Do you plan your meals? Need advice!

alidadas

I'm trying to sort out our monthly budget. We always end up brassic in the week leading up to payday and I hate it - especially as we had to borrow money off my Mum this week when our car wouldn't start.

If we budgeted properly we probably wouldn't have to do this.

We're setting up a savings account to save for things like car maintenance, birthdays, xmas etc.

HOwever, the one place I KNOW we can cut back on is grocery shopping. My husband does most of the shopping at the moment as I'm 9 months pregnant (5 days overdue now) and I just cant cope going round the shop with him as he takes so long.

But, YIPPEE - Tesco have now started delivering in our area so I can go back to doing it online.

I thought I'd plan our meals to reduce on the amount of crap we get - however I find that often we'll plan what we want to eat then by the time we get round to cooking it, we're normally so tired after putting our toddler to bed (we normally eat once he's gone up) that we dont fancy what we planned. Or my H has pigged out on crap during the day so doesn't want it anymore.

I was just wondering what I could do to avoid this really - I dont want to plan meals, buy the stuff in and then have it go to waste because my H doesn't fancy it.

Also what sort of meals do you "plan" - I cant really think of anything, obviously the cheaper the better!

Also, does meat tend to be cheaper at a butcher rather than a supermarket. We have a butcher at the end of our road who we have used occasionally but its generally just easier if we buy meat whilst doing our shop!

I'd be grateful for any advice on this as we really do spend far to much money when shopping!

sammiboo

anything that can be frozen is good

Chilli can carne can be cheap, ive mentioned before that kidney beans and chopped tinned tomatos can be bought for only a few pence.

Curry is good to make and freeze, casserole, stews. What kinda things do you tend to eat

alidadas

We generally eat things like fish fingers, burgers etc with waffles or whatever - just easy, quick stuff, takes 15 minutes to cook and always in the freezer.

However I really dont like meals like this which is another reason I thought I'd plan our meals so that we're eating a lot healthier and cheaper.

The only thing I can think of is spag bol and cottage pie. I dont really like chilli, but could give curry a go - have never made one before that wasn't microwavable! lol

Also we both really like our meat - we have pork chops quite a lot!

Mrs_A.

hiya,
menu planning and shopping according to the menu plan is the only way to go head on over to the old style board where you will pick up huge amounts of tips etc to make this process a whole lot easier.
and good luck with the forthcomming birth
regards
mrs a

Firehorse

Use the slow cooker. Prepped in the morning, no cooking later in the day when tired. Also good for bulk cooking, freezing/utilising spare for other meals.

whatatwit

This week's menu plans are starting to be posted on the Old Style board.

If you have a slow cooker, then use that and freeze some for another meal.

If your plan is on the fridge, then you know what needs to be taken from the freezer in the morning/night before. That way, if tea is planned then, you are more likely to eat it.

sproggi

If you check out the OS (Old Style) board, there are a lot of fantastic ideas on there, people post their own meal plans and I find that there are always meals on there that I would never have thought of.

With regards to the butchers, I find that the meat is a much better quality and therefore do not need to use so much to fill us up.
Another thing you could try is to club together with friend/family and place a bulk order, I do this with my mother and sister and the butcher always knocks loads off of the price.

Maybe you should go with OH to the shops, it might encourage little one to make an appearance and if you happen to start in the shop, you may find that you get some freebes:D

Sproggi

sammiboo

Curry is a good one to do and so is cottage pie, lasagne is good to freeze too.

sausage casserole is easy to make and freeze. We use the colmans packets a lot for things like honey chicken. Just chicken breasts covered in this sauce leave to oven for an hour or so and just add some pasta to it. its really nice

dawnybabes

We have a 4 year old and I make lots of casseroles/stew type things - brown some meat - chicken breast chopped up, stewing steak, mince etc and pop it in a casserole dish add tom puree and whatever veg left in house (normally leeks, carrots, onions, potatoes, swede, celery) a stock cube some herbs, water and sling it in the slow cooker (or a normal oven on 130-140) Leave it all day - you'll be able to smell it so might stop the "not hungry" situation.

I serve it with mash, rice, pasta or dumplings and there is always some left over to freeze/have the next day.

Quick to make in the morning and as its cooked all day is lovely and tender, filling & cheap ! Also helps get some more veg into the little ones ....

Dawn

Mrs_Sparkle

Hi Alidadas, we "speak" on Hitched BT as well!

My favourite is to have a roast chicken on a Sunday then do something (stir-fry, curry or something) with the leftover meat on Monday. Then on Tuesday we have soup made from stock from boiling the carcass and any remaining scraps of meat. That's almost half your week's meals for the price of one large chicken.

I also plan things like spag bol as they're cheap to do and always include a "treat" day- pizzas or something- for hubby's benefit so he doesn't get too fed up.

charl8888

Hi Alidadas
If you use Tesco online grocery shopping and select thir 'recipes' option while shopping they have a massive range of recipes, and it you find one you want to try you can select the ingredients with a couple of clicks, print out the recipe and there you go! I tried the Kedgeree and it was simple but really nice (and cheap, it uses kippers which were 71p!)