Payday

ageandjo

Right It's payday tomorrow and this month I have no outgoings at all:T

I want to save loads this month as I have some backpay due too about £650 ontop of my salary and expenses.
I want to make a meal planner for the whole month and stick to it. How much should I say for shopping for two adults for a month, dog's food cost me £30 per month so I will include that too.
I am stuck for meal ideas I have on a list the usual what we eat i;e curry, casserole, chilli con carne, roast, jacket spuds, shepards pie, now I am stuck

Pink.

Hi ageandjo,

If you look in the Mega Index thread, under Shopping, there are lots of threads that should help you work out your budget. Good luck.

Pink

tawnyowls

Enchiladas, corned beef hash, lasagne (meat or veg), moussaka, Chinese food (stir-fry, beef in oyster sauce, sweet & sour chicken, lemon chicken), pies (chicken & leek, steak & ale, veg), HM pizza or quiche, stroganoff.

If you've got any relatives who read Woman's Way or Family Circle, they're usually really good for recipes for cheap food - I always get them off my MIL and save the recipes in a box file.

moggins

If you just stock up on some basics too then you should never be stuck for a meal. Shop for mince, chicken, some stewing beef, sausages and you'll be able to make a meal from practically anything in the cupboard.

cathybird

hi there ageandjo, if you look up the recipe website https://www.recipesource.com, it allows you to enter an ingredient you've got or plan to buy (I just tried it with kidney beans) in the search facility and it will bring up loads of recipes (for kidney beans it produced 27). I've always found it really useful, both for coming up with meal ideas and for using up ingredients I've already got. if you know what basic ingredients you usually buy each month you could search under those to work out meal ideas. Or you could look up variants on the recipe ideas you've already had - if you like jacket spuds for example you could look up "potatoes" and it will give you bucketloads of recipes. obviously you might need or want to adjust the recipes slightly to make a budget version (though a lot of them are quite basic), but that's usually not hard though if you're used to cooking

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

I usually spend between £100-£120 a month for me and Mr LMLOD and the week before payday, I sit down and write a month's worth of meals down and a shopping list. I don't stick to the planner rigidly and freeze absolutely everything e.g. mushrooms, peppers, leftover mash, bread etc. I do a 'big shop' straight after payday and spend around £70, this includes toilet roll, washing powder etc. I then use the rest of the money to do weekly top up shops for milk, bread, veg etc. This tends to work well for us, a bit of time at the start of your month saves loads throughout the rest of the month. We both work quite long hours some days so it's proved a godsend to know the house is well stocked.

We usually tend to have the same sorts of meals each month, more salad in the summer and more 'warming' foods in the winter. In an average month we'll have things like:

* Lasagne/Chilli/Spag Bol
* Pasta Bake
* Toad in the hole/sausage & mash
* Fajitas, chicken curry, roast chicken
* Cheese & potato pie
* Salmon/Tuna & new potatoes
* Baked potatoes & beans/cheese/chilli/spag bol
* Fish/sausage/fishfingers/pizza & chips

I freeze all leftovers and use them to top baked potatoes or provide a ready meal for me or OH when the other one is out/working late.

HTH

tootles_2

If you look at some of my previous posts you will see that we manage for a month on £100 for the two of us including meat and fruit. I buy shoulder of lamb for sunday plus two weekday meals. 2 chicken currently at £4.50 for 2 @ Tesco, they do 3 dinners each and two pork chops. That takes care of Sunday suppers and dinner for at least 2 days in the week. 1lb mince does 2 -3 meals for bol sauce, mince and dough balls and shepherds pie. 8 links of really good sausage a couple of gammon slices. pigs liver and maybe stewing steak which will make at 2 meals. two salmon fillets do two meals, I pick really thick ones and fish for at least 3 dinners. I buy bags of bread flour, butter etc as well. aong with stuff I have in my store cupboard do very well...... the key is to do a menu list and shop according to this you do not have to stick rigidly to this, you can swap things round to suit yourselves.

If you have say too much mince for a meal, you can add some chilli and beans to it and use it as a filling for a jacket spud for lunch. I usually buy a pound of bacon too this will do for brekkie or sandwiches, blt are lovely.........

I go to the market once a fortnight for fruit and the veg we might need although right now we have stuff from the garden.

Today for supper we had shoulder of lamb, which will give us enough meat for two more dinners and stock for scotch broth.....roast spuds, apricot and walnut stuffing, homegrown roast spuds carrots, calebrese, green beans, apple and blackberry crumble and cream and I am stuffed!!!!!! OH has just bought me a coffee....................

Penny-Pincher!!

Hey Hun

I would go for basic meals:

Shepards Pie (pad out with beans-delish and freeze a couple?)
Roasts and use leftover meats for pies and curries
Curries-freeze some portions
Toad In Hole
Spag bol
Stew-freeze portions
Meat and Potatoe pie
Cornbeef Pie
Egg & Chips
Chilli and rice
Omelettes
Cheese and Onion pie
Bubble and squeak
Sausage and mash
Savoury pancakes
Fish Pie
Pasta dishes

I would say £100-£120 easily.

Good Luck

PP
xx

cathybird

hi ageandjo, curious to know how you went with the meal plan after all that...

ageandjo

I have so many dinners listed in my 'book' now:j

I have not been shopping yet been too busy to, I have made chicken muck muck for tonights dinner I added some peppers and a tin of mushooms so that's tonight sorted, I will shop tomorrow and let you know what I spend:T

cathybird

wot is "chicken muck muck", just out of interest?.....!