Budget Meal planning

[DCS]

Iv had a quick look and cant find another thread like this but if there is just point me in the right direction.

We used to meal plan but somehow stoped following them and now i want to get back into it. I want good healthy home cooked meals. On a budget. I notice we eat the same few dinners and lunches. I want variety, and to expose my LO to more food because he apparently doesnt like anything apart from pizza. But im majorly suffering with pregnancy brain and all i can think about is restaurant curry, chip shop chips and whipped cream.

So please share meal plans, hopefully we can inspire each other.

Also if anyone has any tips on how i can reduce my food shop costs please share. We spend about £45 per week on food but thats not inc meat or fruit. Thats for me, OH and LO who is 3 in march.

 

[sequeena]

Hi, my first piece of advice is go through your cupboards, fridge and freezer and make a list of everything you have. If you need some help thinking up meals post them here I've been doing this for a while and last night went through everything I had. I'm mortified that I have so much food!! So for me until it's run down I just need fresh food, household, pet food and replacing things when needed.

I never pay full price for meat. I always look out for good deals (half price is best). I buy reduced meat and freeze it (currently have lamb ribs, 85% meat sausages, pork shanks, meatballs, stewing steak and more all reduced). I also keep an eye on lidls website as they do half price weekends and there's usually some sort of meat in it.

Unless I know I'm making a soup or something that would be better with fresh vegetable I use frozen. I usually add it on to a meal. It's cheaper and just as nutritionally good (a lot of people think it's better as it's frozen pretty much straight away so doesn't lose nutrients like fresh veg does).

Grains like cous cous are great for filling you up. Add veg, some stock and you're good to go. It's so easy to cook too.

Meal planning definitely helps and also meal plan your snacks. I've been able to cut out crisps and chocolate this way and I'm working on cutting out fizzy pop. It's amazing how much junk costs.

Bulking out meals is another good one. If I'm making a bolognese/cottage pie I always add a tin of baked beans and a handful of porridge oats. It all gets soaked in and you will never know the oats are there. A lot of people use lentils, I prefer porridge.

I always use mysupermarket.com to see where the best deals are. I have a budget of £70 a week to include everything but I've recently been coming in at £50-60 and I hope to reduce it further as we're going on our first family holiday in March and I need to be as frugal as possible.

 

[Natasha2605]

We were in the habit of doing this too but fell out of it. Starting again as we are trying to reduce debts and go on holiday hopefully. This weeks meals are :

Saturday - Homemade Spag Bol & Garlic Bread
Sunday - Pork Roast
Monday - Pizza
Tuesday - Cottage Pie and Peas
Wednesday - Chicken curry, rice and naan
Thursday - Baked Potatoes
Friday - Takeaway

Always looking for new ideas for meals!

 

[tasha41]

I've heard that meal planning for the whole month is the way to go.

 

[DCS]

I used to meal plan for a month but i ended up popping to the shop for top ups too much. If i do it weekly i dont ever need to go top up.
I generally always use frozen veg, we used to waste so much of the fresh stuff. OH did a list of the cupboard food and its alot of tins of random bits like chick peas and butter beans but i was thinking of adding them to sauces to bulk them up.
We dont often buy chocolate, well i usuLly buy some for OHs lunch for work, never buy crisps. I do however drink alot of dr pepper and i need to stop. OH and LO drink juice or water OH will occasionally have ribena or vimto.

Iv just done my first food shop and meal plan this year....

Monday: jacket spuds with cheese and beans. I will dish up salad but only i will eat it.

Tuesday: roast chicken with veg, spuds, yorkies and gravey. Again i say veg but only i eat them.

Weds: chicken fajitas with salad.

Thurs: h/m minted lamb burgers with h/m chunky chips

Fri: lasagne with garlic bread and sweet potato wedges and salad.

Sat: lamb curry with naan, rice, salad, and a yogurt cucumber onion and mint dip. Might see if i can get some popadoms.

