Meal planning

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DH and I really need to do some cost saving, I have so far changed insurance providers (life insurance) and saved £12 per month, reduced our broadband package and saved £2.50 per month, reduced our TV package by £10 a month and am now focusing on our food bills. We spend around £100 per week, and I want to reduce this by £25 per week at least. I have put together a basic meal plan and wanted some help to see where we could cut further/ideas for cheap meals etc.

A couple of barriers to really cutting it down/things to bear in mind are:

DH is a tall and big built guy and works in a very manual job, he burns off a lot of calories through work, he also has a rather large appetite, which is understandable.

DH hates any sweet/savoury combination, so won't eat meat flavoured with any fruit for example.

I have a nut allergy.

DH prefers meat with every meal, but does not eat fish (other than chip shop cod occasionally). If I tried to serve him a veggie dinner I think he'd cry ;)

So, my 'tester' meal plan is as follows:

(Dinners only as DH eats breakfast at work, DH has home made sandwiches and fruit for lunch, I get lunch at work free and DD eats lunch with CM, and has porridge or toast and yogurt for breakfast.)

Dinner1:
Sausage 'pie' stolen from netmums ;) )
Consisting of 1 pack sausages cooked, placed in dish and layered with baked beans then mashed potato and cooked in the oven until mash has browned off. - What to serve with this or is that enough?

Dinner 2:
Meatloaf (padded out by mixing in cooked rice/lentils) served with potatoes and broccoli/cauli.

Dinner 3:
Large baked potatoes (our market sell jumbo ones) halved, hollowed out and filled with the mashed insides, bacon, onions and topped with grated cheese. Served with peas.

Dinner 4:
Omelettes filled with cheese, spinach, ham, mushrooms, served with salad of cucumber, lettuce and peppers.

Dinner 5:
Stir fry (using meat from chicken legs as these are cheaper than fillets), beansprouts, mushrooms, peppers and smart price noodles.

Dinner 6:
Chilli - mince meat, grated carrot to bulk up, diced onion served with rice.

Dinner 7: Sausage and mash with fried onions and gravy (and peas for me and DD)

So, can DH really turn his nose up at that?

if he's a meat man buy the big joints in the supermarket when they are half price. roast as normal and freeze. microwave for a couple of mins to reheat - works suprisingly well!

Good tip for Sunday roasts (that he really likes) thanks Supadupa

Looks good but its only one week, what about the other 3 in the month?

Have you looked on the Martin Lewis money saver expert website?
Its brilliant and it has sections on this and where to get cheep foods and budget.

We spend £40-£50 per week for the 3 of us on food shopping by meal planning. £50 is an expensive week btw, if i need washing powder or dishwasher tabs.

Aldi do really cheep vegies for stir fries, much cheeper than big supermarkets. Try there.

Nananaps I have been nosing on netmums, here and google in general for meal ideas, this is my tester week to see how much I can save ;) If it works as well as I hope then DH will be won over and I can plan the following weeks.

At the moment we shop at Aldi and Tesco/Asda, but use alot of chicken breast, nice bit steak usually once or twice a month for DH and it just keeps adding up and is now unmanageable with the way prices are rising.

We started getting some bits at Aldi around 18 months ago and our shop was £60-£70, not much has changed now in terms of what we eat but prices seemed to have sky rocketed for meat especially.

I switched to Aldi's Almat washing gel and their softener and really like those which was a good saving compared to the Fairy and Lenor I was buying previously.

Any ideas for the other 3 weeks of the month are greatly appreciated so I can compile a monthly meal plan to avoid repetitiveness.

Thanks :)

What about casseroles/stews baulked out with root veg and pulses. Served with mash or dumplings.

Home pies.

Chicken and Veg - I use the meat from either a leftover roast or i buy Asda chicken wings about £2.00 a packet poach and then meat removed from bones and skin then add to fried onion and a tin of condensed mushroom soup thinned with stock or water. Then add either mushroom or frozen veg.

Topped with pastry, suet pastry or mashed mix root veg. This will probably make a least 2 family size pies.

Mince and potato pie, Shepherd pie.

Also check what meat Asda have in their 3 for £10 selection, and If looking at doing Roast chicken check the price of their ready cooked chicken our have been doing 2 large cooked chickens for £6 where as the uncooked one were £7 for one.

I meant to say portion your cooked roasts out before freezing. something i leaned recently and can't believe how nice Gammon, pork, chicken, beef etc is sliced from the freezer. I even freeze chicken scraps for rissotto.amazing

mince dishes, cottage pie/spag bol/chilli
Rissotto with chicken scraps and peas
beef stew

sunday dinner pie (all leftovers in pastry...tis yummy if you add a white sauce)

You think he'd cry at a vegetarian meal but the burly Yorkshireman with a hearty appetite in my life thinks my Vegetarian Chilli (made with three different types of beans and loads of peppers) is brilliant. Of course I'm on pain of death not to breath a word to anyone that he has enjoyed a meatless meal but, if money's tight, he's got two choices. Pony up more cash or suck down the beans and be grateful!!!

what about toad in the hole?
sausage casserole with mixed beans and tomatoes? sausage based dinners always come out of the woodwork when moneys tight here.

lasagne?

I also suggest introducing meat free meals- Swede and potato pasties, with cheddar cheese is always a hit with dh.

curry lends well to less meat as well- fill it up with veg/lentils.

soups and dumplings are filling and delicious- winter veg soup with dumplings (I chop bacon very small and add to dumplings to meat up my soup).

In fact I use chorizo and bacon to meat up a lot of veg dishes- fried rice, stews,soups,omelettes etc, they're both cheaper than proper meat and stretch further.

Thanks for the ideas, sunday roast pie sounds amazing!

Will definitely be trying to tip for the roast joints too

Cogito, your chilli sounds amazing, I once made a quorn spag bol and he admitted it 'wasn't half bad' so maybe if I prove over a couple of weeks how much we save on shopping I could broach a veggie chilli

Heat some cheese sauce & add a tin or butter beans to it. Place in a shallow dish & cover with bacon & either grill or put in a hot oven. Serve with crispy bread & a salad.

If you are going to go down the line of a monthly meal plan try to do it in 3 lots of ten days, rather than weekly. That way you avoid the 'it's Tuesday, so it must be sausages' syndrome.

Try working out when your supermarket mark things down, then if poss, buy lots and put in the freezer. We ate sausages reduced to 50p for months once! Meal plans are great, but if you can be flexible you're less likely to go mad!

TheSecondComing There are three of us, DD is 4 and has a good appetite for her age :)