so not organised with meals

jojo1969

been looking through some threads and im so not organised hwne i come to do my weekly shop i spend a fortune about £120 a wekk for four and to be honest there is not many meals out of it
is there anywhere on here that as a organised meal plan for ideas?
wo:T uld love to get my shopping bill down

lainz

Hi Jojo1969

These are posted weekly (they'll probably do a new one tomorrow) http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=835695&highlight=meal+plan. It may give you some ideas or inspiration. The easiest way to meal plan is to go through your cupboards, fridge and freezer and make a list of what you have. I have a folder of recipes I've taken out of magazines (or got from threads here) and some cookbooks. I write a list of the recipes /meals I like to eat, then see what I have in I can use and then write a list of what I need.

If you have a look at the top of the page at the resource bar, in the indexed collections there are a load of recipe sections, have a look through and see what you think

If you want to get your grocery spend down have a look at the grocery challenge and join in :T . The first month you need to keep you receipts and see how much you spend. Set yourself a target for the next month (it's recommended to just be £10 or so less) and slowly cut down and you get the hang of it - I'm still new to it - but I am buying less stuff that I don't actually need :rolleyes: - not got over my whoopsie addiction yet - but it's better :rotfl:

Come and join the fun

MrsBartolozzi

Hi Jojo,
If you make a list of what you have in your cupboards/freezer etc and post it here the wonderful peeps on OS will give you suggestions for meals. It may be that you have lots of new meal combos in the cupboards just waiting for you to try!
I find that listing what I have in my stores focuses the mind and I can see what I have loads of or things that I bought but have never tried and things that I have forgotten about. I then use the list as a start for meal planning - this can be as rigid or flexible as you like, but you get a list of meals that can be made from what you have or with a few additions.
Maybe you could write down a list of say 14 (2 weeks) meals that your family enjoy then only buy what is needed to make these meals. If you find this a useful way to work you can then repeat the 14 meals for the next 2 weeks. Obviously this does not need to be rigid but it might give you a place to start.
HTH
MrsB.


oh and have a look at the grocery challenge thread. We're really friendly over there, and there are lots of hints to be had too! (it is very long and maybe daunting, so maybe a quick skim through might be best)

jojo1969

thanks guys yes going to join the challenge

SamanthaA

Don`t know if this will help, but it works for me & DS.

I start my shopping list with an ANTI list - stuff I know we have or don`t like (DS dislikes 1 yogurt flavour & I always used to forget & buy it, thinking it was the one he loved!)
Then on the reverse of what will be shopping list, I make meal plan & as I take sandwiches & so does DS, I inc sandwich fillings.
Then shopping list revolves around meal plans for week.

Don`t think that just cose you`ve written the plan it has to stick, just because you wrote chops on Wed doesn`t mean you can`t swap it with the fish on Friday. I KNOW this is obvious, but a friend of mine was convinced it had to be done in that order, so she wouldn`t plan in case she didn`t want chops on Wed!! Some people!