Sun: pasta with a jar sauce, garlic bread and salad.

With salad, veg and rice, i put some on each of our plates but im the only one that eats them. I only serve OH and LO a small amount, enough for them to try it. I figure if i keep putting it on their plates maybe oneday they will eat it.
If it were upto my OH and LO we would live of pizza, pasta and potatoes. OH has finaly got the message that he needs to try food especially in front of LO since he is so fussy.

 

[summer rain]

'More with less cookbook', it's amazing. The format takes getting used to but once you do it's the easiest cookbook to follow ever, it's not a vegan cookbook but all the recipes are highly adaptable and designed to make use of storecupboard ingredients regardless of what type of diet you have. I used to plan meals but now I just get ingredients I know I can make recipes out of the book with and randomly open it on a recipe and make it. I also have the two other recipe books in the series but don't use them as often as the recipes are more complex and contain more specialist ingredients. Our average spend is about £75 a week for absolutely everything and there are seven of us xx

ETA: aside from own brand coke, 1 small tub of soya ice cream on some weeks and dark choc chips for baking we are very strict on buying junk and processed foods. If we want cookies or cakes we make it ourselves

 

[Caite]

I make a cottage pie type thing with red lentils instead of meat, and put loads of veg, chopped small, in to it (very small if I'm making it for my sister).

A mushroom pie, I sometimes make the pastry, sometimes bake it myself (depending on how much time I have) - selection of different mushrooms, though just normal, closed cup mushrooms would work too, I guess, cooked with a bit of cream and some shallots for about half an hour and then put in the oven.

I do a selection of soups. Red lentil is my favourite, really quick and easy to make, red lentils, stock, a parsnip (or potato), 2 carrots, red onion, a clove of garlic and some paprika, boiled for 10 minutes, simmer for 20 minutes, allow to cool slightly, blend and heat back up. Mushroom soup, leak and potato - all nice and thick and filling. I can never get them to freeze and defrost right, though

A tart type thing (either with home made or store bought pastry) with a selection of veg on top, a little like a pizza, really.

I did lamb meat balls the other day, in a tomato sauce and served with spaghetti, really quick and easy to make

Home made fish cakes, which was tuna (I keep meaning to have a go at making it with salmon), cannellini beans, eggs and breadcrumbs, but haven't made that for a while. I found it a bit fiddly, but it was really nice.

Cauliflower and broccoli in a tomato sauce, was really yummy, but again not made it for a while.

Chicken in tarragon sauce, with whatever veg I fancy on the side. Boil the chicken pieces in stock with a garlic clove and tarragon. Remove the chicken, but keep hot. Sieve the stock, add some white wine (though I guess this could perhaps be substituted for more stock for your LO?), bring back to the boil, reduce by two thirds, add the cream, reduce by a half and serve.

Stir fry with whatever veg I have to hand, real cheap noodles and sauce from a jar.

Fish pie - I don't eat very much fish, but this was really nice.

Casserole

 

[ellismum]

Look at what your buying first and whether your actually using it! Pin the receipt from the shop on the fridge and as you use it cross the items off. You may be amazed at the things you buy out of habit and don't actually use, I know I was!

If you have them near buy, Aldi and Lidl have also proved cheapest for us, Lidl do 1/2 price weekends and there's vouchers in the mirror paper on the last Thursday of the month for £5 off an Aldi shop as well as several for 1/2 price individual items.

Farmfoods sell 2 loaves of Hovis for £1.60 here as well as 2 4pinters of milk for £1.60! A kg of marg for a £1. They also do great multi it offers and vouchers are available all the time.

There are some great blogs and forums to help, the old style money saving thread on Moneysavingexpert has some thread where people feed their family healthily for really low amounts a week.

