Meal planning 2021

Rgib89

My current shopping bill is £500 a month for 2 adults and 2 children. Im hoping I can get this down as im wasting so much. Im ashamed to say I don't meal plan, I go shopping and end up throwing alot away. The children won't eat same meals as me and my partner so we tend to cook for them and then cant be bothered to cook for ourselves so end up with a takeaway. My monthly budget doesn't include takeaways. 
Things need to change. Today I will be looking at food already here to meal plan for the week. 
Im hoping with lots of research I can learn alot with meal planning, organising, using leftovers to make something else and batch cooking.

Any tips, food recipes I would be very grateful..

Heres to no takeaways x

Wicked_Lady

How old are the children? Are there any meals that you would all eat, as this would be a starting point?
Are they old enough to be involved in choosing menus or food prep so that you can all eat together?

I get a bit bored with meal planning too far ahead but can certainly do it for about 3 days at a time. We also work a lot on the cook once, eat twice philosophy, especially with things like chilli, curry, casseroles.

joedenise

I agree with @Wicked_Lady that it would be easier if you could find things that you can all eat.  What sort of things do the children eat?  When mine were little we had very little money so if the children didn't eat what was put in front of them then all they would get would be a jam sandwich or some toast.

Eventually they started eating what they were given.  I certainly wouldn't want to be cooking different things for different people.  Is there any reason why you don't eat at the same time as the children.  It's something my DH and I almost always did.  I know they tend to need to eat early but you do get used to it and as they get older you can make it a bit later.

We really need a bit more information in order to try and help you.

Rgib89

There 13 and 11 and very fussy with food, chips,chicken nuggets, pizza, spaghetti, burgers, smile faces (children type food).. 
With them being older I will get them involved to try new foods. Do it more of a family thing rather than trying to battle it myself. 

joedenise

A lot of those things can be made cheaper and healthier by doing them yourself.

HM chips for examples - just wash the potatoes thoroughly and cut into chips.  Add to a pan of cold water and bring to the boil.  Turn off the heat and leave to sit in the hot water for 3 minutes.  Spray a baking sheet with oil (using a spray cuts down the amount of oil you use), drain the chips and refresh in cold water and tip into a tea towel and dry.  Once dried, tip onto the sprayed baking sheet and spread out in single layer (you may need to use 2 trays depending on how many chips you're cooking).  Spray again and cook for about 35 minutes in a hot oven (220 degrees C) turning the tray a couple of times until browned and crisp.

Chicken nuggets:  Cut chicken boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts (I prefer thighs, cheaper and tastier) into pieces then dip in egg and coat in breadcrumbs and again place on a sprayed baking sheet and spray again.  Cook in hot oven for about 25 minutes until cooked through.

HM pizza - plenty of recipes online and you can top with whatever you've got that needs using up in the fridge and cupboard:  tomato sauce base, peppers, olives, mushrooms, onions, sprinkle with grated cheese.

HM burgers - just mince & breadcrumbs and possibly and egg, shape into burgers and cook.  Or could make them with beans.

Smiley faces - I'd just not bother with anything like that!  HM chips or wedges would be healthier!

I definitely think they are old enough to be eating "proper" food.  Have they tried things like mild curry, chilli etc.  What about stews & casseroles.  All of which can be made quite cheaply using root veg which are in season at the moment.

Hope that helps.

greenbee

When there are a lot of us and we don't want to deal with fuss, we do 'this is the boring tasteless stuff for fussy kids' and 'this is the stuff for people who like their food to taste of something'. Quite often the kids will at least try the edible food, and are slowly developing beyond plain chicken, broccoli and carrots. We've also discovered that with one of them it was a control/attention thing, so providing a choice that wasn't specifically for her meant there was no 'I don't like this' but also nothing special to draw attention to her. And talking to the kids who were trying new things about what they tasted like etc meant that they got the attention - fussiness is disappearing fast. 

joedenise

That's a great idea @greenbee.

Bexm

I've meal planned for years.. But went into overdrive when covid hit and was doing 2 weekly plans so we didn't have to go out.. And got our plans down to a tee! About £85-95 +extra milk for 2 weeks. 

Our kids are fussy but mainly eat what we do but if we plan to have something a bit fancy (and tasty) they have a similar alternative that is not much hassle to adapt the main meal.
Ie the kids love pasta.. Take the one bit of the meal the kids like and stick it with pasta. Usually gets eaten then and we get our flavoursome food without much hassle.

If we're making bolognaise we buy 1kg of low fat mince, split it in 2 and with one 500g you can make bolognaise padding out with veg (grated carrot and courgette works well too) and will feed 4 easily with some left overs for lunch.

The other 500g can be for chilli or anything.. Learn to spread the food out.

If you get bored try getting a deal on gousto or hello fresh or some recipe box for a few days and find some recipes you like and can cook and then copy them with supermarket bought stuff. That's definitely got us out of a rut!