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StressedSteph

dawnybabes wrote: »

Can you not make (or stretch) each means between now and when you got away to an extra portion and freeze that for their meals whilst you're away ?

Good idea Dawn, I will try to make double of a few of their favourite meals between now and the 16th, so hopefully it isn't much hassle to get their food sorted.


Just spent most of the afternoon, going through our big larder unit, cleaning and sorting it all out.


I have a decent amount of staples - rice, pasta, flour etc.


Was abit of an eye opener how many half used packs I had. I had four half used packs of Paella rice . and the same with pasta , rice and flour.


Nice to know now so I can save myself the money buying more.


Going to sit down now with a coffee and plan out the food for the rest of the month, using as much of my staples as possible.


xxx

Magsnoodle

Hi Steph,

I always have half a bag of staples somewhere - sometimes it is the one cupboard that I don't look in and the realise one of the meals for the week needs rice or pasta etc so I end up buying it anyway.... DOH!!!! Good to have a clear out.

When I am back at uni we try to cook extra on each meal that we have so that I have something solid and warm to take with me each night. Means I end up not having to spend money on food when there.

Good luck with the week ahead. Oh and kids don't get any better with losing stuff - I have made madam rebuy things if she has lost them. They tend to last longer

TTFN xxx

StressedSteph

Gosh, I am a very slow meal planner. Only managed to work out three meals so far. Think it will be good to get the whole of next week done, think I might be here till Christmas trying to do the whole of October in one sitting.:o

To be fair I have been interrupted ALOT. Kids, husband and visitors all making me stop and start most of today.

Going to head into Lidl first thing tomorrow morning. Will have to look see what time it opens on a Sunday?.

Going to go with my list and my calculator to work it out as I go around. My budget is £60 but hoping for more near £50 to make the change from Mr T worthwhile. Will be an interesting experiment, especially to see if I can get everything in one shop. If I have to drive round to another supermarket to finish my shop it will be far too annoying and time wasting. Have mooched round Lidl alot in the past and I am hopeful I can do it. I don't care about brand names and we don't buy stuff thats super fancy.

Will post again after my shop tomorrow to report back xxx

maddiemay

Might it help for the full October meal plan, if at this stage you just do an outline for each week, based roughly on the information you have gleaned from your larder and freezer audit? Something along the lines of 1 roast dinner, 1 or 2 roast leftovers meal (shepherds/cottage pie, curry, stir fry etc), 1 casserole/slow cooker meal, 1 HM pizza and wedges/salad type thing etc. etc. and flesh out the bones (so to speak) at the end of the preceding week, at this stage you can be more specific and write shopping list. If your diary shows that you have some hectic days you can then see what can be prepared ahead, or choose something instant that can be cooked straight from the freezer, or by defrosting a HM ready meal.

There are just 2 of us and OH is pretty easy to feed, but I get very tired sometimes so I like to know approximately what we will be eating, but not too tied to specific days if I have a bad day or we have a particularly hectic one.

I love the OS thread, need to spend a bit of time over there now that the season seems to be changing, it is nice to find something new, or be reminded of something that I have not cooked for ages.
MM
xx

Buffythedebtslayer

I have bullied my Mum in to meal planning, mainly because we argue MASSIVELY over how much food she wastes and she spends a ridiculous amount of money on food - 80 quid this, there is only two of us!


So whilst it hasn't lowered the shopping bill, we do have fewer rows. Essentially we have a sort of rota of the following,


Shepherds pie, meat pie, pizza, pasta, jacket potato, Mum's cooking, " a meat dish(steak, liver or chops" and fish chips (which I get on the way home from work), veg soup, stew, Korma from a jar,


Weekend is normally sandwiches or a ready meal so Mum doesn't spend the entire time in the kitchen. And of course bacon sandwiches.....


I write it out on the computer!! sad I know and work out a shopping list.


XX

dawnybabes

StressedSteph wrote: »

Good idea Dawn, I will try to make double of a few of their favourite meals between now and the 16th, so hopefully it isn't much hassle to get their food sorted.


Just spent most of the afternoon, going through our big larder unit, cleaning and sorting it all out.


I have a decent amount of staples - rice, pasta, flour etc.


