Help please with meal planning and what to buy on the CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!

sweettirana

Hi All - apologies in advance for a long post!!

I have just had a baby this year and am on maternity pay. Added to that we have just bought a house and the flat that I own we are selling at a loss :eek: so we need to really tighten our belts where we can!

I like to think that I am quite a good MSE-r however there is room for improvement! I'd be really grateful if somebody could point in the direction of making a meal plan and what things to buy???

Here are some things about me that may help!

• There are 2 adults in the house, one who works so takes a packed lunch and a 6 month old weaning baby.

• My OH currently takes a sandwich to work with him (value bread, cheap cheese and value ham), a packet of value crisps (he can't resist a "treat" so this is where he gets it!), a value range cereal bar and a small amount of porridge in case he gets the mid afternoon munchies!

• In the morning we eat value Weetabix/Cornflakes/Porridge with UHT milk.

• For my lunch I eat a Jacket Potato (currently about 70p for 4 in Tesco) with a smidge of butter and a bit of grated cheese.

• If I cook a spag bol or anything similar OH takes some of that to work with him instead of a sandwich and if there is enough I normally have what is left for my lunch the next day.

• Baby is weaning at the moment and to my shame it is all on shop bought goodies - although, I was giving LOADS of vouchers that got lots of money off things and my Mum bought her quite a lot of food so we could get an idea of what she likes - fortunately she eats everything!

• We never eat fruit, which is a shame as I don't mind most fruit (except bananas) but it always seems to expensive to buy.

• We hardly eat vegetables either, which I really need to start upping my intake of, for my own sake and for Little Miss's sake!

• I'm not a very good cook unfortunately - I have no idea how to make pastry or anything like that and I don't know what what terms like "reduce" mean - but once I'm explained it, I soon learn!

• I was brought up by Dad, who bless his heart, had a tough manual job and was disabled, so dinners consisted of "something" and chips slung in the oven, so I've never really known what to do with vegetables or even how to cook them or even what half of them look or taste like! (No excuse I know, I'm old enough and ugly enough to have tried to have learnt by now!)

• I don't mind vegetables when they are in soups or stews, but I hate things like just eating carrots on a plate!

• I have absolutely no problem with buying value range items, however I do find that with some items like mince that if you buy the really really cheap stuff it mainly consists of fat and you lose a lot of it, so I normally buy the next range up - unless someone can tell me if I'm doing something wrong??!

• Its very rare that we can get to the supermarket late at night for bargains, as once OH has finished his 11 hour day and we have put baby to bed he is exhausted (and the only driver in the house!)

My basic plan at the moment is as follows:

• Breaskfast: Weetabix/Cornflakes/Porridge - am happy with this as it is!
• Lunch: Hopefully leftovers from the night before!
• Dinners:
• Chilli
• Spag bol
• Toad in the Hole
• Pasta Tuna Bake
• Cottage Pie
• Dessert (once a week treat): Rice Pudding with a bit of jam
• Snacks/Other: A fruit salad (maybe from apples/oranges/grapes and some juice?) and a value range yoghurt (plus crisps for OH who can't bear to go without!)

As you can see the dinner menu isn't very inspiring - I would love to have some more ideas of things to cook that are cheap but healthy-ish. I have no idea how to cook soup and would love to know what to do with lentils!

I also have no idea about what to make for the baby! I have looked on websites and have some ideas of putting some veg together and some fruit together for her but I don't know how to puree something and aside from that have no other ideas


Sorry for such a loooooooooong post and I know I am asking for a lot, but I just have absolutely no idea where to start and would love to hit the supermarket with a definitive list rather than just buying whatever frozen ready meals are on offer Things are really really tight at the moment and this will help us out no end

Thank you guys!

sweettirana

Just wanted to say that I don't know why there is a thumbs down on the title of the thread, how it got there or how to remove it - it wasn't intentional!:)

lbr102

Right - I'm going to give this some proper thought. I love trying to eat as cheaply as possible and love meal planning as well (that's really sad isn't it) so I'll have a think and post what will probably be quite a long post.

Is there antyhing you and DP don't like eating?

sweettirana

lbr102 wrote: »

Right - I'm going to give this some proper thought. I love trying to eat as cheaply as possible and love meal planning as well (that's really sad isn't it) so I'll have a think and post what will probably be quite a long post.

Is there antyhing you and DP don't like eating?

