Ok, this meal planner thingy

[VictorianSqualor]

What is it?
I need to get more organised.
Fed up of buying stuff and throwing it away or forgetting something I need so I need to start meal planning.
How do you do it? Just choose the meals for the week and write down ingredients etc so you can be sure you buy them?

[Carmenere]

That is about it basically. It is just a way of being more efficient.

[ComeOVeneer]

Pretty much that in a nutshell. Also allows you to check cupboards etc and incorporate ingredients from there into the menus to reduce weekly shopping (tins/dry foods etc)?

[Basementbear]

I really can't bear to throw stuff away, so I always check what's in fridge and cupboards before going shopping and try to buy stuff that will go with them. I don't like the idea of having a rigid list of what to eat each day of the week, but I try to buy stuff that will work well together so I can vary it a bit. When I get home I make a note of the use-by dates and try to use stuff in the right order so I don't end up with some meat/fish/whatever that's been sitting at the back of the fridge all week. Stick a note on the fridge so you don't forget what you're supposed to be having.

I sound quite efficient don't I . Shame I can't be so organised about the housework!

[VictorianSqualor]

Ah, thanks Ladies, Wasn't sure if I was missing some important piece of information.

Am now the owner of a wonderful meal planner/shopping list document as created by DP.

[deanychip]

i do:
Mon
Tues
Wed
Thurs
Fri
Sat
Sun.

write meals for each day, check whats in the freezer, fridge, cupboards, then write myself my shopping list.
Make double curries, bolognaise,
chillies etc and freeze half.
Dont throw food away, put into old chinees plastic boxes and freeze, can get another meal out of leftovers.
i hand write this and keep my meal lists because i sometimes struggle to come up with ideas for meals, so if something is particularly nice, we have it a couple of weeks later.

On average, this way, i spend £20-30 on food shopping a week.

[Heebychick]

hi deany i've just seen on our other thread. I have started doing a meal plan each week, the idea came from Delicious magazine (friend bought me a subscription for Christmas) and they have great ideas for quick and easy recipes and also ideas of what to do with the leftover ingredients. We save a lot of money that way.

We bought a small extra freezer for the garage too and put food in there for DD and us when we overcook.

Good idea about the keeping the meal lists, i will do this now, that way i can be varied too. cool x

[VictorianSqualor]

20-30 pound a week!

I've been spending about £60 a week on food alone, without toiletries and household goods!

[lucysmam]

I spend about £50 a fortnight planning roughly what we're going to eat like Basementbear. & that includes toiletries & cleaning stuff.

I don't think you necessarily have to go as far as decide what you're going to have on what night, but at least have an idea of what the ingredients you have will make for the week & use what you already have in cupboards/freezer. I only ever need to 'top up' stuff in my cupboards rather than fill it from scratch.

Our next week is made up entirely of stuff frozen that's been left-over & kept in take-away type plastic tubs. Makes life soooo easy to have left-overs frozen when you can't be bothered to cook!