Was abit of an eye opener how many half used packs I had. I had four half used packs of Paella rice . and the same with pasta , rice and flour.


Nice to know now so I can save myself the money buying more.


Going to sit down now with a coffee and plan out the food for the rest of the month, using as much of my staples as possible.


xxx

Hmm - I went through my pantry a fee months ago. - 20 tins of chopped tomatoes :eek::eek::eek:

misstara

Hi Steph, hope all goes well with your Lidl shop tomorrow. I tend to use Aldi rather than Lidl but you should be able to find everything you need (the only thing lacking in the Aldi I use is a proper bakery section). It definitely makes a huge difference to the finances though

lhead123

StressedSteph wrote: »

Gosh, I am a very slow meal planner. Only managed to work out three meals so far. Think it will be good to get the whole of next week done, think I might be here till Christmas trying to do the whole of October in one sitting.:o

To be fair I have been interrupted ALOT. Kids, husband and visitors all making me stop and start most of today.

Going to head into Lidl first thing tomorrow morning. Will have to look see what time it opens on a Sunday?.

Going to go with my list and my calculator to work it out as I go around. My budget is £60 but hoping for more near £50 to make the change from Mr T worthwhile. Will be an interesting experiment, especially to see if I can get everything in one shop. If I have to drive round to another supermarket to finish my shop it will be far too annoying and time wasting. Have mooched round Lidl alot in the past and I am hopeful I can do it. I don't care about brand names and we don't buy stuff thats super fancy.

Will post again after my shop tomorrow to report back xxx

I find with Lidl that if I go in with a meal plan I can never find everything I want. However if I go in with knowledge of what I have in the cupboards at home and how many meals I need to buy for, I end up thinking of meals there and then in the shop and don't need to go anywhere else. The same applies to Aldi

StressedSteph

Afternoon all,


Well experiment is over and calculated.

While I was in BIG town, I put my weekly budget of £30 fuel in the car. Quite a big difference in fuel costs. In my little village the Diesel is 134.9, and in T3sco's in the BIG town it is 129.9.
That will hopefully slightly offset the 20 mile round journey to Lidl.

I went round Lidl and carefully chose the cheapest of everything I needed, I have bought the cheapy cereal and weird sounding coffee etc.

Overall not a bad experience. Nice small shop so didn't feel overwhelmed like I do in the huge superstores.

I did buy a large tub of liquid detergent that I don't really need, but seemed an absolute bargain at £1.79 for 48 washes :eek:.

I managed to get everything I needed after abit of wandering around. the only thing missing was Cinnamon sticks, but I can live without those.

Ok so my total came to £57.79. within budget even though I splashed out and bought 4 cartons of Orange juice. I can't normally afford it, but we love it at breakfast so as I was well within budget I splashed out.

I came home and inputted my shopping list into the T3sco website, selecting the items as close to the quantity and quality as I possibly could.

I was so shocked how virtually everything was more expensive in T3sco. The odd thing was the same price such as Kiwi's and cucumber.

My equivalent shop in T3sco today would have cost me £81.30. Waaaay over budget.

I saved myself £23.51. Maybe take off the £3.51 ish for fuel (I have no clue how much it costs me to drive 20 miles??).

I have saved myself around £20.

I think I will do that every Monday morning from now on. Get my cheap fuel and my Lidl shop.

Hopefully the cereals work out ok as they were a big saving.
I bought Branston baked beans which cost me £1.89. but I did buy 1 tin of their cheapy beans which would cost me £1 for 4. I thought I would taste 1 tin first just to check its ok. Because if no one will eat them then they are no bargain.

I think that was a success. The coffee tastes ok so that's one thing sorted.

xxx

maddiemay

Hi Steph, pleased that it was a good experience, it can take a while to sort out what things are OK for your family. If the beans don't work on their own, perhaps try them with some other flavourings (a slurp of tomato ketchup/dash or Worcester sauce and chopped cooked sausage) with some jacket potatoes or chips/wedges; my first ever boyfriend always added a large knob of butter to baked beans before serving and I have done this ever since, yummy. Alternatively (when no one is looking:rotfl:) mash them up and add to a casserole/stew meal, extra source of protein and very filling. You can tell hardly anything is wasted in my house:D
MM
xx