The worlds worst meal planner!

carlih1

Please help! I have tried and tried sooo many times and i am officially rubbish and i am begging you all for your help, if someone mentions the words meal plan at me i glaze over but my other half has just moved out as we are having problems and i don't have as much in the kitty for food as i did.

There's three of us and we eat fairly simple veg based dishes, like med veg sauce, made into bolognase or just served with couscous and mozzerella. Als things like pasta and sauce and veg baked in oven, shep pie.

Can't think of anything else at the mo, but we eat mostly veg based dishes where i can hide veggies from kids.!!!

So there's me, dd ages 8, and ds aged 4.

What i don't understand is that if i give myself a budget, and actually get to the rate occasion where i have found all that i am going to eat for dinner that week and written it down, when i get in tesco i don't know how much it is going to cost and i put it on my card, along with the other one million things that i have piled into the trolley.

Aren't i awful, i'm really trying to be good, i need to work out how much it will cost before i go there so i can have just that money on me,

How do you guys go about it.

Many thanks

Trying to cut down my £200 spend!

Carli x

danielle24

What I do is sit down on Sunday arvo with my OH and make a list of what we want to eat for dinner each night and the ingredients we need. I try to add a few things like bolognese sauce or chilli or lasagne or risotto or soup that we can make twice as much of easily and freeze for later when we are going to be late home etc. Then we go to Tesco via Quidco and buy everything we need online - this stops us impulse buying as we can see what we've spent so far. We don't buy fruit and veggies online though as we've got a local stall where we can get it all cheaper. We have that list of meals on the fridge and refer to it each night.

tifnstav

I tend to go through the storecupboard with a few ideas then do my meal plans (only roughly though), eg need fish, prawns, eggs etc then I'll do the proper definite plans based on what we're up to that week. for instance if i've got clients due in the next day i wouldn't do a mega garlicky dish.
anyway, after the rough plan is done i check online to get a rough idea of how much the shop is going to cost.
then i stick rigidly to the plan unless i see some non-perishables on offer (like toothpaste and washing up liquid).
we get all our fruit and veg from the market though, its much better and cheaper and doesn't go off as quickly.
we spend about £70 a month on two of us for food, but I have built up a nice stock of herbs and spices to make meals more interesting.
oh and a great tip is to use the BBC food website - put in three ingredients and it gives you a list of recipes using them.

ceridwen

Hi

I dont eat in a particularly conventional way. However, I do have a basic 14 day meal plan to hand, which would probably be good as a base for you to work from, ie:

LUNCHES
1. Soup, egg mayonnaise
2. Lamb casserole, baked potatoes, grated cheese
3. Pate, salad, nice bread
4. Soup, baked eggs
5. Ham salad
6. Hamburgers
7. Omelettes
8. Grilled mackerel and grilled tomatoes
9. Roast lamb and jacket potatoes
10. Toasted lamb sandwiches
11. Sausages and chips
12. Soup and bread
13. Egg and bacon flan
14. Cauliflower cheese

DINNERS
1. Roast chicken and roast potatoes
2. Cold chicken and rice, salad
3. Onion tart, salad
4. Spaghetti bolognaise
5. Shepherds pie
6. Boiled gammon and mashed potatoes
7. Liver and bacon and vegetables
8. Steak and kidney pie
9. Haricot bean salad with hardboiled eggs and olives
10. Chicken pie
11. Baked eggs and vegetable stew
12. Lamb chops and vegetables
13. Meat casserole
14. Cod steamed with bacon/tomatoes/garlic

You probably wouldnt want to follow it to the letter - but it could be a useful base to work from to work out your own 14 day plan, whilst you build up your repertoire and confidence. I would suggest working out your own equivalent plan and working out what ingredients you would need to have in cupboard for it and go from there.

Newgirl_2

tifnstav wrote: »

I tend to go through the storecupboard with a few ideas then do my meal plans (only roughly though), eg need fish, prawns, eggs etc then I'll do the proper definite plans based on what we're up to that week. after the rough plan is done i check online to get a rough idea of how much the shop is going to cost.
then i stick rigidly to the plan unless i see some non-perishables on offer (like toothpaste and washing up liquid)..

