budgeting for food

[mumtoblaire]

just wondered how you learn to meal plan and how you stay within budget. I just spent £16 in asda on not a lot if i am honest.

£1 for two corn on the cob
£1 for milk
£1 marshmallows
£1 hasselback potatoes - throw in the oven
half cucumber, some beetroot, rice, jar sweet and sour sauce, pizza for DD1,sausages for DD2 - and she never ate them.

Would love to meal plan and stick to it. I generally think about dinner 30mins before everyone needs to eat. I work full time, DH works full time, DD1 is 9yrs and DD2 is 2yrs.

Advice greatly received.

I do a 4 week plan as dp gets paid 4 weekly (I'm on mat leave so my contribution is tiny). At the beginning of the 4 weeks we buy all of the meat, non perishables and anything that can be frozen. Then at the side of my meal planner I do a weekly list of fresh stuff I'll need for those meals and also fruit, bread, lunches. I prefer to shop that way because it means I can take advantage of any multibuys. Most supermarkets have 3 for £10 on meat for example, so I can spend £20 on meat and get a chicken, a gammon joint, some bacon, salmon etc and get about 10-12 meals out of it.

I like making lists and planning stuff and I love cooking so I can happily spend a couple of days looking up menus and deciding on the meal plan. We try to not repeat any meal in 4 weeks so we get plenty of variety.

That makes sense.

How do you work out what meals to cook.

I mean to you do for example - one chicken, one mince, one fish etc meal each week.

I made a beef stew yesterday in the slow cooker. A pack of diced stewing beef, a £1 bag of casserole veg from farm foods, some Worcestershire sauce, some beef stock and a bit of hot water. Cooked on low all day and was delicious when we got home. I did coat the beef in some flour to thicken it before adding the rest of the ingredients.
I made some dumplings and stuck them on the top for the last hour or so (actually dd1 stuck them n the top when she got home from school) and we ate it in big bowls with some peas and sweetcorn because we've run out of green veg.

MrsPnut - that sounds delicious, I have everything to make that. Will be taking the slow cooker tomorrow and may treat myself to one when I get paid.

EnglishGirl - wow 4 weeks menu plan and shop. I am just planning my first ever and thought 2 weeks was a stretch. How do you manage not to repeat a meal in 4 weeks?

I also plan 4 weeks at a time. This is roughly what I do -

work out what meat and fish meals we will have (usually no more than 8 every four weeks) and spread them out over the weeks

make a list of pasta meals, rice meals, bean/lentil based meals and do the same

fill any gaps with other stuff like homemade soup, potato meals and bread based meals.

Sometimes there is an obvious overlap like making chick pea and pasta soup if I am cooking chick peas or pea and ham soup if I am cooking ham.

I try to have a couple of meat/fish meals, a couple of bean/pulse based meals, a pasta meal, a rice meal and one other thing each week. This makes it easy not to repeat meals during a 4 week period. It actually makes it quite easy not to repeat meals for 3 months or even longer, tbh, unless it's something staple like mac and cheese which the kids would eat every week.

I tend to do one fish meal a week, 1 veggie and 1 to use up leftovers e.g Omelette, Savoury Pancakes or Quiche. We find it fairly easy not to repeat meals as there's very little we don't eat and I like to cook. Like stressed there a couple of things we love so might have more than once but not often. I commented today that we haven't had either spag bol or carbonara this month and they tend to be staples. We try to stretch things out so if I do a roast we'll get 2/3 meals out of it and a days worth of sandwiches. Likewise if I do spag bol I'll save a couple of spoonfuls in the freezer then the following week it can be mixed with some veg and pasta to make a pasta bake.
I'll put this months planner below so you can get an idea of what we have. I'm already planning next months as I got some bargain short dated stuff in Asda this week (Murguez Sausages 80p, Spinach Quiche 89p, haddock fillets £1.20) so I've frozen it and I'll use it at the beginning of next month.

