Help me (cheaply) meal plan

[Decafflatteplease]

Looking for ideas to help me meal plan on a budget please.

Family of 6, various dietary requirements and disabilities means I cook 2-3 different meals or variations on meals each night. And yes I hate it but that's life. I estimate we spend around £15 on each evening meal due to having to do it all seperate.

We do a monthly shop at Aldi for dry things eg cereal crisps, snacks then weekly shop at ocado with a top up at Asda midweek once or twice.

Im trying to meal plan but am so tired I just end up clicking the same things into the basket each week then still end up doing 1-2 top up shops.

Currently spend around £200-250 a week but would love to get it down to £150-200.

Typical weekly meals include..
Roast on a Sunday usually chicken or sausages but DC will only eat butchers sausages so it's around £8 just for sausages. Plus theyll only eat aunt Bessie's frozen roasties.

Chicken fried rice on a Monday if we had chicken on Sunday or veggie but only 4 of us will eat that so still need to make nuggets for 2 DC.

Spaghetti meatballs ( we all eat this) but that's around £10 all in.

Fajitas we all eat this.

Chicken curry but again only some will eat this.

I keep reading about cheaper meals like pasta bakes etc but only some of us would eat that so I'd still need to do seperate meals which is what is taking up so much money and headspace at the moment.

Maybe I need to accept this is just how it is but I'm sick of eating the same meals on rotation. And we really need to get the cost down.

Can anyone advise thanks.

This might not be popular but unless there is a real need I'd consider letting people just not have dinner. Everyone here has breakfast and a decent lunch, when I do a new dinner I know it may not be popular and that DC may reject it, if they do that's fine, there's bread and fruit available. No one will have malnutrition doing this occasionally. I sometimes cook a batch of tomato and bean soup and freeze this in portions so if I know someone won't eat tonight's meal they can have that microwaved

Jacket potatoes? We have them at least twice a week, everyone loves a spud. I just shove some salad vegetables on plates (cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks etc) and do beans and cheese and a pot of pre-made coleslaw so people can have what they want with their potato. Nice and cheap.

What are the dietary requirements?

I have to cook separately for Ds2 ((ARFID, and absolutely no room for variations), so I get that you have to cater for different needs.

In your position, I would look to vary what you’re cooking for those without other needs, and I would cook double of whatever you’re cooking and they eat the same for two nights in a row. Or if what you’re cooking could be frozen, cook double and freeze it for an east dinner another night. What about a lasagne, or cottage pie or a chilli?

Sounds like batch cooking will be your friend here, whether doubling up two nights in a row or freezing some and having less to do as a result.

Can you give more details on the dietary needs? Are they allergies, intolerances or preferences? It's hard to meal plan without this information as we might suggest meals that they can't have.

I agree, I'd invest in a massive pan- I have one that you can cook about 4x the usual recipe of a curry or soup recipe, it's vast. Then when you cook anything like that, quadruple the recipe and freeze the rest in one-dinner amounts. You can fit things in the freezer more easily if you put them in zip-loc bags and freeze them in a flat layer IYSWIM.

At least that way you're cooking less frequently (I get DS to help me with a massive batch cook one weekend a month and I don't really prepare much from scratch mid-week, we just eat my batch cooking from the freezer or have jacket spuds/falafel wraps etc.) Plus ingredients are often cheaper if you buy them in bulk.

Ok so we are 2 adults 4 children. 2 adults eat anything.

Children....one eats anything.

One is veggie.

One like @WellTidy said has arfid and complex needs so literally only eats sausages but they have to be from the butcher's so expensive. Chicken nuggets but only a certain brand or homemade. Or plain chicken in a roast or chicken curry but only korma. Or meatballs. That's it.

One is a typical toddler but to be fair eats most things.

So I'm tired!

Like I said above we have limited meals on rotation. So a roast usually on a Sunday but it's still very expensive eg dc only eat aunt Bessie's roasties so that's £2.85 a pack before any meat or anything. So that will be 5 out of 6 eat that. Something seperate for veggie DC, usually a pizza as oven on anyway

Fajitas 5 out of 6 will eat and veggie DC will have qouron in theirs.

Meatballs and spaghetti in tomato sauce we all eat, veggie DC will have spaghetti and pesto

Chicken curry 4 out of 6 will eat. Still have to make something for veggie DC and also toddler doesn't eat curry but will eat naan, rice etc.

