What are your Weekly Meals? And the Cost?

SavvySaver24

As it says in the title.... me and my boyfriend are about to move into our first home. We both LOVE cooking and both work full time. So realistically half our meals will be 'quick' meals or leftovers snd the others will be from scratch.

Want to get a realistic idea of how much we will be ending up spending for what sort of quality of meals and how people get the best vakue for their money. We both also plan to start taking lunch in (rather than buying) so need some ideas of leftovers that travel well!

I work near a huge Waitrose and am in work by 7am - I do often find food reduced at that time of the morning so will snap that up if it is food that can be frozen!

maman

SavvySaver24 wrote: »

As it says in the title.... me and my boyfriend are about to move into our first home. We both LOVE cooking and both work full time. So realistically half our meals will be 'quick' meals or leftovers snd the others will be from scratch.

Want to get a realistic idea of how much we will be ending up spending for what sort of quality of meals and how people get the best vakue for their money. We both also plan to start taking lunch in (rather than buying) so need some ideas of leftovers that travel well!

I work near a huge Waitrose and am in work by 7am - I do often find food reduced at that time of the morning so will snap that up if it is food that can be frozen!

I think it's having a decent sized freezer that will be key.


Not sure where you'd normally shop but sometimes reduced stuff in Waitrose is more expensive than Aldi or Lidl.


The easiest/cheapest meals to cook and freeze are things with mince so Bolognese sauce, chilli and savoury mince are the obvious ones. I also like veggie chilli. You can cook these up at weekends or use a slow cooker and then portion up for the freezer. Personally I use those plastic boxes like take aways come in from the £ shop as they just hold 2 portions.


I just freeze the cooked mince and then do pasta or rice or potatoes on the day but you can make up complete meals like cottage pie or lasagne or pasta bake and freeze those.


I'm sure others will be along with more ideas.


You might get more responses on the Old Style thread.

redfox

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SavvySaver24

What is the old style thread?

Nargleblast

Your thread is now on the Old Style forum.

You need to sit down and decide what meals you both like to eat (breakfasts, lunches and evening meals) then write out a menu plan for the week. Some people do a plan for a whole month at a time, but that's a bit ambitious when you are first starting out, a week or even say 3 days in a row is enough to start with. If you like roast dinners on a Sunday then work out a menu for the next day to use up the leftovers. If you cook say a bolognaise, make enough for about 4-6 servings in one go and freeze the rest in portions for other days. These are just a few suggestions, I am sure others will add more. Meal planning is certainly the key.

luvchocolate

Get a slow cooker its lovely to come home to a warming stew ready for tea after work.
Get a recipe book to go with it ...you will not be disappointed.

Prinzessilein

I am another who would recommend a slow cooker -especially as the colder weather is approaching (going by this morning it has arrived!)

You will want to base your meals around what you will actually eat! It's not money-saving if it doesn't get eaten.

As a guide, some of my choices:

Breakfast:

Will often be porridge...or 'overnight oats' (oats soaked in joghurt overnight)...topped with whatever fruit is available....once in a while I will have eggs for breakfast....sometimes toast and peanut butter...(I make my own joghurt...and bake my own bread too)


Lunch:

Soup is a popular choice - I live alone and so make a batch and freeze portions.

'Something' on toast...cheese,or beans, or a poached egg (possible with marmite - I love marmite toast with an egg!)

Baked Potato/Sweet Potato

And 'Auflauf' which is all sorts of leftovers with beaten egg poured over topped with cheese or breadcrumbs and baked....think of a thick Spanish Omelette/Frittata type of meal....can be cooked and cooled and taken in thick slices for your packed lunch.

And 'winter slaw' accompanies a lot of lunches...grated carrot, celeriac, apple et.c with a joghurt dressing.


Dinner:

Curries - again, batch cook and then freeze...although I eat meat, I like a veggie curry.

Fishfingers, or a low-fat burger (bought or homemade) or my home made 'southern-baked-chicken' and fat-free chips.

Stirfries...great for using up left overs.

Chicken or fish with shredded veg, baked 'in a paper bag'

Spag Bol/Shepherds Pie/Chilli...uses the same 'base' mince mix..or lentil mix if I am going veggie for a day.

Roast Dinner...as I live alone I rarely cook a full roast, but a chicken portion with all the trimmings hits the spot!...and if I can get one rabbit which leaves plenty of left overs!