Thank you sooooo much! And no it's not sad.... I'm an accountant and I still spend my spare time compiling budget comparison spreadsheets! :rotfl:That's sad!

We don't like veg "as it is" (like just chopped heated carrots) but will eat it in things - stews, soups, pies etc and we both hate bananas! Neither of us like (don't know what the proper term is for it) things like livers and kidneys (offal??) Apart from that we eat almost everything!

Thank you again! :j

kezlou

okay what kind of food do you all like to eat?
do you like pasta, rice, mash?
veg wise could eat carrots if its in a sauce, pastie, pie or soup?

i know its sounds silly but its worth thinking about.

fruit wise - i buy a value bag of apples or satsumas. I then put use in our pack lunches or just chop them and put on a plate like a snack.
BUT look at the prices of the loose fruit and see if its cheaper to pick your own, instead of grabbing a bag.

• I'm not a very good cook unfortunately - I have no idea how to make pastry or anything like that and I don't know what what terms like "reduce" mean - but once I'm explained it, I soon learn! the grocery has some instructions on how to make pastry. Its basically 50% fat i.e margarine to 50% plain flour
  then cold water mixed in.

Looking at yours dinners there is quite a variation you can do with the basic meal plan you already have.

• Dinners:
• Chilli - instead of just adding rice to it, roll up in wrap and add some salad on the inside. You never you might it and it looks more appetising than just dumped on your plate. Even have it with a jacket potatoes or potato wedges.
• Spag bol - instead of spag bol use the same tomato sauce to make lasagne. just make up a white sauce to go with and we all find it fills us up more so than spag bol. Very easy to warm up to.
• Toad in the Hole
• Pasta Tuna Bake - instead tuna you could add ham, sardines basically anything goe with pasta.
• Cottage Pie
• Dessert (once a week treat): Rice Pudding with a bit of jam, how about jelly and custard? Make a change, or have a go at making a cake or crumble?
• Snacks/Other: A fruit salad (maybe from apples/oranges/grapes and some juice?) and a value range yoghurt (plus crisps for OH who can't bear to go without!)

I have no idea how to cook soup and would love to know what to do with lentils! - basic idea with lentils, is literally just pouring them into the pan as the same time as say for example the tomatoes if in spag bol then adding more water to the pan then boiling it down (i.e reducing) till the lentil, mince etc are cooked.

"I don't know how to puree something and aside from that have no other ideas ". i would just feed her the same as what you would you would eat. Because she 6 month's old she might be to eat bits of chill, but add some yoghurt to it if its spicy. Puree is just very mashed up food.


I'll have another think, just i have to check my delivery. I have a good think for you.

sweettirana

kezlou wrote: »

okay what kind of food do you all like to eat?
do you like pasta, rice, mash?
veg wise could eat carrots if its in a sauce, pastie, pie or soup?

i know its sounds silly but its worth thinking about.

fruit wise - i buy a value bag of apples or satsumas.]


Hiya kezlou!

Yep love pasta, rice and mash (could explain why I'm overweight! ) and will definitely eat veg in a soup or something else.... just don't know how to make any of these things :mad:

For fruit I might try to get down to Lidl or something - the Tesco near us doesn't seem to stock the value fruit. I've ordered it from the website (when I have had free delivery codes of course!) and it always turns up out of stock (although sometimes have had a better replacement at no extra cost! :T)

lbr102

My first suggestion is buy a whole chicken. Recently I have been buying a whole chicken, cooking it on a sunday and the left over meat has lasted for an evening meal on the Monday and Tuesday, plus sarnies for OH both days for lunch.

On the Sunday I serve it with some roast potatoes (I like to peel them, chop them, par boil them and then put them in a roasting tray with a little salt and pepper and cook for about 50 minutes in the oven) and also some carrots and parsnips (for these I peel and chop them up into slices and put them on a roasting tray. If I have some honey I drizzle a little bit over as it makes them more interesting).

On the Monday and Tuesday I will use the left over chicken to do one of the following recipes:

Chicken curry - chop up peppers, onion and garlic and fry in the frying pan. I then add a tin of chopped tomatoes, some chilli powder (or chopped up fresh chillis if I have them in), some turmeric powder and whatever other spices I have in the house. I add the chicken and then cook for about 40 minutes and serve with rice. Cost:

Chicken pasta - chop up whatever vegetables I have, chuck them in a frying pan, add a tin of chopped tomatoes and some chilli powder, add the chicken, boil up some pasta. I then serve with a bit of cheese on top. If I was some variety I will add in a small pot of cream as well to make the tomato sauce more creamy.