Hope this is all making sense. Honestly I'd love to do a cheap meal we can all eat. Maybe I just need to accept this is how it is and find ways to cut spending in other areas and just accept our food bill is circa 1k a month?

Things like cottage pie will do 3 out of 6 of us, lasagne will do 4 out of 6.

Could you try making more of your main meals veggie and then adding meat for the meat eaters at the end? For example, could you make a chickpea curry (cheap and you can make a shedload of it in a batch to freeze) and then add some cooked chicken to meat eaters' plates? Although it would be cheaper if you could all eat the veggie version sometimes. Your toddler might even like that, mine wouldn't like most curries but does eat a very mild chickpea curry with rice.

How old is the vegetarian DC? If you don't fancy eating more veggie stuff all together then perhaps the veggie DC could take more responsibility for preparing their own food if they're old enough. I went veggie as a teen and my mum stipulated that I had to get much more involved in the kitchen if I wanted to be veggie as she was already overworked.

I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions for the DC with ARFID, but I'll keep thinking.

Actually if you really want to cut your food bills, everyone eating veggie most of the time is probably the easiest way to do it. My DH is vegan (we're veggie) and pretty much all our meals are vegan so there's no cooking twice, although often add some grated cheese/dairy yogurt etc for DS. Then the only person you have to prepare something different for is the child with ARFID?

Meal planning is a pain requiring calm headspace but it does save you time and money in the long run. Although you said you mostly shop at Aldi Supermarket delivery / click and collect can help you stick to a list so not always dearer. Iceland for example do free delivery over £40 and a decent range of 3 for £10 on meat & fish.

I try to plan 2 veggie meals and 2 fish meals a week so our plan looks something like this.

Sun roast chicken & trimmings
Mon leftover cold roast chicken, jacket potatoes & salad.
Tues roast butternut squash pasta with spinach
Weds salmon, couscous, green veg
Thurs black bean fajitas & salad
Friday fish pie
Saturday pork chops with beetroot & new potatoes.

Can you tell us what your family all like and we can try to make suggestions based on those?

So you’ve really got 1 with ARFID to cater for, and then everyone else, some of those meals minus meat for veggie DC.

From what your ARFID DC will eat, sounds like plain chicken is the most versatile ingredient for adapting to other meals.

What are they like with vegetables and carbs?

I have 1 pescatarian DC so we eat much more fish + veggie-based meals than anything else. If we have meat, it’s something that can be added to the veggie meal ‘base’, IYSWIM, so if we were having curry it would be veggie curry, maybe a side like sag aloo or daal too, rice or naan, then I’d add plain chicken cooked separately if anyone wanted to add it to their curry. That way of cooking would work for your ARFID DC, as well as the veggie, as they could have the plain chicken plus rice etc.

Things you can do this with are anything sauce-based, pretty much, and anything where the oven is on anyway as things are kept separate.

For other meals, if I’m cooking e.g. spag bol or meatballs, I’ll cook a big batch of veggie meatballs or bolognese once, and freeze separate portions to use for veggie DC as needed.

Basically, you move away from thinking ‘what meat can I base this meal around’. I’m not sure what the issue with pasta bakes is? Pasta is one of the easiest ways to do non-meat-based meals.

@LavenderHillMob yes you are right that meal planning requires calm headspace which I don't really have.

In my post at 14.02 I put up some meals we usually have, this is pretty much it on rotation 😱

We are a family of 6 and 5 are 16 and older and we manage to spend 100 a week.

I meal plan and buy weekly and not monthly. As your more likely to spend more popping into the shops during the weeks.

i make use of all leftovers-

So if I do a roast chicken dinner I will use the remaining chicken for a stir fry and Chuck in frozen peppers

I use the Aldi mince at £1.49 and make homemade burgers and make wedges.

I stock up on frozen chicken breast from Aldi which is cheap and use that for curry’s and other slow cooked meals.

i use Aldi mince to make chilli and bolognaise

I buy Aldi wraps and chuck whatever in it - so instead of rice we will chuck curry or fried chicken and peppers with BBQ in it and wrap and pop in the oven and sprinkle some cheese.

