How to meal plan

[zeddybrek]

I'm really ashamed at the amount we spend on food, me DH and 2 children ages are 11 and 9. Both are very active and do multiple sports every week, holiday sports camps. We like to eat organic, healthy foods and barely throw anything away. But, the problem is I'm spending around £1,500 per month, sometimes more. That includes eating out at nice restaurants a couple of times a month. We don't drink or smoke or have pets. This doesn't even include any toiletries. I can't meal plan. I find it mentally really difficult and can't get in the habit. I think about dinner that morning and buy ingredients and it might last the next day. We have a tiny freezer, and even if I do use it I always forget what's it it so don't really use it much as we eat mostly fresh foods. We can afford it but I grew up on such little money, my head can't get over this lifestyle. We mostly shop M&S as we have a big one locally and it's tasty and convenient. I am happy to make time to go to Aldi and Lidl. We also have a good cheap market near us which is should use more often. Sorry for the longer post but I really need help and I don't know know why I can't manage the food budget better. I manage to do a demanding full time job that involves complex modelling but can't bloody meal plan, please help me. Any tips and tricks welcome and I'd love to hear how everyone else is doing it. Thanks.

Your number one problem is the tiny freezer.

Even if you did batch cook, you'd have nowhere to put things.

Two options 1) batch cook once a week e.g. on a Sunday for the week ahead 2) buy a bigger freezer and batch cook maybe once or twice a month.

I bought a second freezer on ebay for £10 and its been a godsend.

Currently it's full of Simmer Eats as I did the discount, but usually there would be a hearty batch cooked soup, some batch cooked bolognaise, and some kind of batch cooked healthy biscuits.

I spend £50-£60 every 10 days. For 1 adult, two older teens. I meal plan every meal and snack because I'm on a really tight budget.

I use my notes app I have a list of meals we have regularly. I then go through the kitchen cupboards/fridge/freezer note what we have and what we need. Then I make my meal plan around that plus then add to the list to get the full 10 days. I also check the calendar and alter meals depending on what we're doing. I then pop the list into the Tesco app (which is easy when you've got everything in your favourites). I have delivery because of my disability but the added bonus is I really can stick to my budget and not get tempted instore. I batch cook a couple of meals a week so it builds up a few easy cook nights. Bulk buy things like pasta, rice etc, or things on special offer. Cook mainly from scratch. Always have milk and bread in the freezer. Check dates on food when it arrives and alter meal plan accordingly. Push the shopping by a day if possible and use left overs (adds up over the year). Have tinned, frozen and dried fruit in for when the fresh fruit has run out. It probably takes me 45 minutes to plan and order but would take longer to go to the shop.

@ThisPinkBee thank you, my other problem is I live in a flat so finding the space might be an issue. However I will give this serious consideration and see if I can replace a kitchen unit with a second freezer. I feel ridiculous for spending so much on food when I grew up on home cooked meals on my mum's minimum wage job.

@Losttheplotornot thank you, I will start by writing down our usual meals and snacks. I feel really overwhelmed by meal planning. Which day of the week do you do this? Do you have one specific day and time each week?

When I was growing up my family had the same weekly meal plan every week. So it was sausages on Monday, spaghetti bolognaise on Tuesday, stew on Wednesday... You get the idea. I was in my mid teens before I realised that other families didn't live like that and I was amazed! It was implemented by my mother as (I assume) a way to reduce the mental load of shopping/cooking/running the house for 2 stressed working parents and 4 children.
It depends on how much your family need variety but something like that could be an option to help you plan a weekly shop that's within budget, and reduce the decision fatigue involved with thinking what meal to make every day.

ETA I second the freezer advice from above. We bought a second freezer when I was pregnant and it's been a godsend for batch cooking and having healthy meals on hand.

Every 10th day but I book my delivery slots 3 weeks in advance. I set reminders in my calendar of when to order.

I do a montly or 6 weekly rotation of a set meal for every night. It's varied around different preferences but tends to have 1 pasta, 1 rice dish, 1 fish, 1 red meat etc. I write them on the board, this is partly because people were moaning about dinner or asking me, so now I refer all enquiries to the board. This allows me to batch cook a little, for example when Cottage pie was on rotation I batch cooked an additional meat base one week then the next week I just had to pull it out of the freezer and i cooked an additional portion mash which was frozen for the night i had to cook the meat. Elements of a meal can be done in batch, like a ragu for pasta. I often do a Thai curry sauce with veg and do 3 lots, i defrost and fry beef one week, prawns the next etc. You need a bigger freezer. We have a second one in the shed.

If you don't want to freeze the same system works, you'll know your system and it will be easier.

Edited to add I also find meal planning stressful, it takes up much more mental space than it should. That's why I had to find a system, I'm not naturally organised and have to work really hard at it.

This is what we do:

We get a supermarket delivery once a week.

We have a running shopping list on the kitchen notice board which we add things to when we are running low. If anyone uses the last of something and doesn’t put it on the list, I shout at them.

Before we put in the order, we write a menu for the week (just the evening meal). I tend to start it off and put in 3 or 4 meals that I’m going to cook. I add the ingredients for these meals to the shopping list. Then I leave it out on the kitchen counter with a pen.

Anyone else who wants to cook something can add it, and my H will fill in the gaps just before he does the online order.

Things we run out of in between deliveries, I pick up from the local shop on my way home from work.

We are allowed to swap things around on the weekly menu and now and again buy something else on impulse.

I don’t have a massive freezer either, but it’s big enough for a week’s worth.

Breakfasts and lunches, it’s every man for himself. If it’s on the shopping list, it will come. If it’s not, not my problem.

I don’t have much freezer space or like to rely on my freezer too much, but do online weekly shopping which helps. I can then take time to plan the week’s meals as I shop.

You can also see how things are adding up, remove things and shop to a set budget.

With online shopping you are also at home if you need to check what you already have to avoid duplicating.

I consider what the week looks like and pick a mix of things. When the shopping comes, I look at dates of things to decide the order of meals to prepare.

The meals out will be adding significantly to your costs as well, that’s the easiest place to cut first.