Chicken fajitas - chop up peppers, mushroom, onions, e.t.c... and fry in a pan. Add the chicken, add a tin of tomatoes, add some paprika. Serve in a fajita wrap.

Chicken Enchilladas. Same as the fajitas only I add grated cheese to the sauce, lie the wraps on a baking tray and pop them in the oven for two minutes. The wraps curl slightly at the edges. I take them out, add the mixture to the wrap, pop it back the oven with the left over sauce and grated cheese on top and cook for about 15-20 mins.

All of these are pretty cheap. You can get a basic/value chicken for about £2.50 although we are quite fussy about our chicken and I feel you get a bit more meat/bit less fat if you pay a bit more. Tesco do two chickens for £7 at the moment and from Sainsburys I have just got their freedom foods chicken for £4.20 today.

So if you get three evening meals and two lots of sarnies out of a Tesco chicken that works out as less than a £1 a meal.

For the sarnies I put the chicken in BBQ sauce which was lovely! Otherwise I just do it on its own in the bread. We have a rosemary plant in our garden so I cook the chicken with that and some garlic which gives it a lovely flavour.

Tinned tomatoes - I always get the basic/value ones as I can't notice the difference and these cost about 35p each so are a real bargain.

Vegetables - try to compare the price/KG as I find that sometimes buying the veg lose is cheaper where as for other things it can be cheaper in a pack. For example, 4 baking potatoes in Sainsburys at the moment are 99p.

For things like the curry you can bulk them out with lentils which I love. That also works for things like chilli con carne too.

I'll have a bit more of a think as well and get back to you.

anguk

Have a look at our very own Weezl's website "Cheap Family recipes", it's all about feeding a family of 4 for £100 a month. There's menu plans and easy simple to follow recipes with all the costing and nutritional information:
http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

lbr102

Haha - I'm the same with budget comparison spreadsheets. I find it really rewarding spending as little money as possible! lol.

I was also going to suggest for snacks for your OH's lunch that you make some homemade muffins. They are quite easy to make (I can post you a recipe if you want) and work out quite cheap. I found some blackberries yesterday when I was out (they still tasted nice) so I picked them and am going to make some muffins with those today. I have also bought some lemons to make some lemon muffins.

With the veg, in things like pasta sauces and curries it disguises the flavour a bit so will hopefully make it more appealing to you. Also I find the honey with the carrots and parsnips is a great trick. My OH hates vegetables although I love them and he eats them like this!

Also do you have a slow cooker or can you afford to buy one this month (sorry assuming everyone is broke at the moment as I am - lol)? I love mine - they are so easy and are great for stews and things. I got mine for about £15. I would imagine that it would make life easy with your daughter as well.

I really suggest shopping around as well if you can although admittedly not too easy if you are going with your OH - mine wouldn't walk round 3 or 4 supermarkets where as I would quite happily!

lbr102

Sorry - I'm getting carried away now! lol! Another cheap recipe I do is a sausage casserole. I usually use my old favourite - a tin of tomatoes (for a change!) but last week didn't have any and it turned out so nice.

I browned the sausages in a pan and took them out to cool off. I then chopped garlic and onions up and fried them lightly before chopping up about 8 large tomatoes and adding them in. I added some rosemary as well to flavour, put the lid on the pot and left it for a bit. I then chopped the sausages into slices and added them, put a little bit of red wine in and left it with the lid on for a while to cook. It turned out lovely and I'm going to do it again thay way in future. I used Rileys sausages which were 99p and then the veg was about £1 total as well so it was relatively cheap.

spendingmad

I made my baby food in bulk! Go shopping and buy veg (carrots/sweet potato/butternut squash/potato/brocolli) peel and chop each veg and cook (in very little water with lid on pan) or steam the veg until soft. Once cooked place the veg into a wire sieve and push through with the back of a spoon (or whizz with handblender if you have one). Freeze the veg in ice cube trays once frozen pop out and put in zip lock style bag n freezer. Start by giving her just carrot etc then progress to combinations like carrot and sweet potato etc. Do the same with with fruit apple/pear etc. Much cheaper and healthier than jars!