Check this one out too, she has some fantastic ideas and recipes: https://agirlcalledjack.com

 

[Boothh]

our meal plan for this week is

S- jacket potatoes, beans and cheese for me and LOs leftover chilli for DH.
S- Shepherds pie with veg on the side
M- chicken breast burgers with oven chips and corn on the cob
T- corned beef hash and dumplings

Havnt gone further than that cus I get grocery shopping on Wednesdays x

 

[Boothh]

our meal plan for this week is

S- jacket potatoes, beans and cheese for me and LOs leftover chilli for DH.
S- Shepherds pie with veg on the side
M- chicken breast burgers with oven chips and corn on the cob
T- corned beef hash and dumplings

Havnt gone further than that cus I get grocery shopping on Wednesdays x

 

[sheebee]

I'm joining this thread - super skint after Christmas and we wanna go on holiday in June so time to get saving!

 

[R_x]

Stalking x

 

[Jchihuahua]

These meals are for oh and the kids as I am veggie. I tend to have what they have but without the meat or using quorn. We are on a strict budget as I am on maternity pay. Our meal plan for this week is:
M: sausage, mash and beans
T: tuna pasta bake
W: roast chicken, veggies, potatoes, yorkshire puddings
T:Sausage casserole and rice
F: homemade pizza and pasta salad.
S: Spinach and ricotta tortellini and tomato sauce
S: chicken casserole

 

[Eleanor ace]

I tend to meal plan for 14 days. I do an online shop and try to spend £120 max; this includes stuff for lunch, household and cleaning stuff. I'm currently on day 3. My list for these 14 days is:

Lasagne with chips and salad
Pasta bake with salad
Pie with mash and peas
Jacket potato with beans and cheese, salad
Chilli
Chilli nachos
Cheesy potato and vegetable bake
Duck stir fry
Fish cakes with buttery rice
Ceaser salad
Curry with naan and rice (naan and rice bought not home-made)
Chicken in white wine sauce
Pasta with haloumi, tomato and mozarella (x2)

 

[highhopes19]

We do mostly all our shopping at aldi and spend around £45 (this week was £65 but that did include 2 box boxes of pampers from asda which will last her the month) all in and some of that is things we only need to buy once a month like cleaning stuff, crisps, toiletries.

We sit down and do a meal plan every week... Not everyone's thing but one day of the week I do a massive spag bowl or Shepards pie and use it for 2 days or turn the slag bowl into chilli with a few extra bits added.

This weeks are

Sunday: Shepards pie with extra vegetables and home made gravy
Monday: shepherds pie left over from yesterday
Tuesday: sausage and sweet potato stew
Wednesday: something quick as I don't get in from work till late probably dippers with chips , beans and corn on the cob (Isabelle's faves)
Thursday: chicken and chorizo stir fry
Friday: Mediterranean roast chicken and vegetables with couscous or rice
Saturday: soup with grated cheese and bread rolls

 

[QueenMummyToBe]

I try to buy fruit/veg/meat that is on offer (like Aldi super 6
For lunches I try to make a giant batch of veggie soup to last the week.

Our meals are usually -

Sausage casserole
Spag bol
Chicken curry
Chicken & potato
Fajitas
Fish pie
Chicken stir fry
Roast dinner (use leftovers for at least 3 meals)
Pasta bakes
Potato bakes
Chilli
Chicken casserole

We use value brands as much as possible and bulk things out with extra veg and

Xx

 

[sequeena]

Cowboy hash - one onion, whatever quantity mince you have, tin of oxtail soup, tin of baked beans and a tin of sweetcorn. You can serve it with anything did a meal for the 3 of us and 2 portions have gone into the freezer.

 

[Charlie91]

Stalking this thread

 

[DCS]

Some brilliant ideas here. The cowboy hash looks great.
Iv got a bunch of tins in the cupboard that are just sitting there. I might have to try and get creative with them.

 

[MissRhead]

Watching this thread too. I find it really hard with portions as I have to cook one thing for me then another for LO as he is SO fussy! Theirs always a lot of wasted food I find, meal planning sounds like a really good idea x