Updated October Shopping, Whoopsies & Meal Planning For £100 Per Month For 3&Visitors

MissOrganised1972

I like to think I am working along the same lines as you but frequently get sidetracked! Especially by buying bottles of wine! So, today I have made a meal planner for the next 2 & a half weeks with only spending £40. We are then on holiday for 2 weeks & will return and hope to aim for £120 per month for me, husband & 2 kids (7 & 5). This has to include toiletries & household items! I too am hoping that by writing it down I am more likely to stick to it! I do have store cupboard items, a few tins & a bit of food in the freezer, including leftovers & a bunch of food I had to cook up when DDs switched freezer off!! I will write up the meal plan tomorrow as off to bed now!

MissOrganised1972

So, having said I have a bunch of stuff in the freezer, cupboard etc, I must point out I did a £35 shop on Friday!

Missus Aka - Hope you don't think I am hijacking your thread. Just needed to have mine written out for others to see which will hopefully keep me on track.

Meal planner

Mon 8 (husband away) - Kids-fish fingers, Tesco potato letters & baked beans. Me-Mozzarella & salad
Tues 9 - HM Leek & potato soup & HM bread
Wed 10 - Pizza (using a Tesco Value pizza base)- will top with salami, pineapple, mushrooms, cheese & tomatoes & salad
Thurs 11 - Gammon (already cooked in freezer), eggs & hm potato wedges
Fri 12 - Spaghetti Bolognese (already batch baked in freezer)
Sat 13 - Vegetarian chilli & fromage frais
Sun 14 - Sausage & bean hotpot with vegetables
Mon 15 - Refried beans in wraps with fromage frais
Tues 16 - Chickpea, tomato & spinach curry
Wed 17 (husband away) - White Spaghetti (a throw together spaghetti dish which my children named & claim as they're favourite meal)!
Thurs 18 - Spanish Rice
Fri 19 - Turkey burgers
Sat 20 - Meat free Enchiladas
Sun 21 - Roast chicken dinner
Mon 22 - Chicken quesadillas (with yesterday's left over chicken)
Tues 23 - off on our hols!!:j

Missus_Aka

Sallyhat by all means hijack away we are all here to help each other and its interesting to see what dinners other people eat....good luck with your target

I have such a bad headache today, i think its due to all the stress of whats happening around here.....im quite local to all the rioting and looting. Its so sad watching where i grew up being destroyed but its also made more determined to leave for my sons sake.

I need to go shopping as i need to get a few bits in, have to make sure i get there before all the looting and vandalism starts again

Need to get:
Pitta Bread
Sliced Bread
Soft Drinks
Tuna
Kerrygold butter
Salam
Toilet Roll
Cheese
Weatabix/Crunchy Nut
Tartare Sauce

Will update with meal planner for the week when i get back

Missus_Aka

Ok shopping done, had to do it quickly though as police & shops looked like they were preparing for a riot there so my spends are:

Value tesco bread £0.47 (not great for sandwiches, but we dont eat sandwiches here but fine toasted or to make toasties)
Value cheese £2.80
Tartare sauce £0.40
Weetabix 24's £1.50
Salam £3.29
Kerrygold butter £1.00
Pitta Bread £1.00
Tango 2l x2 £1.58

Total £12.04

Grand Total £66.34

Didnt need tuna as i found some buried in the back of the cupboard

Meal Planner Starting 08/08/11

Monday:
Breakfast: Toasties
Lunch: Chicken Sausages in Pitta Bread
Dinner: Leftover Spinach Boreks

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Tuna & Sweetcorn In pitta bread
Lunch: Chicken Nuggets & Homemade wedges
Dinner: Tavuk Saute (small pieces of chicken cooked with turkish green peppers, onions, tomatoes and mushrooms) with rice

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Sliced Salam, Turkish Green Peppers, Cucumber, Philadelphia in Pitta Bread
Lunch: Spaghetti with Mushrooms & Sauce
Dinner: Brown Rice & Salad

Thursday:
Breakfast: Toasties
Lunch: Baked Potato with Cheese & Sweetcorn
Dinner: Fish Cakes with some kind of salad

Friday:
Breakfast: Fried Egg & Salam
Lunch: Spaghetti with sweetcorn
Dinner: Green Beans & Beef with rice & Salad

Saturday:
Breakfast: Toasties
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognaise

Sunday:
Breakfast: Toasties
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Homemade wedges, chicken nuggets, fish fingers

69chick

Missus Aka, sorry to hear you are near to all the rioting problems, I live in Middlesex so not nearby but not that far, It's just awful what's happening, I really hope it stops very soon

Well done on your planning so far and good luck with the rest of the month, am reading along to get tips as really need to be getting my spends down and so hard with 3 littluns..

Sallhyhat, would love to know what the 'white spagetti' consists of!

