menu planning and shopping and.. losing hope!

newlywed

I just get a pack of bean sprouts, chuck in some shredded carrots and pepper, sugar snaps or something from the reduced counter and some other veg, add what ever prawns/meat I have and then some soy sauce or something!

Guess I should do a proper one but I use this as my quick meal - sometimes put it into wraps to make it more filling.

Oh and yes I had to threaten OH not to eat all the rest of the chicken as I wanted it to make another meal!! I have to hide any cake leftover in the freezer too.

chardonnay_2

arghh just typed a message then it disappeaed.

suggestions to use up freezer contents

quesilladas - using tortilla pancakes/ leftovers/ veg
sausage casserole
quiche /chips/ carrots.

won't save you in the long run but might make more room for bulk cooking/ bargains etc.


as you like cooking from scratch have you ever tried making your own fish fingers?

totally understand re the pizza. we sometimes get the create your own pizzas from asda because we like it and can't buy the toppings we like cheap enough.

thing we are doing is buying pizza bases when we see them reduced and top them with leftovers such as chilli/ spag bog/ or spicy chicken etc.

meant to say think your meal plans sounds lovely

LJM

off hand i can think a couple cheapy buys for us we use morrisons betterbuy mince 75p a bag and its good,milks from iceland £1 for 4pts,fishfingers 17p morrisons and stardrops 79p morrisons( my only cleaning bought product now apart from bleach)it does pay to shop around i know it would probs look sad but take a few mins online and round the shops to compare best prices,i trudge around 2-3 shops to get the best value and that prob saves me at least £20 a fortnite

exlibris

I note that you are buying a pack of 3 pizzas and an extra one for 4 meals. Is there a reason why you don't buy 2 packs of 3 and get 6 meals @£1 per pizza?

Peem

what about a night a week of something really simple

scrambled eggs on toast

beans on toast

that kind of thing - I find that this really helps. You don't always have to have a full "recipe".

Also - you say you don't eat lunch. you should. You probably would eat the less at dinner if you had a midday meal/snack. Just a banana, piece of toast, boiled egg, yogurt... would really help your blood sugar and stop moods and appetites being so extreme at the end of the day.

Go for a storecupboard challenge. I found this made me realise how much stuff I already had. And how much I was feeding the storecupboard every week.

(BTW I understand the "being told off feeling" even though you've asked for the help. Honest - I could learn a thing or two or five from you. All we're offering is a different perspective.)

whatatwit

Peem wrote:

what about a night a week of something really simple

scrambled eggs on toast

beans on toast

that kind of thing - I find that this really helps. You don't always have to have a full "recipe".

If I fed this to my husband, He'd say very nice starter, what's for the main course. :rotfl:

AussieLass

whatatwit wrote:

If I fed this to my husband, He'd say very nice starter, what's for the main course. :rotfl:

Mine would too. He calls them happy meals.
When he use to work away I would include them in my menu plan as it was just the kids and me. It was wonderful.

I think your on the right track Keth. Great suggestions btw from everyone. I would also include a few vegetarian meals too. They keep the costs down and are very healthy.

kethry

Thanks for the other replies.. to respond to different people:

exlibris wrote:

I note that you are buying a pack of 3 pizzas and an extra one for 4 meals. Is there a reason why you don't buy 2 packs of 3 and get 6 meals @£1 per pizza?

exlibris: yes... i shop fortnightly, and that 1.85 difference means i can spend on something else, plus, if i have 6 pizzas then pizza is no longer special to saturday nights, plus its not terribly healthy for us (i know i know, how can i say that with all those puds on the list!!) I have been trying to lose weight, using the GI Diet, so i try as much as possible to stick to it, even with having to keep the finances as low as possible. This is only because of christmas coming up - after christmas i shall be back on the GI diet and the puddings will be replaced with fruit.

LJM, i already do shop around - as much as possible, anyways, hence why i get different things from 3 different shops - and i will shop in Wilkos and Iceland as well if necessary. my only objection to shopping around is when the supermarket is too far away: morrisons, home foods, sainsburys etc. are all too far for me to go, i don't have a car, so its all on public transport or taxis, and when you consider that it cost me £5.50 to get home tonight (from Asda) via taxi... it mounts up. No point saving 1p if you're spending £1 to get there and back! So i have to bear that in mind too.

newlywed wrote:

I just get a pack of bean sprouts, chuck in some shredded carrots and pepper, sugar snaps or something from the reduced counter and some other veg, add what ever prawns/meat I have and then some soy sauce or something!

have you tried this? (it works for both egg fried rice and fried noodles/veg btw). stir fry your rice/veg/noodles as you would normally do, or what you've described above. Have a clean empty jam jar ready and in it put 1tsp clear honey, 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce, 1/2 tsp chinese five spice, pepper, 1 tsp oyster sauce (if you can get it) and 1/2 tsp veg oil. You can do it the night before if necessary, it'll keep fine in the fridge. Anyway, before you dish up, shake the jar thoroughly to combine the ingredients (cos they'll seperate into layers, if left), then quickly pour over your stir fry and stir vigorously to coat the veg/rice/noodles. If you have a bit more liquid than you'd like, or its a bit runny, put a tsp or two of cornflour into half a mug of COLD water, stir to get it all mixed up then put into the rice/noodles/veg, and it will make your sauce thick. If you want it thicker still, repeat. Then dish up and enjoy!