So, meal plan for September

wk 1
Sun Gammon Joint
Mon Ham, Egg & Chips
Tues Stir fry
Wed Spinach & Feta Tart
Thur Lamb Skewers & Salad
Fri BBQ Meatballs & Rice
Sat Cheeseburgers

wk 2
Sun Bangers & Mash
Mon Spanish Omelette
Tues Corned Beef Hash
Wed Salmon & New Potatoes
Thur Sausage & Bean Casserole
Fri Chicken Curry & Rice
Sat Hot Dogs

wk3
Sun Pie & Mash
Mon Macaroni Cheese
Tues Fish Goujons
Wed Meatballs & Spaghetti
Thur Savoury Pancakes
Fri Kievs & Chips
Sat Burritos

wk 4
Sun Roast Chicken
Mon Stir Fry
Tues Shepherds Pie
Wed Pasta Bake
Thur Jerk Chicken
Fri Homemade Pizza
Sat Thai Veg Curry

Just a quick question from me:

say i made chilli and i had leftovers, is it ok to freeze? If so, how do you cook it again, just defrost and reheat?

Yes, pretty, just cool and freeze. Then defrost and reheat in a pan.

Great post EnglishGirl, thanks very much!

As long as you make it's piping hot when reheated your be fine.

I try to freeze any leftovers even if it one portion. Then we have an odds and sods night where we are all eating different things.

Thank you :)

I am planning our dinners for next 4 weeks. I have got one week so far and not sure whether to just rotate this plan 4 times or try and find different things. At the moment I have pork shoulder in the slow cooker with BBQ sauce and coke so if that tastes all right we can add this into the plan.

We tend to live on pasta/pesto and rice/sweet & sour sauce. The kids don't often eat with us as they usually have dinners at grandparents before I collect them after I finish work. I don't really eat fish but do like Tuna.

WEEK 1
Sunday - Roast chicken, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, peas/sweetcorn
Monday - Chicken carbonara
Tuesday - Shepherds pie, carrots, yorkshire puddings
Wednesday - Chilli with rice
Thursday - Spaghetti Bolognese
Friday - Noodle stir fry with veg
Saturday - Pizza

Any ideas/thoughts?

How about sometimes making variations on those dishes, eg:

• different veg with your roast chicken each week

• different pasta dishes instead of always carbonara, eg tuna pasta bake, pesto+pasta+chicken, ratatouille+pasta

• shepherds pie with sweet potato topping instead of normal potato

• instead of always chilli, how about burritos (basically chilli with wraps and added bits) or enchiladas

• good variations on spag bol: spaghetti with meat balls, lasagna...

Thanks

Lots of great ideas.

Tuna pasta bake and pasta/pesto with chicken are very easy and loved by us both.
The pork from the slow cooker is absolutely awesome and will do us quite a few meals. It gets the thumbs up from DD1 so will do us all.

Meal - Tuna pasta bake
Meal - Pork with roast potatoes and yorkies
Meal - pasta,pesto chicken and veg.

Anyone cook ratatouille in slow cooker?

Since I've been meal planning and cooking packed lunches from scratch instead of doing crisps and snack bars to go with sandwiches, we've spent far less money, the kids have started eating more healthily and less fussily. We're back to Friday being treat night instead of them helping themselves twice daily from the snack cupboard. It used to bulge with crisps and biscuits. Now it bulges with bags of flour! The DC are really appreciative now. I made some rocky road for about £1 today and they were thrilled. Before they'd have scoffed down shop sweets and not commented.

We also eat left overs instead of throwing them out. DC love it. They ask for left overs night and choose from the menu.

Also, we used to over eat, with too many second helpings. Now I save seconds for next day's packed lunch.

Any of us who are overweight in UK can save money by not eating so much. It's a really good diet!

I'm loving doing more baking. Free apples from garden and and blackberries from the woods to make muffins and crumbles and pies for a few pence. Makes the house smell good too.