Need a cheap but nutritious 4 month meal plan

happytails

For my family (2 adults (1 6m pregnant), 3.5 year old and 18m old).

Needs to be cheap and easy to stick to! Quick to prepare or bung in slow cooker etc. The kids can be fussy though.

We have our own chickens and ducks so eggs are readily available (we get up to 7 a day), we make our own chips but could do with doing this on a big scale and freezing. We cannot do without cheese or bacon lol we will be buying in apples and bananas and occasionally grapes fruit wise and the kids get value fromage frais after breakfast, sooo throw your ideas at me

We usually spend £300 a month, this needs to be as low as possible, if we can half it or less I'll be very happy

Sarah x

flutterbyuk25

Have a look here

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

x

Pink.

Hi Happytails,

I think you'll be very lucky to find anyone who will have the time to do a four month meal for you....I have enough difficulty planning for my family on a weekly basis when I know them and their tastes. You have said that the children can be fussy perhaps you could give us some idea of their likes/dislikes and what you normally eat?

Meal planning is a good way of managing your grocery spending. It takes a bit of getting used to but once you do it's a great way to save money by making sure you don't buy unnecessary things. Perhaps try it for one week to see how you get on by making a list of what you have at home and trying to build your meals around that. To get some help with mealplanning have a look in The Complete Menu Plans Collection.

If I was you, I'd break it down into more manageable chunks than four months. Eg this week plan meals around what you already have in the fridge, freezer and cupboards. Next week you will probably have to buy more but if you make a plan around your main meals, then make a shopping list and stick to it, it should help you to cut back.

For lots of tips and ideas on cutting back your grocery bill have a look at Martin's article on Supermarket Shopping and we also have a board where grocery offers are posted regularly: Food Shopping & Groceries . The Discount Codes 'n Vouchers board also has vouchers and codes that should help if you shop online.

For cheaper meal ideas have a look here: Cheap recipe threads

It might be worth your while joining in with the July 2012 Grocery Challenge thread. You can set a reduced amount that you feel comfortable with and if you manage that then try to reduce it a little the following month. In that thread, everyone sets themselves a personal grocery budget and try to encourage and support each other throughout the month to stick to their own budget. What you include in your budget is entirely up to you.

I'm sorry to have given you so many links but if you take the time to read through them it should help you to cut back. Good luck with reducing your bill.

Pink

happytails

Thanks pink, we already do a weekly meal plan but we find it hard to think of alternatives as husband gets bored easily. I'm just after a few staple meal ideas and i can make my own long term meal plan, it's 4 months cause I'm aiming to save £1k a month for 4 months to pay off my car finance before baby arrives so I can buy a bigger car. So really need to have everything in order down to the penny in these coming months.

Examples, the kids like cottage pie, meatball stew, tomato soup (hm/bought) with cheese sandwiches, omlette/scrambled/poached/boiled eggs, hm Chips, jackets with various fillings, pizzas, sausage and mash, corned beef hash, youngest likes casseroles/stews - older one needs bribing , pasta and various sauce is good, especially cheese and bacon. They both like baked beans, peas, carrot, broccoli, sweetcorn. Other veg is hit and miss. Ooh fresh cucumber and dip is a good snack. Just got into mild chilli con carne.

They and husband have weetabix in the morning. I either have cornflakes or superfine porridge (can't stand weetabix-husband isn't keen on porridge lol)

Hope that's useful? X
Is thst any use?

kerrypn

Egg and Bacon pie
cheese and onion pie
HM chicken soup from carcass of roast
Cottage pie
Tuna pasta bake
Risotto
Gammon and bubble and squeak
Pea and ham soup made from rest of gammon above
Carrot and coriander soup
Bolognaise
Chilli
Chicken curry from remnants of roast
Jacket spuds cheese beans and salad

These are probably my cheapest meals

tigerfeet2006

Also have a look at the recipe collection at the beginning of the Grocery Challange thread.

Check out https://www.approvedfood.co.uk for some bargains on food as well.

mummybearx

I would suggest, if it's possible, to get to sm or markets last thing at night, see what veg you can get for really cheap. And then make soup from it

A few weeks ago I got 2 huge bags of carrots for like 9p each, plus some tubs of cream for 11p, I made a big batch of carrot and coriander soup (coriander from the garden). Didn't actually have any to freeze as we lived on it for 6 days But you might be lucky and have some to freeze lol

flippin36

I'm trying to get my debts right down and groceries are the area that you can save loads if you have time and a bit of imagination (I don't know if fussy works with what we do though as we eat what we can get reduced and cheap so we have to be quite flexible with our meal plan)

Tuna is a fantastic cheap source of protein (Tuna pasta bake, tuna pasta sweet corn, fish pie made with tuna, tuna salad) Homebargains was recently doing tuna chunka 3 for £1.30, Aldi apparently do them at a similar price.

Mince is versitile and can be bulked out with anything that needs using up. (Chilli - using baked beans and kidney beans to bulk out, shepherds pie using veggies to bulk, spagbol mix with value spaghetti and a grating of cheese to fill up)

Smoked bacon is cheap and tasty (quiche, bacon cheese pasta dish)

Porridge oats for breakfast is probably about as nutritious and cheap as you can get.

The best way to get the most of your grocery budget is to go to the supermarket after 7 and find reductions on veg, fruit, yoghurts, milk, cheese, bread, sandwhich meat. All can be frozen - even the yoghurt if its low fat. I know its not easy when you have kids but it can save loads.

Boodle

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

Have a look here

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

x

I would just like to second this. You won't find a more frugal and nutritious 4-week meal plan like this with all the work done for you

Hmm_2

I've been following a series on budgeting and meal planning, which includes weekly organic meal plans for £160. Not sure how many that is for, but could be useful reading?

This is the start of the budgeting series:
http://savelivelove.com/budget-series-our-grocery-budget/

This is one of the weekly meal plans:
http://savelivelove.com/this-weeks-eats-090712/

happytails

flippin36 wrote: »

The best way to get the most of your grocery budget is to go to the supermarket after 7 and find reductions on veg, fruit, yoghurts, milk, cheese, bread, sandwhich meat. All can be frozen - even the yoghurt if its low fat. I know its not easy when you have kids but it can save loads.

Sounds good but kids are in bed at 7 and most nights husband works late might try the veg shop at 4.30 though, closes at 5 x