I do something like this with a slight variation...

I remember reading a home organisation book once - it had a section on how to organise your shopping and meal times - it suggested you get an index card box (not too expensive from Tesco/Asda or similar, or you could make one) and when you have a meal you like write down the ingredients and recipe. When you have 14 or 21 or whatever number you like, you can then mix them up and choose your week's meals. I did a variation on this and I look at my cupboard and then choose from my stock list of meals. Once you have bought spices/herbs etc you have them to hand. you can then make the most of what is on offer.

Say chicken is on offer, i will pull out some recipes making use of this. I also like double batch cooking for the freezer. And I definitely agree with online shopping so you can't impulse buy.

Hope this helps.

Newgirl.

thriftlady_2

I think I read that book Newgirl, it wasn't called Confessions of an Organised Housewife was it ?

I can't menu plan either -it doesn't work for me. I like making a plan, but then I always have a better idea than the one I planned. I plan around what I have rather than buy for a plan. That way when I change my mind we still eat the fish/chicken/beans or whatever was planned just in a different way.

Basically (if that doesn't make sense) I have a storecupboard list from which I can make a huge variety of meals. I just make sure I have everything on my list in. So, when something gets used up it goes on the list. I'm pretty flexible about what meat and fish I have in (the freezer usually).

I posted my storecupboard list ages ago, I'll try and find it if it will help.

Another way to plan is to have a different category for each day of the week. For example;

Monday pasta and veg sauce
Tuesday stir-fry and rice
Wednesday pulse and veg curry and rice
Thursday grilled meat, baked spuds, salad
Friday hm veggie pizza
Saturday mince dish
Sunday roast lunch
This should allow for some flexibility.

thriftlady_2

Bread flour –wholemeal, white
Plain flour –wholemeal, white
Self-raising flour
Oats
Yeast, baking powder, bicarb
Gelatine, suet
Cornflour
Granulated sugar
Demerara
Soft brown sugar
Golden syrup
cocoa
Sunflower seeds
Raisins
Sultanas,
Dried apricots

UHT milk (for yogurt)
Dried milk (for yogurt)
orange and apple juice
Tea, coffee

Rice –basmati, Arborio, pudding
Pasta -short pasta, long flat pasta, spaghetti
Barley
Popcorn
Lentils –red, green,Puy
Split peas
Chickpeas
Mung beans for sprouting
Other dried beans

Baked beans
Tinned tomatoes
Passata
Tomato puree
Tuna, salmon, anchovies
Corned beef
Tinned peaches and pineapple

Spices, salt
Honey
Mustard
Ketchup
Marmite
Jams, jellies (hm)
Chutney, pickles (hm)
Vinegar
Olive oil, sunflower oil
Soy sauce, Worcester sauce
Sherry, Vermouth

Freezer
Peas, sweetcorn
Berries, stewed fruit
Stock
Loaves, rolls (hm)
pittas
Chickens
Cooked ham (from a joint I've cooked myself and sliced)
Bacon
Mince
Sausages
White fish fillets
Salmon fillets

Fridge
Milk
Butter
Cheese
Parmesan
Yogurt (hm)
small carton of cream
Eggs
Streaky bacon

Fresh
Potatoes
Onions, Garlic
Carrots
Salad stuff
lemons
Bananas
Apples

From this I can make loads of meals. As I mentioned in my previous post I buy other meat and fish as well for variety.

ceridwen

Follow-up thought - I had to teach myself to cook - as I didnt learn a thing (literally!) from my mother - and one of the ways I did this was by buying student cookbooks (look up Amazon and put in "Grub on a Grant" and various student cookbooks will come up). Student cookbooks have a high proportion of recipes for one person by definition - but can easily be multiplied up for more than one person. In fact they usually have recipes for "entertaining" - these are for more than one in the first place. Some of these books are umpteen ways to use baked beans - but there are some really good ones (interesting, cheap etc).

There may be other ways to learn to cook and get ideas for mealplanning - but its one of the best I found.

