounds at iceland, which I thought was quite expensive...

lofty_cherrytree

Another tip to bulk out mince dishes is to finely dice an aubergine, which at this time of year is cheap in the market. It too soaks up the juices and takes on the flavour of the dish.

Rad

I get dried soya mince from Asda. I've not bought it for a while but I think it was about 70p for a packet that fed 3. It was in a strange place, I think next to instant mashed potatoes but if you ask a shop assistant they should beable to point you in the right direction.

Also Farmfoods do an own brand frozen veggi mince that is 99p a packet that tastes quite nice.

wanna-be-mortgage-free_2

Hi Becles, thanks for a great post.

I do meal planning on a Friday evening for the following week but there are days I don't stick to it if I feel like something else but it doesn't put my bill up for that week as the freezer is full of hm meals - so plenty of choice.

I admire your restraint going to the supermarket every few days, my bill would be £30 every other day if I did that :rotfl:

Your ideas are great, I like the carbonara one, would you share the receipe and is there a low fat version?

Thanks

wbmf

jayarr_2

i like the idea of meal planning, but i get the not wanting to have something on the planned day..so, what i do is..
i write up a list of possible meals for the week, i always keep in certain basics, so if i've got mince i'd list chilli/lasagne as a possible for 1 or even 2 days, then another day i'd list 2 possible chicken meals that i have all the ingredients for..and as the week goes on, i tick off the ones ive done..means i can see what i've got available but not feel extremely tied down..
hope that makes sense

gentlepurr

hi becles, great thread!

like you, i dont menu plan, but i do shop once a week.

i am also disciplined about how much money we have to LIVE ON, not just shop with, and draw £50 every friday. £8.65 of this goes in school meals, and another £10 on ds's saxophone lesson. the balance of 30 odd pounds is any sort of shopping, not just groceries, and going out, which i must admit i dont do alot. i keep a spiral notepad in the kitchen, and i wite down EVERY penny i spend, every day, so i cann see where the cash is going.

obviously, things like new clothes & shoes for ds dont always come from this money, although i do often drop on things while i am out and about that the £50 does stand the cost of, for eg, this week i got a pair of next cargo trousers from the pdsa shop for £3.45, which came out of the £50, but other than that, school uniform for eg, will be comming out of the family allowance, which i keep in a seperate a/c and only use for things for son.

when i grocery shop, i tend to buy whatever is cheap, reduced/on offer, as ds and i will eat most things. cook alot from scratch, and use coupons in tesco's, when i get the right till assistant.

i have been full of good intentions of posting up my list of what i have spent the £50 a week on, and will get round to it at some point, its just a bit manic here atm with the school hols!

interesting to read about the soya mince, may try that, but have to say i do very often pick up packs of reduced mince, then freeze it for when i want it, so not sure if i would buy it, although it is a useful storage cupboard addition!

xx

brokenwings

Because of my job I have to menu plan for a month at a time and shop at the start of the month for all non perishables for the month ahead . But i make my weekly menu plan flexible.

Ie

Yesterday i did my main shop for the month. It came to £65 and includes the months meat and store cupboard basics such as baking items tea coffee and sugar.

My next weeks menu plan includes:
bubble and squeak and sausages, steak and chips, lamb chops cabbage and potatoes, steak and kidney pie and veggies, ham salad and new potatoes, sardines on toast, cod in parsley sauce with mash and peas. If i dont fanbcy what I have written on my planner for a particular day i just swap it with another days meal.

So as i said i do a major shop using up about half my budget during the first week of the month - each other week ill pop into tescos and just get things like milk and fruit/veg.

My budget each month for petrol, groceries, toiletries and cleaning goods is £220 and i manage to acheive this by making use of bogofs if theyre something i use all the time anyway eg cheese, bacon etc, special offers ( i am not brand loyal at all and am happy to use tescos own ) and if its getting tight towards the end of the month i just change my meal planner and do a mini store cupboard challenge to use up whats left.

I make all my own bread, cakes and puddings, cook from scratch and am lucky enough to have a garden which produces home grown tomatoes, onions , beans, leeks, peas, broad beans, potatoes as well as hens and ducks for eggs.

black-saturn

Just wanted to ask Becles why she predicted my thread was going to end in an argument and I would also like to add that I was the one who asked for it to be closed, it was not the board guides decision.

Spendless

I live in a large market town, with a market 3 times a week, including an enclosed part with many butchers stalls. I buy all our meat there. I regularly buy 3 joints for £10 usually beef, pork and lamb. The lamb is usally NZ so we have that the following day as a roast dinner. On 1 or 2 occassions though we have had British lamb. The pork is always massive and can do at least 2 meals and sometimes DH lunchtime sandwiches as well.

My downfall and what I'm not so good at is buying my fruit and veg, making pack up for DH and meal planning. I need to be more organised and I'm hoping with DD going to school nursery 5 sessions a week in Sept that I'm going to get the time and chance to be