We also bought brunkwurst sausages and I make a curry wurst sauce with fries

Home made southern fried chicken- packs of thighs and legs are really cheap- you can make your own butter milk by mixing milk with lemon juice and marinating chicken in them- coat in flour and other flavours and deep fry and pop in oven - recipe is one of hairy bikers

I find recipe ideas on line

Meant to add that you should make your own yorkshires as it’s cheaper - there is a good Gaston black recipe on line

I feel your pain OP. I am in a similar situation. Mine all like different things. I'm a veggie and DD1 is dairy free.

The only thing all mine like is pasta. I tend to make a lot of pasta bakes.

I make a big batch of hidden veg tomato pasta sauce (can literally chuck any veg in but I usually use onion, peppers, grated carrots and courgettes and then use a hand blender once cooked) You can freeze portions of this to use as a base for pasta, lasagne, chilli etc. I even use it as a pizza sauce if we make homemade pizzas.

I got all mine to write down 5 meal choices each then used these in my meal plans each week. Couldn't please everyone every night but at least they got their choice some of the time.

If one child has arfid then that's obviously a 'fixed' cost but could you possibly chuck a couple of sausages in a pan for them and some cheaper ones for you?

Cook some korma to freeze and then microwave while the rest of you have something else?

Everyone have veggie fajita?

Pop a couple of veggie sausages in the oven on roast day instead of pizza?

It's really hard trying to accommodate everyone but I think you need to accept that 1 child is on a limited diet and work out how to feed them as easily as possible so the rest of you can have more variety

I sometimes swap butternut squash for chicken (you can buy frozen, ready prepared if short on time), and black beans for mince.

Would a Korma with veg like butternut squash, cauliflower, butter beans and whatever else you have available work?

Drained black beans blended with tinned tomatoes then mixed with fajita spices is another option.

Nugget wraps - McDonald's style are popular here and non-meat nuggets are an easy swap.

Another thought - if you have sausages with your roast chicken, do the DC eat all the meat? Could you buy say a pack of boneless chicken thighs instead?

I get you on the veggie / non veggie and ARFID issues.

Will the meatball eater eat them if they were Ikea style, with mash or chips? I make a decent version of the sauce from half gravy granules, half peppercorn sauce granules and a spoonful of cranberry sauce.

Or in a sub with tomato sauce and cheese?

We have Quorn nuggets all round (the meat eaters prefer them to chicken) - sometimes with chips, but sometimes in wraps with BBQ sauce and salad (fajita-esque enough?) or in burger buns with coleslaw / beans and corn on the cob...

My youngest dd decided to become vegetarian so now all our meals are veggie. I am intolerant to dairy and wheat so every meal I make is adaptable, I refuse to cook lots of different things.

During the week we generally have

Monday - easy meal due to clubs (leftovers, tinned/slow cooker soup, beans on toast, toasties & wedges etc)
Tuesday - curry/dahl/chilli in the slowcooker with rice
Wednesday - something like shepherd's pie/lasagne as I'm off so can pre prep it.
Thursday - jacket potatoes or a pasta based dish.
Friday - freezer dive (pizza, nuggets etc)
Saturday - some kind of roast or a dinner in a Yorkie pud (sausages), burgers or tacos. Something that takes more time to cook.
Sunday - curry/dahl/chilli/soup something I can cook extra for lunches.

My food shopping for 1 adult, 2 children (14 & 10) comes in under £60 a week. I use alot of beans, lentils, frozen vegetables. I get yellow sticker reduced stuff, use olio for bread and always try not to buy prepackaged snacks/treats. I find the biggest cost with food shopping can be the extras.

Lunch boxes they get main (sandwich, couscous, pasta, wrap, cheese & crackers). Vegetables (tomato, carrot, pepper or cucumber.). Fruit (grapes, satsuma, raisins, apple or banana chips). Treat (couple of biscuits from the tin, mini chocolate bar (funsize) or homemade cake). Crisps (I buy big bags and decant into a tub). Occasionally they might have a brioche for an after school snack.

Puddings - I buy big tub of cheap vanilla ice cream and have sauces, sprinkles. Or another favourite is lemonade floats (lemonade with a Scoop of ice cream!) Tinned rice pudding, tinned fruit. We make cakes. Jelly. Angel delight. Or sometimes a milky hot chocolate with a few biscuits.

We have squash but fruit juice is limited to a small glass at breakfast. I don't buy pre packed drinks, they can take squash in a small reusuable bottle for lunch.