Help with meal planning......

samtoby

I'm just moving to my first home with my family my partner and son.

I'm looking to over pay on our mortgage as much as I can and .....

My plan is to look at saving money food wise. At the moment we spend £50 ish a week which is not too bad I don't think but I think there is room for savings.

Any juicy recipe ideas?

I'm going to make my own jams next summer and also we will have chickens.

Hope you can help us x

Pink.

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.

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 November 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

samtoby

Thank you Pink! X

Fruball

A good way to begin meal planning is to roast a chicken and then stretch it to as many meals as you can...

It's a valuable lesson as you see that you don't need to buy so much for the whole week if you can make the chicken stretch for the first few days of the week:D

Pee

The other menu plans on here can offer inspiration. I find that getting something down, often not on here, usually on a scruffy old envelope at home, really helps me think about it, even though I often then end up changing days around etc.

I start by looking in the fridge and freezer and deciding what needs using up and then work around it from there.

The thread about cheap meals is brilliant for some very cost efficient ideas that sound delicious. I love Toad in the Hole. It is ridiculously cheap and I will incorporate it in my menu plan every other week at least from now on!

rising_from_the_ashes

samtoby wrote: »

I'm just moving to my first home with my family my partner and son.

Slightly OT but *waves* - hi Sam - so glad to see things have panned out for you all:D

Pink's made loads of fab suggestions as usual :T and I'd def recommend the Grocery Challenge.

If you've a couple of hours spare have a look through the recipe list as there are some fab ones which can save loads of money with batch cooking / bulking things out etc.:)

lostinrates

samtoby wrote: »

I'm just moving to my first home with my family my partner and son.

I'm looking to over pay on our mortgage as much as I can and .....

My plan is to look at saving money food wise. At the moment we spend £50 ish a week which is not too bad I don't think but I think there is room for savings.

Any juicy recipe ideas?

I'm going to make my own jams next summer and also we will have chickens.

Hope you can help us x

Meal planning is wonderful, it makes the most of your grocery budget, makes it easier to check you are eating a wide range of foods and brings order to chaos of the kitchen kind.

But...with reference to jam. Home making is nicer result for a high quality product, and is cheaper than the top quality jams for a similar product, but I don't think that it is by any stretch cheaper than the cheapest jams available. I am not saying its not worth doing, just suggesting caution if you main motivation is saving money, not eating very well for less than buying very good products cost.