Believe me - I was HOPELESS!! when I had to start cooking - I couldnt even make eggs on toast, thats how ignorant I was. If I can learn to cook and mealplan - believe me, anyone can - in fact I am regarded as a good cook these days.

Newgirl_2

thriftlady wrote: »

I think I read that book Newgirl, it wasn't called Confessions of an Organised Housewife was it ?
.

Yes, something like that. It had lots of useful info but that was something that stuck in my memory.

Newgirl

thriftmonster

This has probably been suggested, but you could record what you eat at each meal for the next fortnight - which would give you a start. Take this as the basis and then add in any other meals you like.

I generally work on the main carb for each meal, so I start with:

Mon: rice
Tues: pasta
Weds: potatoes
Thurs: pasta
Fri: rice
Sat: pasta
Sun: potatoes

Then I add the protein and veg to the main meal, according to what we like, and the season. Lunches follow on - planned leftovers from dinner first, otherwise from scratch. Packed lunches work on a main thing, a side thing, fruit/veg and a drink. Breakfast is fairly standard - cereal or toast or pancakes or potato breads. Often on Sun we have a cooked brunch.

As you can tell we eat a lot of pasta - but you can fiddle with this as much as you like.

carlih1

Hi all

myself and dd have gone through all the cupboard and the fridge this morning i am trying to plan my meals for the week and only want to get what i really have to when i go to tesco's. So i have done my cupboard list, there are a lot of things on there i didn't know i had and i think i should be able to eat relatively cheaply this week.

Any suggestions please - freezer list to follow

Cupboard food

Bottom cupboard

Enchiladas kit
Long grain brown rice
Brown rice
Baked beans x2
Minced beef and onion pies x2
Smash
Spaghetti x2
Couscous
Pasta x3
Egg noodles
[STRIKE]Passata sauce[/STRIKE]
Stock cubes
Riveta

Top cupboard

Herbs – Ground cumin, chilli powder (x2), whole cardamon, ground turmeric, oregano, dried mixed herbs (x2), garam masalla, chargrilled chicken flavouring, ground ginger, paprika, mixed peppercorns, ground coriander, cajan spice, crushed chillis, dried basil, dried thyme, rice vinegar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, Italian seasoning, bay leaves
Corned beef
Mustard powder
Tin Sweetcorn
Tin Creamed sweetcorn
Korma sauce
Red wine and onion sauce
Bisto gravy, chicken, beef
Saxa salt
Veg Boullion powder
Chicken stock granules
Tin Green lentils
Tin Three bean salad
Tin Red kidney beans
Parmesan
Tomato puree –tube
Ketchup





Middle cupboard

Mixed nuts
Sunflower oil
Squash
Sesame seeds
Dried figs
Dried blueberries
Linseed
Raisins
Tin Sliced mango
Tin pineapple slices
Sponge syrup pudding
Tin apricots
YAWYE seed packets
Sunflower seeds
Dried tropical fruit mix
Dried prunes
Waffles

Breakfast cupboard

Dumpling mix
Tea, (herbal and normal)
Hot chocolate
Cornflour x2
Food colourings
Ground nutmeg
Ground cinnamon
Ground mixed spice
Light brown soft sugar
Granulated sugar
Marmite x2
Chocolate ice cream sauce
Peanut butter
Marmalade
Blackcurrant jelly
Tassimo coffees
Chocolate milkshake
Short grain pudding rice
Sugar
Coco pops
Oatibix
Porridge
Weetabix

Fridge

HP sauce
Lemon sauce
Mayonnaise
Baby leaf salad
Eggs
[STRIKE]Courgette[/STRIKE]
Carrots
[STRIKE]Broccoli[/STRIKE]
Butter
Grapes
Peppers
Potato salad
Coleslaw
Strawberries
Soya yoghurts
[STRIKE]Mushrooms[/STRIKE]
Cucumber
Onions
Garlic
Balsamic dressing
Squeezy basil
Black olives
Capers
Mustard
Grated mozzarella
Shallots
Baby potatoes