Help with menu plans.

Legacy_user

Hi everyone.

I like to look on these forums and find bargains and reduce my debt etc. Now I live by myself (everybody say ahhh ) I am trying to do a weeks meal plan and get the cost down. When I lived with gf it cost about £40 per week shopping for the two of us, minus the frequent trips to tesco local

Now I have started to cut back all the costs I can and shopping seems a natural one. I wanted to do a simple meal plan, that was nice, had lots of food and was quite cheap. I also have 3 cats as well and just realised how expensive they are to keep.

So I tried to come up with a meal plan but no matter which way I slice it, I cant get the food shopping including cat food and litter below £20.

Also im not the greatest cullenary whizz either. Am I being reasonable in wanting to get a full 21 meals (dont forget lunch) from £20.

To be honest I dont know where to begin so can someone help me come up with a menu plan with ingrediants that I can go to asda and buy ?

Cheers

Stuart

calleyw

I spend between £80-£100 a month for two adults and that includes all meals including lunches and tea/coffee and squash.

I allow about £10 extra a month for things like shampoo/washing up liquid, toilet rolls, washing powder etc. Rarely spend that much per month.

A typical menu for us is:

Breakfast: Branflakes and Juice
lunch: Sandwiches or left overs from tea and sometimes even a shop bought tin of soup. I know very naughty. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!
Tea: Can be anything from huge plate of steamed veg and a veggie sausage to scrambled egg on toast to spag bog.

I buy my fruit and veg from a greengrocers as it is cheaper and nicer than supermarket bought. When I don't have anything in my garden I can eat.

It is hard for us to help with a menu plan with out knowing what you like. I mean I hate garlic, onions, cheese, cous cous. So HM pizza would not be a good choice.

Personally my shopping budget is only for food and drink consumed by humans. So personally I would remove the cat food and litter from your food budget. And put that in another budget called the cats budget. Does not matter if you are buying it at the same time and in the same shop as your food. But on your spreadsheet ( I assume you keep one)seperate it.

Yours

Calley

squeaky

13000 wrote:

Hi everyone.

I like to look on these forums and find bargains and reduce my debt etc. Now I live by myself (everybody say ahhh ) I am trying to do a weeks meal plan and get the cost down. When I lived with gf it cost about £40 per week shopping for the two of us, minus the frequent trips to tesco local

Now I have started to cut back all the costs I can and shopping seems a natural one. I wanted to do a simple meal plan, that was nice, had lots of food and was quite cheap. I also have 3 cats as well and just realised how expensive they are to keep.

So I tried to come up with a meal plan but no matter which way I slice it, I cant get the food shopping including cat food and litter below £20.

Also im not the greatest cullenary whizz either. Am I being reasonable in wanting to get a full 21 meals (dont forget lunch) from £20.

To be honest I dont know where to begin so can someone help me come up with a menu plan with ingrediants that I can go to asda and buy ?

Cheers

Stuart

That's a really tough ask. If you take a look at our Welcome sticky at the top of the forum listing there's a link to a large thread on menu planning that will give you some ideas, and also in the Cooking section of the MEGA Index sticky there are several threads of interest including one to feed six on £1.62.

There are lots of threads there too about stretching food and useful tips such as making a basic mince stew and then adding different things to it each day to make completely different meals.

But by including cat food and cat litter you're going to find it a real challenge

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi 13000

Im sure £20 is enough to feed yourself for 21 days id be surprised if you can feed the cat for that, but may be possible.

We are a family of 2 adults and 1 child and we spend £30-£35 a week for everything (meat, veg, toiletries etc etc). We rarely have take aways(about every 8-10 weeks). I meal plan all meals and it has saved me a fortune! These are some of the meals I thought of, but not knowing what you like-dont know if its going to be ok:

Main Meals
Shepards Pie-Make a large one, eat one and freeze 3 portions (4 servings)
Cheesy Veggie Mash-Cheap as chips-freeze 3 portions (4 servings)
Chilli Con Carne-Easy,cheap and freeze a couple of portions (4 servings)
Sausage, Mash & Veg-Easy, cheap & filling (4 servings)
HM Curry-Easy, cheap and freeze a couple of portions (3 servings)
Chops, roast spuds & veg-Easy (3 servings)
Egg, Chips & Beans-Easy & Cheap (4 servings)
Roast Chicken, veg & spuds-3 servings
Roughly 29 meals

Lunches

Cheese/Ham/Tuna -could be toasted
Soup with bread & butter
Jacket Spud with beans
Beans/spagetti on toast

Breakies

Egg on toast
Toast
Fruit & Yogurt
fruit juice

Snacks

Fruit, Biscuits, crisps,

Rough shopping list:

3 loaves value wholemeal bread-57p
potatoes large bag bogof-89p
apples-74p
bananas-72p
onions (cheesy mash, chilli, curry, s/p)-28p
value cheddar-1.90 huge
eggs value...sorry 1.16
minced beef-1.11
sausages x 16 frozen makes 5 meals-1.05
yogurts value x 18-1.44
UHT milk x 2-66p
value chops frozen-1.40
Value stuffing x 2-36p
value beans x 5 (chilli & s/pie)-55p
value tinned spagetti x 2-22p
tinned toms x 5 (chilli&spagbol, curry)-60p
tinned kidney beans (chiili)-14p
fruit juice value x 3-99p
bag frozen mixed veg-50p
value peas frozen-44p
value sweetcorn-64p
gravy-37p
chilli powder(will last for ages so wont buy often for curry chilli etc!)45p
ham 8 slices nice (freeze to last longer take out wot you need)-88p
value rice-41p
long spagetti-14p
margarine-34p
soup x 3-84p
chicken frozen pieces value about 6 thighs (curry or roasted etc)-1.28
oven chips-45p
Biscuits(gingernuts, digestives, jaffa cakes-value)-63p
crisps value-54p

Total £22.15 but 4 weeks of main meals :eek:
=76p a day over 29 days.

