Meal planning/costco bulk buying

[Mrspimplepopper]

I normally shop at lidl. What used to be a £80 a week shop is now over a £100.

yesterday I went to costco and decided to try a bigger once a month shop for meat, cheese, fish. Ive portioned everything out and stuck it in the freezer.

I also got yoghurts, and kids lunch box bits such as veggie spring rolls and chicken sticks to be eaten cold. Big box of crisps.

What else is good from costco please? Any school lunch box ideas?

Hopeful bump

Ummmm huge bags of rice and tea.

The massive pizzas are excellent, carve it up 'raw' and then freeze, could always cook a slice for next day lunch when you've the oven on the night before? They often have excellent offers on cereal bars too.

Oooooo I love the pizza idea thankyou

Costco pork loins are ludicrously cheap, no wastage and freeze well.

Mini chicken fillets, I cook these with various sauces and then freeze as individual meals. Their burgers and meatballs are good. Sliced ham. Buffalo mozzarella. Canned tomatoes or passata. Even their mince is good.

I know you said monthly shop but did you see the price of their milk? Asda have a 4 pint at £1.09 Costco sell a two pack for around £1.60 last time we paid attention. Dh would normally shop there once a week on his way home from work.

Mince - freeze in gallon ziplock bags, roll it flat inside the bag with a rolling pin and it defrosts super quick rather than being a lump.

We get their pork loin too Ramblin and I make pulled pork in an Instant Pot. Usual size is 2.6kg but I managed to get a 3.4kg and that is what we are having today plus there will be left overs for lunches.

Frozen salmon is £26 for 7 portions but those portions are huge, their toilet roll, kitchen roll and tissues, babybel cheese, bin bags, white bin liners come in a pack of 100 but have never ripped on me and we have been shopping at Costco for about 13 years.

They do a frozen southern style chicken breast which my teens love on a brioche roll for lunch, easily cooked, cooled and chopped up for a lunch.

Obviously their famous hot chicken!

This is dependent on storage in your house. We have a pantry and a larder freezer in addition to our normal fridge freezer. Sometimes things are a little bit cheaper in the supermarket but overall we save a lot by shopping there.

We love their big pots of houmous, their meatballs, sliced ham, chicken thigh fillets are great value and the mini fillets cook nicely too.

We buy the frozen teppenyaki chicken and rice pouches. They are great for a warm lunch (4.5 minutes in the microwave) and they have lots of chicken in. The DC love them and they work out under £1 each.

They do packs of mini snacking cucumbers which go nicely in lunchboxes but not sure how expensive they are.

I got a 16 pack of chopped tomato cartons for £7ish last week. Their tinned tuna can often be a good buy

The duck spring rolls are delicious so I always buy those and the panko shrimp! Oh and their lemon sole goujons with lemon and pepper coating are absolutely lovely - fat pieces of fish that the kids love but again I'm not sure how they work our value wise - can't have been too expensive otherwise I wouldn't have picked them up!

Man I love Costco

I've just realised I've not been since last spring....I love it too! Must get that membership sorted. I agree re:needing good cupboards and a big freezer but if you've got those then I think you could easily do a month's shop in Costco then just top up with fresh fruit and veg etc from wherever, in between times.