Am I the only backwards MSE'er?

Kadeeae

In an effort to contain the food bill(s) I tried as suggested here to plan meals/shopping in advance, stick to the list and to the plan. I was absolute rubbish at it I've since found that if I attempt the reverse I do very well!

I shop for the cheapest products or specific items if I'm making a dish that uses out of the ordinary items. Then I make a menu plan after I get home and see what I've got. Is this really weird? Does anyone else here do it this way with any success? Please let there be one person, lol.

Jayar

Nope, you are most definitely not alone. I find that if I shop with a meal plan in mind, I end up discarding it because something else is either a bargain or has been drastically reduced. So I do it your way too.
Apart from anything else, menu planning is so boring. I'd rather cook what takes my fancy from what I have in the house anyway

Skint_Catt

I meal plan for the month, but I shop weekly, so its always moving around if I see soemthing on offer or if we decide to go out. Works ok for me - I can swap days if I don't fancy what I've planned as usually everythings in the freezer anyway!

Catt xx

Boatie_Bird

Yep, I do this too.
I always have an idea of a couple of meals that I'll cook that week when I go shopping, but I buy what looks good/is cheap/reduced and then work out what I'm going to cook with it later. I have tried to meal plan but it never works as I never stick to my plan.
My DH calls it the 'ready, steady cook' method!
I never waste anything either

thriftlady_2

I make a meal plan sometimes -I am at the moment because I'm trying eat down my freezer and storecupboard and it is helping me avoid buying more food. But, usually I work round a stock of staple goods that I always have in.

Your method reminds me of something American money-saving guru Amy Dacyczyn talks about in her book The Tightwad Gazette. She calls it the pantry principle. Basically you buy things when they are at their cheapest. If there is a sale on tinned tuna for example then you buy enough to see you through till the next sale. She explains it better:

'The basic premise is that you stockpile your pantry with food purchased at the lowest possible price.The sole purpose of grocery shopping becomes replenishing your pantry, not buying ingredients to prepare specific meals. This is a subtle but important distinction.'

Amy Dacyczyn p475 of The Complete Tightwad Gazette

belfastgirl23

I just find that 'see what I've got' rapidly becomes 'see what I fancy' and degenerates into 'see what's in M&S' But I'm not much cop at mealplanning way ahead of time, mostly I try to plan tonight for what I'll eat tomorrow night. I also have a few staples - beans on toast, pasta with storecupboard sauce - that fall into the 'all else failed' category.

tru

I have a speadsheet with a carefully-thought-out meal plan on it. I took me ages to do.

I have never managed to stick to it :rotfl:

I'm home almost all the time, miss tru's hours and days of work change constantly, master tru comes home anytime between 4pm and 5.30pm, and mr tru comes home anytime between 6pm and 7pm.

The teen-trus rush in, grab food and go straight back out - in fact I'm beginning to wonder if they even live here anymore I leave them to get their own tea now, they never fancy what I've made that day - though you can guarantee they'll want it tomorrow, when I've made something different :rolleyes: So I gave up.

I like my main meal at lunchtime, mr tru likes his in the evening.

So we all help ourselves and if someone wants something that I haven't bought or made (and frozen), tough

Kadeeae

thriftlady wrote: »

But, usually I work round a stock of staple goods that I always have in.

Doing a pantry/staples shop approx. once a month is what I'm doing right now, and then a 'weekly' shop in the backwards method (ooo....new term,lol). If there are a few things that are really cheap then I stock up a bit and it's that much less to buy in the next week or two. And I do like that quote from the Tightwad Gazette!

Tru- we have our main mean at "lunchtime" too, a variation on the breakfast like a king saying!

Glad I'm not such a misfit after all :rotfl:

pigpen

Me too.. I'm backward too!!

I bought loads of cuts of meat on offer in tesco a few months ago.. lamb, chickens, pork.. and we are gradually eating our way through.. I have a HUGE sack of potatoes in most of the time.. which seem to baffle hubby as they are not 'waffles, oven chips, fritters or alphabites' there is 'nothing to eat'..

I have some fish I need to use up soon before it swims back out of the freezer!

We eat loads of pasta so I buy that in bulk.. those huge bags from tesco.. I don't like asda pasta... and loads of mince.

Thankfully my BIL is a butcher and my sister works inthe greengrocers.. I go in and ask for 'leaves for the rabbits'.. I then pick out the best feed it to the family and the rabbits get the rest lol

moanymoany

I tend towards the middle way - I think Amy Tightwad has a very valid point. However, I think theat with our value and homebrand ranges it doesn't work quite the same way as the USA. However, the essence is the same and I always browse the special offers when making my internet shopping order.

I have a 29 day menu plan that is based around my most frugal recipes. However I often do something different because we have an unexpected bargain or because we fancy something different.

The bottom line is - if it works for you - do it.

Kadeeae

pigpen wrote: »

Me too.. I'm backward too!!

/quote]

Shall we start a group? Backward And Proud? The BAP's :rotfl: