Weekly meal planner and cost

pickledonionspaceraider

bigmaz wrote: »

No probs, I didn't take any of that at you picking fault. But your assumption about our situation is way off I work full time, and my wife doesn't work at all. So has all the time to do it.

didn't mean to sound assumptious - is that even a real word haha

ah I see, good luck to you and hope you manage to do it , if shes not working, like you say she has plenty of time to cook from scratch etc so shouldn't be too difficult

happy35

I feed 4 adults and spend £60ish a week on food . I eat gluten and dairy free for health reasons and am 99% veggie fish occassionally,1 adult is fussy eater.

I make a menu plan and try to cook different things such as jambalaya, pulled chicken, dirty rice etc and I find these quite cheap.

We eat loads of fruit and veg, I use veg to pad out meals

clickerty-click

Slow cooker can be useful in cooking from scratch without "cooking", you can use cheaper cuts of meat and in my experience most things work well with a few sliced onions, carrots, some tinned tomatoes, a bit of garlic and a few dried herbs.

kimberlyds

Hey guys...I have always loved meal planning. It saves me time, money and most importantly - my sanity! But, the one thing that always got the better of me was my grocery list. I was always leaving out something or the other! It was terribly annoying.

That's when I decided to design something simple and flexible that worked for me. Maybe it would work for you guys too? Let me know if you guys would be interested in checking it out. I'd post the link, but I think its not allowed

Islandmaid

I spend between £40-£60 pw for 3 adults, one part time one (DD pops in a couple of times a week) and 4 cats, this includes a few beers and a bottle or 2 of wine.

I work part time, cook from scratch, apart from Friday night, that's my night off when we'll either get a takeaway or DH will cook.

This week we had roast chicken for 3, well, I say roast, I cooked the chicken in the slow cooker, then stripped it and put the carcas back into the slow cooker for soup stock. Monday we had chicken curry for 5 adults and one portion over which DS took to work to eat, Tuesday was chicken soup and HM bread with enough for my lunch today.
Today's dinner for 3 will be jacket spuds, with beans, cheese served with salad
Tomorrow - chilli for 3, with Nachoes and enough left for DS,s work dinner

Sometimes though I think s@d it and use a jar sauce, but that's very rare

As somebody said, it may be a cooking confidence thing, encourage your wife to experiment a bit more and don't moan if it's not perfect all the time

tessie_bear

hello...you have had some really good replys but can i suggest you take possible future replys with a pinch of salt...the my goodness you spend that much ? i spend less and feed more...it normally becomes a race to the bottom and vague talk of i spend nothing and feed 10 people organic food and when asked for detail they never post again

there are a lot of blogs on this subject although again some of them seem to be based in fairy land and not real life....sorry if that all sounds negative some posters on here have so much knowledge to share that i am sure you find some really helpful ideas
tessa

splishsplash

I don't think cooking from scratch is necessarily cheaper. It depends on how you do it. For example, I can buy lasagne cheaper than I can make it, but I don't want to eat the lasagne I can buy because it's nasty. I can buy pizza for pennies, my hm pizzas are quite expensive, a complete pita to make but they are truly a thing of joy:D.

I cook from scratch most of the time. Well, as close to scratch as I want to. For instance, that lasagne I make rather than buy? I use dry pasta sheets. If I make pasta pesto, I use dried penne. I use stock pots sometimes if I run out of stock and lots of other little short cuts. I definitely save on packets, jars and additives. I also find once my store cupboard and pantry are well-stocked, there's virtually nothing I can't knock together if I want to.

I would say spend a few weeks adding to your store cupboard and preparing to move closer to 'from scratch' cooking. Decide which dishes you like to eat and add a couple of the herbs or spices you will need every time you go shopping. Do a little research for recipes. You can find recipes for pretty much anything online. It's just a matter of finding one that isn't too extravagant ingredients-wise or method-wise. Be realistic about both your interest and your ability (or your wife's, in this case).

Once you have a good store cupboard built up and a collection or recipes bookmarked, then try one or two dishes at your leisure. It may take a few tries to tweak things to your liking, but even if you don't cut down hugely on your spending, the quality of what you eat will probably be better. Make it worthwhile doing first, make it cheap later.

PasturesNew

Just me. Been keeping a detailed/strict spreadsheet since the start of the year that records everything.

I spend £12/week on food. That's all food, so supermarkets through to takeaways and pub meals/random treats.

I don't eat vast volumes as I'm bored of food/eating really. I just graze and snack most of the time.

The "everything else" spend (fizzy drinks/coffee, cleaning/bleach/cloths, shampoo/soap etc, loo rolls, etc etc etc) is about £3/week.

Pollycat

Feral_Moon wrote: »

But you're atypical from almost every other poster in this thread. So why do you participate in such threads? If I were to plot you on a chart compared to other users, you would be an outlier. Therefore irrelevant.

What a really nasty response.

PasturesNew has as much right as anyone else to post on any thread she wishes to.

Plot away. :rotfl:

Nobody's opinion should be considered irrelevant on these boards.
It's not as thought PN is kidding other posters that she's eating gourmet meals with her £12 per week spend.

ETA:
and just to point out that the OP has not added to the thread since the end of January - despite being active on other threads until early last month - until someone who is possibly a spammer or advertiser brought it back to life yesterday.

kimberlyds

:eek: Not a spammer!! Not a spammer... I inadvertently brought it back to life thinking all these guys are interested in Menu Planning & might benefit from the Planner that I suggested!
sorryyyyy guys...:(
Yeah... advertising, you could say!! But not spammer please :doh: