Meal plan for a full month

madvixen

Does anyone do a meal plan for the whole month? I really want to drop my grocery spend this month (and empty the freezer!) but I'm not sure if I have the willpower to stick to a meal plan for a whole month.

If you do a full month one, how easy do you find it to stick to it?

alec_eiffel

I menu plan for the month most months. It's fairly easy to stick to because I am quite flexible within the plan, if that doesn't sound too much of a contradiction.

I don't buy too many ingredients that would only be used for one meal, for example, so if something comes up and we don't have a particular meal one day then none of the ingredients will go to waste. I also add a "use it up" meal like fried rice, risotto, pie etc. once a week, so any bits and bobs are used up.

flipper_72

Most months I plan for the whole month ahead, this month I am doing it weekly as the schedule has changed and I need to get used to it. I have to say doing a plan for the month seems way less time consuming than weekly. I have been meal planning now for around 8 years and if i don't fancy something I have planned on that day I swap it for something else I have the ingredients for later in the plan, for this reason I plan a mix of fresh and frozen based meals each week.

joedenise

I also plan for a month at a time. It's not set in stone and is fairly flexible as I try to base as much as possible on food I already have in the freezer/cupboards.

Also there are times when there are more leftovers than anticipated so they go into the freezer (if there's space!) otherwise need to be used up within a couple of days so something else on the plan gets crossed off.

I still shop a couple of times a week for fresh stuff, particularly fruit which doesn't seem to last more than a few days at a time before becoming inedible so I'd rather buy less more often, IYKWIM.

Denise

dingdongsaving

I'm trying this for the 1st time this month to shave costs too! We've been weekly planning since last November and I love knowing we're organised and don't waste food anymore.

I'm almost finished with my October plan using things from the bottom of the chest freezer!

Food until Sunday is coming from our current stash. Then we'll be adding the fresh ingredients once or twice a week so that nothing gets wilted or wasted.

Big_Graeme

For longer than a week have a list of meals you can make out of what you have and use that as your guide, sometimes working out what you eat when for a whole month can put you off meal planning.

IndigoGirl

Sometimes a do a month (if I'm trying to blitz the freezer ready for Christmas for example) but mostly, we do it fortnightly. It's very easy to stick to - if we don't fancy something one night, we switch with another nor tweak ut (spag bol becomes chilli and rice).

An easy way to do it is plan weekly then when you have about 6-8 weeks done, make up a month. You've already done all the work.

CH27

I tend to plan for a month in autumn/winter as I base my meals around the sunday joints.

I buy big joints of beef, chicken, lamb & pork & then use them for sunday dinner then for stews, curries, pies etc through the week.

Soworried

dingdongsaving wrote: »

I'm trying this for the 1st time this month to shave costs too! We've been weekly planning since last November and I love knowing we're organised and don't waste food anymore.

I'm almost finished with my October plan using things from the bottom of the chest freezer!

Food until Sunday is coming from our current stash. Then we'll be adding the fresh ingredients once or twice a week so that nothing gets wilted or wasted.

I'm trying it this month for the 1st time as well I'm only up to day 9 so far but I want it planned for 28 days from Friday gone.

I don't know how it will pan out but we'll see.
Is there a monthly meal plan thread we can post them on?

joedenise

Soworried wrote: »

I'm trying it this month for the 1st time as well I'm only up to day 9 so far but I want it planned for 28 days from Friday gone.

I don't know how it will pan out but we'll see.
Is there a monthly meal plan thread we can post them on?

I just used to post weekly from my plan on the weekly meal plan thread. I've just started again as I haven't posted for some time!

Denise

newthrift

I need to start meal planning again and sometimes the weekly plan takes so long to faff with I have considered sitting and doing a monthly plan. Even with my weekly one I was flexible - if we didn't fancy something I just swopped it out - as like others I tend to have meals that don't require one particular ingredient and I have the stuff in.
If I know that we are going to be eating out I don't plan anything in either and then if we don't end up going I always have something in the freezer/fridge/cupboard. As I type this, I think I am going to sit and do my meal plan actually