chardonnay: thank you!! i admit i broke the meal plan tonight, but in a good way - we ate up left over chilli and rice from the fridge instead. I was thinking of doing a tortilla pie with the tortillas, but that will be for next time. The fish pie is to use up the fish that's in there, and some things have been in there so long i really should throw them out, as they'll either be all yeuch or tasteless. I haven't tried making my own fish fingers, but i have to say, OH adores fish, i know i need to eat more of it, but i'm funny with the bones, hence why he gets fish pie and i get fish fingers! I was gonna say that's something to try once the finances ease up a little after christmas, but then i'll be back on the GI diet so i won't be eating fried food anyway.. LOL. Thanks for the suggestions anyway!

peem: yup OH has that attitude as well. I keep trying to think of ways to bulk out a meal like that without it being a proper meal. E.g. chips with an omlette. However, the meal plan allows for far too many chips/wedges this fortnight as it is, so nope, not this time. but future ones, i will. As for why we don't do lunch, this is mostly due to our waking and sleeping hours. We don't work (me cos i'm not allowed to, him cos he's out of work) and we're both night owls, so our waking hours tend to be midday to 3-4am. because of that, if we had lunch, and then our main meal we'd be eating a main meal at around midnight. So what we do is to have (a fairly substantial) breakfast somewhere around 2pm, main meal at around 7pm, and a pudding around 10-11pm. that seems to work for us - and it means i'm not eating a pudding too late (according to my body clock anyway) so i don't put it all on in weight (its working, i'm losing about a pound a week atm even with all those puddings!).

Aussielass: funny you should say about the veggie meals.. LOL. my best friend (Lightisfading on here) is vegetarian and she's always tapping my shoulder for veggie recipes. i used to do a couple veggie recipes a week (the pasta dish i was going to do tonight is veggie, for example) but sadly, with pulling our belts in i've had to cut the more expensive vegetables out - things like courgettes and aubergines, which is a pity, because both OH and i love them. I'd love to be able to grow them - i know Lightisfading had great succes with a courgette plant last summer - but our garden isn't secure enough, the local yobs come in and trash the place. :mad: :mad: :mad:

anyway, if you're itching to know how i got on at asda.. LOL.. well, both good and bad. bad first: taxi driver nearly drove off without me (and with my shopping!) it was a minicab, the kind that has the phone in the store, and i loaded my shopping in the boot, had a bag on my shoulder and he said put that on the backseat so i did, then closed the door and turned to put the trolley back, push it away from the taxi rank and as i turned back the taxi was disappearing! I shouted (rather rude swear words i'm afraid) and ran after him, he stopped and i flung open the passenger door and asked him what the bleep he thought he was doing. his excuse was "i thought you were in the car". yeah, right, matey. Then he tried to take the long route home. To cap it all off, his license wasn't visible within the cab (which its supposed to be, by law), so it all made me very uncomfortable, i was glad to get home. Told OH and he's decided tomorrow that he's going to complain to both the taxi firm and the local council about that driver.

On the plus side... i got a multipack of 12 tins of dog food for 3.72... and the girl must have put them through the checkout wrong because when i got home and was looking at the receipt, she'd only charged me 35p for them! so i was pretty happy about that one! there were a few things on the list i couldn't get (they were out of smartprice butter), a few things i realised i needed (like mayo) that weren't on the list and i realised as i passed them.. but all in all i spent £36.91 in there. My best deal (deliberate deal that is) is the chicken thighs - their boxes have 10-12 thighs in them, for £1.90, but they were offering 2 boxes for £3. so i got 2 boxes, divided the thighs up into seperate bags, and chucked most of them in the freezer - that's us sorted for 4 weeks, and i saved 80p!

tomorrow i'm off to tescos and friday is aldi so.. hopefully this will continue!

thanks everyone!!!

keth
xx

BarmyCow

Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere but do you have a canning factory anywhere near you ? I know they don't tend to advertise but it is possible that friendly B&B's might be able to point you in the general direction of their suppliers. Our can factory has a small shop attached which is open to the public and we can get tins of soup at 10p each, fruit at @15p each and big 5kg bags of pasta for £1.50. I also tend to hit the market pie stalls as they have some fantastic bargains, especially at the moment where 20 large sausage rolls are £1 !:D

Good luck with the meal planning - you are much more organised than I am and I hope this helps.

newlywed

kethry wrote:

have you tried this? (it works for both egg fried rice and fried noodles/veg btw). stir fry your rice/veg/noodles as you would normally do, or what you've described above. Have a clean empty jam jar ready and in it put 1tsp clear honey, 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce, 1/2 tsp chinese five spice, pepper, 1 tsp oyster sauce (if you can get it) and 1/2 tsp veg oil. You can do it the night before if necessary, it'll keep fine in the fridge. Anyway, before you dish up, shake the jar thoroughly to combine the ingredients (cos they'll seperate into layers, if left), then quickly pour over your stir fry and stir vigorously to coat the veg/rice/noodles. If you have a bit more liquid than you'd like, or its a bit runny, put a tsp or two of cornflour into half a mug of COLD water, stir to get it all mixed up then put into the rice/noodles/veg, and it will make your sauce thick. If you want it thicker still, repeat. Then dish up and enjoy!

Thanks.... I'll give that one a try it sounds good!