Meal Planning help

tasha42

Slowly I have seen our food bill go up from £300 a month to now £450 . We are a family of 5 and being a working mum and I feel if I planned a bit better would not only help me save money but stop us wasting food and help me get more organised . At the moment I feel like we throw a huge amount away.


So I would love any help on how to start meal planning and any good websites for meal ideas for familes ( i feel a little stuck in a rut and cooking what I know all the time).


Thank you

Need2bthrifty

Lots of great ideas gathered here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/346932/the-complete-menu-plans-collection

I've also been watching these programmes for some inspiration.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/eat-the-week-with-iceland/episode-guide

Horki

You might continue to eat as you do for a month and keep a record of the meals, say, dinners. That will give you a basic plan to work with. Then begin to adjust it with new meal ideas when you have time. Also make soup before any fresh food deteriorates or freeze it. Hope this helps.

tasha42

Great thank you !!!128522;

jojitsui

I've just started looking at the food we waste as it's a massive problem for us.
The things that are working for us at the moment are using more frozen veg and also limiting the amount of fresh fruit, salad and stir fry stuff we buy. I've also started using recipes from a girl called jack and planning all our meals.
This week we are having overnight oats with fruit, flax and chai seeds for breakfast, lunch is a mixture of different salads (made up on Sunday and Wednesday night and kept in the fridge in mason jars) and during the week we are having stir fry, bean burgers, risotto, curry and kebabs. Good luck

Linda32

A suggestion for fruit is frozen or tinned fruit. It all counts and obviously no waste as you only open a tin or take an amount out of the freezer for a portion.

I take tinned peaches to work which if you have access to a fridge are very lovely and cold in summer - that's from someone who doesn't particularly like cold food.

Stir fry is sold as frozen bags in the freeze. If you use this, make sure you use twice as much as you want for a single portion. I don't like big meals but you need a lot once it has cooked.

Alexxaa

thank you for channel4 link :j

amandaatnumber7

Hi
I'm also a working Mum of 3, I work part time and I find what works best for me is I do a cook up on the weekend for my 3 days I'm working (I work M,T & W) that way it's all ready to go when I get home. (TBH most Tuesdays its tacos thanks to the Lego Movie lol)