MealPlans WB 20th June 2008

newlywed

tango wrote: »

Does everyone just do the same most weeks,or is there a slight variance ?

Oooh no - I get bored cooking the same thing! I have a list of what meals I "usually" cook and then go down the list and fill in most of a month at a time - that way I can make sure we don't have a whole week of fish or a whole week of mince

I also look over our past weeks meal plans and decide what we haven't eaten in a while - and what's on offer or reduced at the supermarket

outrageous_monkey

tango wrote: »

Does everyone just do the same most weeks,or is there a slight variance ?

We always have HM Pizza on Friday and a roast dinner every Sunday. I've started adding in a couple of 'new' meals because it feels like we eat the same type of food all the time.

Zenjen_2

champys wrote: »

Here is ours for this week:

Thurs: HM pizza with spinach, blue cheese and pine kernels

This pizza sounds to die for! What a lovely combination. I'll have to give it a try....me and OH are big blue cheese nuts!

Cheers for sharing :T

tango: As for keeping meal plans the same each week, a lot of people knock it, but it can serve a purpose. I did do that for a while when we were living on a mega tight budget (£40 a month!) as I didn't know a lot about cooking and it was just easier to do that to stay in budget.

My motto back then was 'experiments equal expenditure' and so we had the same breakfast every day, the same carrot and tuna salad for lunch and the same 7 tightly honed budget meals that I had mastered. It worked really well when I was a student because I could devote my brain to other things, and we ate good healthy meals every day for very little cash.

Compared to our student friends we always seemed to eat consistently well, rather than lavish meals for the first few weeks of the loan then beans on toast thereafter! After two years :eek: of this though, it became a bit demoralising and nowadays neither of us can look at a carrot salad again!

Now I am a FT housewife and know loads more about budgeting and cooking, and OH has a better job so our food budget has more than doubled, I plan completely different meals every day, have a repertoire of hundreds of budget meals and I would never, ever go back to the way it was or I would feel very restricted.

Of course there are still favourites that crop up again and again, and we start to feel a bit itchy if we haven't had at least one HM pizza a week! But generally my policy for the last three years is 'variety is the spice' and I try to keep things as varied as possible and if i can I will try to learn a couple of new things a week to keep things interesting.

Jx

Penny-Pincher!!

Warm welcome to all Newbies:D

Your meal plans sound lovely!

We normally always have a Roast on a Sunday, a FREE meal each week, which consists of stuff I already have in and need using up and is normally Egg, CHips and beans or scrambled egg etc. Normally have sausage weekly and a fish meal weekly.

PP
xx

giddykipper

I know this may sound like a ridiculous question to most, but I've never done a meal plan before so ..... where do I start? How do you decide what to make and when ..... I have no imagination in the kitchen so any help you can give at all would be great.

OH is quite 'traditional' in his eating (meat and veg) which puts a bit of restriction on things.

So, any advice?

Thanks, Jo x

champys

giddykipper - if I were you I'd do as follows: first have a look at the meal plans above. Do this on an empty stomach rather than a full one (contrary to going to the supermarket!) and see what meals there are listed that appeal to you. You can check back on older meal plans too, of course. Write down a few that you fancy, and that your OH would like too - there are plenty 'traditional' suggestions listed as well.
Then put the meals in order of days to come, and make a shopping list accordingly. If there are meals listed you would like to make but don't know how, simply ask the poster for the recipe or instructions. I have gained quite a few nice recipes that way!
Finally, go to the shops and buy ingredients exactly according to your list - all being well you should not need to do a shop more than once a week.

giddykipper

Thanks Champys, that sounds easy enough - even I can do that! lol

I'm actually quite excited about doing this, being organised isn't one of my strong points, so if I can get organised by making meal plans, it may spill into other parts of my life!

Thanks for your advice, really appreciate it. Jo x

rubydoiwannabee

Hi everyone, I am posting my weekly menu to try and ensure we don't spend huge amounts on food each week. We have improved over the last two weeks and have only spent £80 pw for the four of us. This week I want to do better, £60-70, possible?

Here is what I have planned, most of which we have in the freezer, cupboards, etc.

tonight
Fish and chips (fish fingers or frozen cod in breadcrumbs, frozen chips and peas.

Saturday
Jamie Oliver meatballs and spaghetti

Sunday
Honey chicken, pots & veg

Monday
HM Pizza and wedges

Tuesday
Sausage casserole and pasta

Wednesday
Faggots, Jacket pots and beans

Thursday
Fajitas or jerk chicken

Friday
Jamie Fish Pie

xxxx

champys

giddykipper wrote: »

Thanks Champys, that sounds easy enough - even I can do that! lol

I'm actually quite excited about doing this, being organised isn't one of my strong points, so if I can get organised by making meal plans, it may spill into other parts of my life!

Thanks for your advice, really appreciate it. Jo x

Good luck and let us know how you get on - expecting to see a meal plan from you on this site soon! Once you get into it, it is great: true you have to spend a little time doing the planning and making your list. But after that, you never have to think anymore: what should we eat today? And you will always have the ingredients right there. It saves stress and hassle as well as time.

newlywed

champys wrote: »

But after that, you never have to think anymore: what should we eat today? And you will always have the ingredients right there. It saves stress and hassle as well as time.

I agree. Working full time we used to get home at 6pm and I'd open the fridge and go "what do you want for tea" - OH never really suggested anything, or else what we wanted was in the freezer and would need defrosting for hours :rolleyes: So it was always 7.30 or later that we'd have our tea. Now I check the meal plan the night before, get stuff out of the freezer, buy anything extra I've forgotten that day and tea is usually done and usually ready by half 6 as I plan weekday stuff that doesn't take too long to cook and start cooking it as soon as we get in.