Whats on your shoping list/ meal planner? .... I just spent £108 at ASDA for2people

Queenie

doodlehumlucysmum wrote: »

Hi,

Right, after doing my first shop of the year and trying to stick to my DFW resolution i have realised that i need to do a meal plan.

To be honest I dont really know what to do eg cook a chicken and save some for the next day- thats the sort of thing i need help with i think. I'm sure some time sitting down will help this.

Do you do yours weekly? monthly?

What sort of things do you buy?

I've been looking on here and have seen that some people have excellent ideas eg home made soups etc (how do people make the soup bit! a blender?) I've noticed some good recipes like tuna pastas which i've pinched.

Whats on your list? and what do you do with what you have?

It might be an idea to post a copy of the shopping list from Asda and then maybe we can offer suggestions on how you can make that last and give recipe ideas? Is that £108 for a months worth of shopping? A week?

Starting off menu planning can seem pretty overwhelming, but there are some strategies to start you off and get you into the habit.

Firstly - take a look at your shopping list and menu plan from that! See how many days that will take you up to. Then, I suggest you do an inventory of your cupboards, fridge/freezer - make up a menu plan from those too!

Second - write on your calendar/diary what you have each day for your main meal. By the end of one week, you will have already made up a week's menu plan Keep doing that for a month and you will have a month's menu plan etc., etc.

Third - make your freezer work for you! As there are two of you, you can make up meals that are based on four people and freeze the extra two portions = ready meal for another week This is known as "Cook Once, Eat Twice"

The Shopping List program, mentioned by dlb can be found in this thread: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=665445
it does take a bit of time to set up but as you have a shopping receipt already to hand, that will speed up the process. From the program, you could make and save as many different shopping lists that you like! You could have a weekly one, a bi-weekly one, a monthly one, a daily one, a Christmas/Easter/Birthdays one. I have used a code for different shops next to the ingredients so I can print out shopping lists per shop (T= Tesco; L= Lidl etc.)

Best of luck, it does seem overwhelming when you begin - and, even though I've been doing it for many years, there are times when I find it overwhelming, even with all the organisational aids I have :rotfl: , but take baby steps and it will all soon begin to fit into place. :beer:

moanymoany

This is my main meal meal plan for January. I did the shopping for both January and February and paid £98. I will spend about £50 a month for milk, eggs, fruit and some fresh veg (I use a lot of frozen in the winter). I homemake my pastry in bulk and freeze it. Same with the pizza bases. I roll them up, uncooked, in paper like a swiss roll - it makes them easy to store in the freezer.

January 2008 menu plan


9) Mock Goose

10) Frozen Quiche

11) Frittata

12) Pizza – frozen base

13) Workman’s Goose – breast of lamb

14) Frozen Quiche

15) Dhal Curry and bulgar wheat

16) Homity Pie – frozen pastry

17) Frittata

18) Bacon and Pasta Bake

19) Quiche – frozen pastry

20) Toad in the Hole

21) Bean recipe

22) Fish

23) Vege burgers

24) Pizza

25) Mock Goose

26) Mince dish

27) Baked macaroni and cheese

28) Stovies

29) Pasta and garlic with bacon

30) Vegetable hotpot

31) fish fingers

doodlehumlucysmum

Heres my list:

Food storage 1lt - clear
Kitchen scales
Toothbrush holder - frost
Crisp box
Red lentils
Casserole mix - chicken chasseur
Sausage casserole mix
Italian pasta bake - tomato and herb
Pasta bake - spicy tomato and pepperoni
Classic green pesto
Good for you sauce - green pesto
Pasta sauce - tomato and chilli
Cooking sauce - Jalfrezi
Cooking sauce - Korma
Fusilli pasta
Penne pasta
Peaches in syrup
Pear quarters in juice
Strawberry jam
Peanut butter
Smartprice Bourbon biscuits
Instant malt drink - light
Tea bags 80s
Baked beans
Baked beans
Hot dogs
Spaghetti
Red kidney beans in water
Sliced carrots in brine
Smartprice chopped tomatoes
Chicken soup
Pea and ham soup
Potato and leek soup
Scotch broth
Soup - chicken and noodle
Soup - cream of tomato
Soup - lentil
Soup - vegetable
Tomato soup
Vegetable soup
Mash
Family Pack Super noodles - Chicken
Good for you chicken and sweetcorn noodle break
Chicken stock cubes
Sage and onion stuffing
Real mayonnaise
Mixed herbs
Brown sauce
Smartprice tomato ketchup
Cloudy lemonade - diet
Orange & pineapple
Pear and blackberry - no added sugar
Frosted flakes
Scottish porridge oats
Asda Good for you bars - apple & rasp (6x25g)
Shower gel
Mint fresh family toothpaste
Shampoo - normal hair
Smartprice medium eggs
UHT milk - skimmed
Square cut white loaf - medium
Hero Beef and spring veg foil
Hero Chicken and ham in jelly
Hero rabbit and kidney
Hero select cuisine - duck and liver
Dog toy - puppy - 6 balls
Glass gel - orange
Aerosol - outdoor scent
Smartprice multi purpose cloths
Bread rolls - Continental
Smartprice twin air freshener
Tumbler - frost
Batteries - AA
Diced carrot and swede
Smartprice pasta sauce - bolognese
Stuffed chicken - sage and onion (please note that the price displayed is the price per kg)
Crispy chicken grills 2s
Diced beef
Fruit smoothie mix
Hot Pockets - bolognese 2s
Garlic baguette
Wafer thin honey roast turkey ham
Semi skimmed fresh milk
Gel Freshener
Concentrated - original
Big Saver Salad - leaf and carrot
Smartprice potatoes
Onions - large
Seasonal vegetables
Beef mince
Lamb mince
Irish recipe pork sausages - thick 8s
Smartprice mild white cheddar (price displayed is average price per pack)
Pick n Mix sandwich fillers - cheese and onion
Sandwich filler - coronation chicken
Crunch corner - assorted
Healthy balance corner - crunch variety
Creamy coleslaw
Smartprice swiss roll - raspberry
Kitchen towels - white
Chicken breast fillets
Chicken liver
Pork steaks
Chunky cod fillets - battered
Chicken kievs - garlic
Cheese and broccoli chicken toppers 4s
Oven chips - rustic
Sliced green beans
Smartprice mixed vegetables
Crumble - apple
Loaded deep pan pizza - sweet BBQ chicken
Ristorante pizza - picante
White potatoes
Carrots
Parsnips
Leeks
Broccoli


