Meal planning for one - do you bother?

bassitt74

i plan my meals for 6 week periods. this means that i can change the meals to accommodate the seasons i.e summer salads and winter casseroles and still get enough variety. i can also buy seasonal veg meaning its much cheaper.

like many of you i also cook in batches then freeze. long day, rush hour crawl, then an 6-8 min zap in the microwave and i'm done. you can get those plastic takeaway style tubs from the pound shop now. some things freeze better than others of course, but i can pre-prepare about 75% of my meals in this way.

this goes for lunches too. obviously you can't freeze salad, but i have pre-made sandwiches for 2-3 weeks worth of lunches then stored them in individual sandwich bags in the freezer. take them out in the morning and they've thawed out by lunch. being on my own i sometimes only need a few slices of cheese or cooked sliced meats, but buying in bulk and making pre-made lunches means i save time and money. i divide up my bread too, putting 4 slices into a self seal sandwich bag and freezing.

whenever its time to do a bulk buy for the freezer re-stock, i tend to use mysupermarket.com. 95% is from their basics range and i know exactly what i have selected and how much it will cost. then you have a choice to have it home delivered or you can print of the shopping list and take it with you. i absolutely love this website because if there are savings it will tell you, you can even change your basket for lower fat options and it compares the overall price of your basket with the other major supermarkets to see which is cheaper that week. just a shame that Asda, Lidl and Aldi aren't on it.

another website i use a lot is lovefoodhatewaste.com If you have spare ingredients in your fridge or cupboards, you can type them in and it will list recipes that use up most of those ingredients. i do this a couple of times a month and can usually get another 4-6 meals to add to the freezer.

hope all this helps

Irish_Bowzy

I actually think its quite difficult to go out and shop for a meal for 1 if its off the cuff, things like chicken fillets, mince etc so I find that I have to meal plan or else I end up way overeating

Quasar

I do a sort of general planning, in that I do a weekly shop of all the stuff I like to eat as long as it's healthy - fish, milk (I buy a pint daily for freshness), wholegrain bread, some wholewheat pasta, fruit, vegs and so on - then every day I use these to cook meals, while of course also buying things at the last moment, for instance if I see some nice ripe nectarines and things like that.

But I could never plan each meal a week ahead just for myself. Besides, with my irregular work schedule I often have to take just a sandwich and a piece of fruit with me.

missychrissy

I would find meal planning in advance expensive. I like to buy whatever is on offer even if it's on it's sell by date. I cook in bulk especially using my slow cooker and freeze all the extra portions for future meals and for taking to work.

I only do a supermarket shop about once a month and it costs me approx £40 to £50 including cleaning products. I eat really well and use lots of pulses to plump up slow cooker casseroles. Proper porridge for breakfast and home baked bread help the budget.

I could not give up the flexibility of choosing what I fancy eating against that which I had pre decided.

Kirri

missychrissy wrote: »

I would find meal planning in advance expensive. I like to buy whatever is on offer even if it's on it's sell by date. I cook in bulk especially using my slow cooker and freeze all the extra portions for future meals and for taking to work.

I only do a supermarket shop about once a month and it costs me approx £40 to £50 including cleaning products. I eat really well and use lots of pulses to plump up slow cooker casseroles. Proper porridge for breakfast and home baked bread help the budget.

I could not give up the flexibility of choosing what I fancy eating against that which I had pre decided.

Do you still shop inbetween that for fresh things, ie milk/veg or do you strictly go just once a month?

If so, an insipring amount, though not sure I could be fit just a once a month shop into how I eat yet!