Thats about 29 main meals, lunches and breakies. I have added frozen veg not fresh as it may be easier for you the meat is mainly value im afraid. It doesnt include tea, coffee, sugar, wash powder, loo rolls, shampoo etc but these can be bought cheaply on bogof etc. Most of my cleaning is done with cheap vinegar (18p) and does everything from loo to worktops. I would say keep it simple to start with, then when you know what you need and like than add as needed etc. I would cook in larger amounts and freeze. No cat stuff though im afraid.

PM me if you need any help-im so bored ATM and be happy to help. I have cut back £700 a month from a year ago :eek: so it can be done.

Good luck

PP
xx

r.mac_2

hi 1300,

I think when you say 21 meals in your original post you mean 7 days, with breakfast lunch and dinner each day - is that right???

In that case P-P's very detailed plan (which I think is great btw) is on the extreme. However It shows what can be done if you put your mind to it. If you are looking to use the same amount of money on 1 week, instead of three - you could buy some better quality eggs and meat and throw in some extra fresh veg. And oyu would still pay less than £20 per week.

My personal tips would be to not try everything immediately. It can be daunting and if it doesn't immediately work, then you can feel like you have failed. In my book trying means that you can't fail.

Why not set yourself a target each week and try and reduce it the next week, say in 50p increments.

Or you could set a target to make three HM meals from scratch a week.

alternatively you could endevour to take packed lunches to work four days a week.

Then, you can build on your targets. i.e. the next week you make 4 HM meals from scratch and so on.

Calley's tip about a greengrocer is very good. Since using my local shop, I have found that I get more and better quality for my money. For example in tesco's it is 67p for a medium red pepper. In the green grocers it only costs 35p.

I find that often I get home and can't be bothered cooking. My suggestion is that when you cook anything - cook at least double and freeze or refrigerate the extra portion (s). It really doesn't take any ectra work and means that you don't have to cook another night.

I hope this helps

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

I agree that I would if I had more money then would buy better eggs, meat and more fresh veg (dont like frozen but good as back up :rolleyes: ).

If its £20 a week-you can live like a king...lol and feed the moggies

PP
xx

Curry_Queen

People have already covered feeding yourself so I'll tackle the cats!

What are you currently feeding them and how much does that cost you at the moment? Oh, and what ages are they?

I have two elderly cats, both kept indoors so I also have to buy litter too, and have just run off a report from MSMoney to see how much I've spent over the last 12mths to give you an idea on costs.

I feed them premium dry food (Hill's Science Senior diet) and use Catsan clumping litter, not the cheapest I know, but is good value when you consider you can just lift out the "lumps" daily without having to empty the whole tray (I use two trays), so they only get changed completely once a week ... and no, it doesn't smell at all!

Anyway, here are my expenses for the last 12 mths ...

Cat food - £122.48 - which works out approx £2.35 a week
Cat litter - £94.88 - which works out approx £1.82 a week

So that works out around £2 per cat per week in total. How does that compare to what you're currently spending?


Edit: Actually the food bill will in reality be less than that as I forgot to factor in that I still have two months supply of food left so the total cost above will actually cover 14mths, not 12mths, so would actually work out at £2 per week for both cats to eat!

voodoozoe

My best tip for you would be to get a cat flap and train the little varmints to do their business outside!!! We did it and its SO GOOD and SO CHEAP not to have to have a tray.
As for food, buy the big multi packs if possible because it definitely works out cheaper per can. Also the HUGE sacks of biscuits are cheaper in the long run(although more painful at the time of purchase!!!). NEVER buy the little pouches because they are EXTORTIONATE.
In all this money saving madness NEVER consider giving up your cats because they will be a comfort to you during any difficult times, they are part of OUR family and I'd hate to be without them.

voodoozoe

Oh and I've just thought...greengrocers ARE good but round the corner from my shop in an Asian greengrocer which sells HUGE peppers and onions and bunches of herbs etc. etc. for a fraction of the cost at the supermarket and the actual items are nicer and bigger too

Iona_Penny

Hi 13000

As others we need to know the sort of stuff you like, but I think the suggestion to make at least double of things that freeze well is brill (hope you have a freezer) and dont forget that pasta, rice, and potatoes (mashed and part cooked roast ones ) freeze well too. Give a few clues as to your likes etc and you'll have more menu ideas than you can cop with.

P.S. If you have time for a high protein breakfast (bacon /eggs/sausages) guarantee you won't need much for lunch!