MissOrganised1972

Missus Aka - yes, sorry to hear that you are close to the troubles. It must be rather unnerving, especially with young children. Stay safe.

69 chick - white spaghetti!!! I just cook up some dried spaghetti, & then when it is cooked, I drain it & then mix in a good tablespoon of pesto, a good splosh of Elmlea or cream, a handful of cooked prawns & what ever green vegetable I have to hand, chopped up (usually sugar snap peas or broccoli). I warm it for a minute or 2. I serve it to the kids like that & then add a ton of black pepper & some chilli flakes for me. Husband will eat it but not overly bothered by it.

Feel free to ask me for any other recipes, I like to cook as much as possible from scratch & am trying new recipes all the time! We're just eating some home made leek & potato soup with home made brown bread! It must be a success because this is the 1 st time I've managed to get the kids to eat AND enjoy soup!!

Have bought a few groceries today. Am pleased with my whoopsies (I have never really used this word before, I am assuming it means reduced items????)! Will detail later my purchases later but am expecting visitors at the moment!

Missus_Aka

Thanks for your concerns, am worried about tomorrow as i have to work 10-7 not too thrilled as im not looking forward to going home at that time with whats going on, my store was broken into last night but they only took £2000 worth of stuff & made a bit of a mess, but considering how little they took maybe they will be back tonight.

No more spends for me at the moment, ended up making the spaghetti with salam and mushrooms (like carbonara) for lunch today as i need leftovers to take to work tomorrow....1st time i made it and it was great, that will be a regular dish from now on.

Can i get your recipe for potato and leek soup, i have had the ready made covent garden one and that was great but im not spending £1 for 2 bowls of soup however nice they are

MissOrganised1972

2 tbsp butter or oil, 2 chopped leeks, 1 small onion, 350g/12oz potatoes, 900mls of chicken or veg stock (with 2 stock cubes if no fresh stock available), ground pepper

Heat the butter in a large pan and then add chopped leeks and onion and cook gently until softened. Add the potatoes to the pan (these should be peeled and cubed). Let these cook for about 5 minutes. Add the stock and bring to the boil then reduce the heat. Cover and simmer gently for 30-35 minutes until vegetables are tender. Season to taste. Serve hot with warm bread.

I changed the stock to about 250ml milk/650ml stock. Also, when it was cooked I added 2 tablespoons of Philadelphia & then blended it all because that is how I prefer to eat my soups! It does not appeal to me unblended.

MissOrganised1972

I took a trip to Morrisons yesterday to grab a few things I needed & see if there was any cheap fruit. I spent £6.99 & managed to get:

6 pints of milk £1.99
6 flapjacks 50p
2 bags of 6 apples 38p (yes 19p per bag!!)
1 punnet of 4 nectarines 19p
1 pack of croutons 54p
1 double pack of yeast 28p
Philadelphia £1.09
2 leeks £1.02
1 saver stamp £1

I shouldn't have to go again until the weekend so not too bad. The only thing I don't have is bread and so we may have crackers or salad for lunch today & then I'll make a fresh loaf tonight for tomorrow.

Had a lot of visitors last night (family to stay) and they were all impressed at my forward meal planning & seemed to like the idea. I told them I was budgeting but not how small the budget is. We are lucky enough to live in a big house & so I think there is an assumption that we have a stash in the bank, not that we are struggling to have enough money each month!! I think some people would be shocked at how bad it has got with recent salary cuts etc! That makes me all the more intent on feeding my family well without succumbing to cheap, processed rubbish!

Sorry to ramble on! I've never written on a forum before. It's like writing in a diary!!!

Missus_Aka

Thanks for the recipe will try that next month, great savings with your whoopsies, may go to asda after work tomorrow and see what i can find......have completely cleared the fridge and wiped it down and thrown out all out of date food so now i can see exactly what i have.

Ended up making tavuk saute with salad last night instead and made it will bulgur wheat as i didnt realise i didnt have any turkish rice in the house, but even oh liked it better like that

So fishcakes tonight as oh is going to mark duggans send off (the guy that got shot in tottenham by police), regardless of what everyone though of him its sad that his kids dont have a father anymore, little sister is here tonight so i have a packet of ready mix cupcakes for the kids to make, just found out i will be having her monday morning to thursday as mum & stepdad are going for a spa break.......and am now feeling like an unpaid on call babysitter, it feels strange seeing as i have only left ds with anyone overnight about 8 times since he was born and i think only twice has been so oh and i can do something the rest were when i was really ill (pneumonia, swine flu etc) so i think that brings it up to about 13 days this month i will have my sister.

But anyway, no shopping has been done since my last update so my target is looking achievable as long as i dont get a day when im really craving chinese and i give in, next month i may try to make my own chinese and see how that turns out.

Have to remeber how exactly i make my fishcakes i havent done it for a year so the result will be interesting, but ok off to make baked potatoes before i get too hungry