I have wrote down ideas for meals, allowing that i may need to get extra veg, bread and lots more choped tomatoes. I have amazingly made 48 meals! eg, 3 pasta sauce jars = 6 meals, cooking family size spag bol, cottage pie, chilli, curry using sauce jars, chicken, sausage and beef caserole = 2 maybe 3 small meals each. I'm going to try a roast and then use left over chicken from that for my chicken meals. Iv also stolen some ideas for things like tuna and cheese potato melts, omellettes etc (thank to this website )

csarina

You don't need to buy chopped tomato's open a tin of ordinary tomato's and use a pair of scissors to chop them in the tin!! You can make your own sauce for pasta too with a tin of tomato's.an onion, clove of garlic and some herbs, much nicer than the jars you buy and it will freeze too. It actually tastes better if you cook it one day and keep it in the fridge to use the next day. The same with mince based dishes and stews.

There are two of us and my monthly shopping allowance is £100 and we eat very well on that. You can save a lot of money by making a weekly/monthly menu list and shop with that. Take advantage of any reduced items that you can freeze for later use. This morning I got 1 kilo of best beef mince for £2, that will make 8 meals for us.

Have a look on the recipe thread, you will get lots of ideas from there. Soup is so easy to make and you can freeze it. We have soup most days during the winter. Chicken carcass can be used to make stock, and I steam vegetables and use the liquor for stock for soup. The stock from a gammon or bacon joint can also be used as long as it is not too salt, although I have used gammon stock to make leek and potato soup.

Personally I do a freezer and cupboard audit and make up my menus, then make out a shopping list from that. I shop once a month, except for fruit and veg. We do have an allotment so grow a lot of our own fruit and veg, but there are still things like apples,pears,grapes etc we do not grow.

You do not need to buy lots of cleaning materials, most of us use vinegar, microfibre cloths washing soda and some bleach. There is also a thread on cleaning as well as one on laundry, I buy 3kg of Tesco value washing powder and add two bags of washing soda to it, it lasts me months. I cup of the powder mix in a wash load is quite enough, and I have no probs with whites. Vinegar in place of fabric softner, kills the soap and your clothes do not smell of vinegar, even if they have to be dried in a tumble dryer. The washing soda will also keep your washer free from limescale. If you live in a soft water area you will need less powder. When we lived in Scotland I used just half a cup of powder to
a wash load and you did not need salt in dishwashers either.

doodlehumlucysmum

I am definatley going to create a spread sheet for easy editing- six attempts later I have a (diner) meal plan which amazingly takes me up to 4 march! I found it quite hard not to have all chicken one week, but lots of scribbing out has sorted that out.

When I have time I am going to meal plan using ideas on here thne just buy what i need for the list. I think I'll need a tally shart for all the half onions etc.

I like the idea on monthly planning but i think what i will do is at the weekend go to the market(where there is convieniently a meat market too) as i think thats meant to be cheaper.

Once I get a dab hand at the dinner planning I may start to include lunches into it, at the tho mo its usually soup which is pretty boring but chunky hm soup mentioned above may sort this out!

Skint_Catt

I've got a list of whats in the freezer and have mealplanned (excel spreadsheet) for the entire month around that. My shopping list came to £11 this week (though taking OH with me turned into £55). It's just veg and additional ingredients to make meat into a meal really. We're a house of two (me and OH) and we spend £50 a week though trying to get this down to less than that by checking out the offers with the flyers in the local paper (for Morrisons etc) and www.mysupermarket.com.

Catt xx

doodlehumlucysmum

My supermaket looks great and i like how it imports your favorites. I'm hoping that there are delivery vouchers on here for all the supermarkes so its definately a good idea.

Obviously i dont need it for a little while but I am def going to use it next time. Just wondering, if a different supermarket has something cheaper do you have to do each shop seperately or can you do abc from asda def from tesco and ghi from sainsburys in one go. that will be pretty handy if you can.

Looks like you can get points too!

Another great MSE find.

oh, and i've just been called a geek by my oh for becoming MSE obsessed.

pavlovs_dog

there are some fab ideas in this thread... it will be invaluable whenever i get round to doing my household manual