Please help me meal plan!

[SolidGold]

I need to cut down drastically on my spending.

Dh has been out of work now for five months and it's not looking good. We are receiving any benefits we are entitled to, but are overspending.

We have been eating low carbs for over a year, so lots of meat, no pasta, bread, rice etc. Obviously this is an expensive way of eating and we just can't afford it any more.

I don't have a huge freezer - well, I have two, but one is full of raw frozen dog food, so I only have an undercounter freezer with three drawers to use for us - so can't cook lots in advance and freeze it. I buy as much frozen meat and veg as I can to cut costs, but I still need to bring the cost down.

Thing is, I don't really know what we can eat now. Obviously we can't stick to low carb, so will cut down on the amount of meat we've been eating and add in pasta and stuff.

Could someone help me meal plan for cheap meals?

I can cook, but I work part time so don't have all day to prepare.

I also find some of the expensive stuff is impulse buying, like crisps and chocolate (not low carb, I know ), so I think if I can plan ahead for stuff like that by buying cheaper versions.

I tend to shop online at Asda, I've paid for a three month delivery pass up front, which is saving me lots, so will stick with that for now.

I can't cook meals with lots of lentils and pulses, because I have IBS and they aggravate it terribly, so unable to bulk out meals with lentils for example.

Typical food for us usually would be roast chicken, spaghetti bolonese, cottage pie, lamb curry, chilli con carne, burgers, roast pork. We eat lots of veg and no puddings most of the time. For breakfast we have been having lots of eggs, scrambled, fried etc. I'm not sure cereal would be cheaper in the long run and certainly wouldn't fill me for as long.

Lunch has been home made chicken soup, chicken drumsticks, tuna mayo.

I've been including a bottle of wine in the shop as well - we don't go out at all, but a glass of wine in the evening at the weekend is our treat.

I'm going to sit down and work out my outgoings again, see how much I can afford a week, but I think I need to get the weekly shop down to £50 ideally.

We have an Aldi nearby, but no Lidl at all. Other local shops are just a small Tescos and Sainsburys, hence why I shop online.

I'm very grateful for any help at all.

TIA.

Thanks Everton, sounds good, although dd not keen in eggs, but could do some pasta or rice for her to go with tomato sauce.

Does your little Tesco reduce food on the sell by date each evening. I know the best times to go to several of our shops when the food is reduced to pennies. Tonight we are having roasted Aubergine (2@4p each) green pepper (5p) mushrooms (bag for 20p) and red onions (net for 10p) and pork loin chops, pack of 8 for 87p followed by apple crumble (bag of eating apples for 8p) with home made crumble and tesco value custard (17p a tin). Meal for 5 for £1.55 + a little oil and crumble mix, so less than 2 pounds. It's a rare week that I can't get enough reduced food to make most of the evening meals and on those nights we have baked potatoes, eggs or pasta and sauce. We do have some fairly eclectic meals though.

Wow Jinty! I never find things reduced to that extent. Maximum reduction seems to be 50% at local supermarkets. What day/time do you go?

Our Tesco (quite a big one) reduces the bakery stuff about 6:45, the fruit and veg at 7ish and the other things, meat, fish, ready meals etc about 7:30-8:00. It makes for quite a bit of hanging around but I usually go 2-3 times a month, get good meat and veg and freeze it. If you hang about a bit longer they start putting things out from the deli/in store butchers etc. It can be a bit of a bunfight (I used to be quite posh) but you soon get the hand of it! Our local shop, which is a small co-op reduces their stuff just after 5 - usually 75% off but sometimes more. I get quite a lot of good meat there.

Egg curry is lovely! Make your usual veg curry (anything goes) then add hard boiled eggs. They taste especially good the next day!

Can you eat porridge oats? I sometimes bulk out spag bol etc with a handful of oats instead of lentils.

Choose your veg carefully. Some veg is posher (and therefore more expensive) than others. Greens, onions, frozen peas, normal potatoes are common. Pak choi, shallots, mange tout and mini or special big baking potatoes are posh. Carrots are often good value By and large, veg is veg. Buy what is on offer/in a big "basics" bag of knobbly specimens and substitute for the posh stuff in your recipes. Try a market if you have one nearby, but have a good idea of what your ASDA prices are first, so you know what is good value.

Soups and stews are good and can be low carb. No bread for dunking though :( Try and keep the wine as a reward for losing the snacks!

souperb, I haven't eaten porridge oats for a while, as I think they do affect my IBS.

I agree about the veg - I don't buy "posh" fruit and veg, just frozen veg mostly and sometimes leeks if they aren't too expensive, for fruit mainly apples and satsumas at this time of year.

Jinty64, no such luck at our local supermarkets, there are very few reductions at all, and not that low, at the most they reduce by 50% it seems.

They are maybe a bit of an acquired taste, but cheapest sources of animal protein would probably be offal like liver, kidney, black pudding etc, and tinned fish eg sardines or maybe kippers.

I would do lots more eggy main meals like fritattas, chachouka, try egg curry? Bubble & squeak with fried eggs is the staple post roast dinner in our house. No potatoes needed. We chop and fry and onion and then add all leftover veg (I esp like shredded cabbage, carrots, peas) chopped up and fry til crispy. Have with fried eggs.

I dont know what price full fat greek yog is in Aldi but we buy 1kg pots in Lidl for £1.58 and this does my husband for breakfast for 1 week. He just has it plain. That's pretty low carb. For his lunch he has a hunk of diced cucumber, a choppe big tomato, some chunks of feta (93p for 250g in Lidl - pack does 4 lunches) and some black olives (59p jar in Lidl, again prob does 4 lunches) mixed together. Actually he's pretty cheap to keep!

If you're going to try introducing some carbohydrates then things like bananas are a good bet - still grain free and obv much lower carbs than say, toast, but fairly filling and substantial, and cheap! Likewise veg like frozen corn on the cob or butternut squash.

You could try slicing a banana in half and spreading it with peanut butter for breakfast?

And as far as high protein, high fat snacks go, you can do a lot worse than peanuts. And they are about 25p a bag for basics ones.

You say pulses are a problem - how are you with legumes? Are split peas an option? If so you can pad out soups/stews/mince with those and they are v cheap.

Also pearl barley is worth a shot - less than half the carbs of rice but can be used to make risottos or put in stews/soups/casseroles, also v cheap.

Good luck, what you're trying to do is not easy!

Thanks splittheteaagain, we do quite like liver, although dd doesn't, and I agree they are cheap. We would eat black pudding, but not sure what to do with it, surely it's very processed too?

I can't stand sardines though and I don't think dh likes them either, I'm certain dd doesn't!

Legumes are also a problem for me, I stay away from them completely.

I'll have a look for some pearl barley - I used to put it in stew ages ago, I quite like it.

I managed to get my shop down to £60 this week and that still included a roast chicken to eat over two days, roast pork (on 3 for £10 with bacon), frozen mince x 2, chorizo for one or two days and burgers (in rolls for dh and dd, without a roll for me). I pared everything back to Asda's Smartprice range where possible and it's been fine so far.