Hey twolittlemonkeys, yea I do the price-check with every ASDA shop. I find it doesn't always result in savings though as quite often Tesco have other items which are cheaper, but they are not compared directly with the items in ASDA as Tesco have wider variety of cheaper products (certainly in my local stores they do).
I have to stress that the costs I worked out are specifically for my meals and my family. I sat and wrote down every meal (I do a monthly plan) and exactly what ingredients go into each, costed the best price from Tesco or ASDA, then added it all up. Hopefully you can get the same savings, but as I said in my original post you might even get better prices as I didn't include discount offers (as I wanted a proper idea of how much I spend from month-to-month on food) and I'm feeding 3 adults (all of whom enjoy good-sized portions!).
The menu plan I'm following is a 4 week plan, Mon-Fri as follows:
Mondays:
1 - pasta bolognese (same as spag bol, just my toddlers manage pasta with a little less mess!)
2 - chilli con carne with rice
3 - lasagne
4 - sausages and champ (mashed potato with spring onions)
Tuesdays:
1 - salad with wheaten bread
2 - quiche with green veg
3 - omelettes (various fillings)
4 - pizza and garlic bread
Wednesdays (soup day!), all served with a French baguette:
1 - veg and barley soup
2 - chicken and veg soup
3 - bacon and leek soup
4 - chicken and tarragon soup
Thursdays:
1 - fry (soda bread, potato bread, sausages, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans)
2 - Tuna and pasta bake
3 - bacon butties
4 - bacon and onion pasta bake
Fridays:
1,2,3 and 4! - fish and chips!
I tend to just do chicken fried rice on a Sat (my husband's favourite Chinese take-away!) and a roast chicken with veg on a Sun, not very exciting, but keeps costs down. However on occasions I'll just see what I pick up on offer at supermarket and do that to give us a bit more variety.
Obviously you guys will have other cheap and easy meals you can substitute for any of these, some of which will be even cheaper, this is just what I do.
I do homemade sauces for my bolognese, chilli and lasagne, and homemade wheaten, but just get the frozen pizzas - should probably do home-made to save a bit more, but ASDA do good pizzas for £1. I have to say I do get chickens from a local factory shop which helps save a bit, but apart from that everything else is Tesco/ASDA. Also I try to co-ordinate next-day lunches with any leftovers. Most of these meals are very common, but if anybody wants recipes for any of them please just ask.
If you're interested the tuna pasta bake came in the cheapest (£2.15 for the meal!) and salad the most expensive (£4.80) but all of them except 2 came in below £3 per meal.
Really hope this is useful for you all, and helps you saves a few pennies!