would this be complete madness???..... bit long

[mothersmilk]

to do a meal plan for a whole month? go on line and buy all i need apart from fresh fruit veg bread milk were are scaleing down our out goings dramtically so i thought if i do this and we all really really stick to it and dont go out buying food for the rest of the month it would save us money right? or am i having a moment of madness? i do do a weekly meal plan as it is and buy weekly only what i need but it does leave me financially a little less organised for example i allow £25 for meal food including the first lot of milk and bread then £5 there after for more milk we dont eat much bread one loaf will generally do us but obviously some weeks i spend £20 on the food shop sometimes if im lucky evan less but im not organised enough to work out well if i saved myself £7 this week i can then add it to next week IYSWIM, so does anyone else do a really strict planned monthly shop and does it work?
many thanks

Could you meal plan for two weeks and buy all the fruit and veg and get a full supply of milk and (put in the freezer - milk) Bread freeze aswell in freezer bags so that you don't get a whole loaf out at once from the freezer.

That way you would only online shop every two weeks and could also use the same plan if it works for the follwoing two weeks thus your shopping list woud already be in the internet ready to press and go saving time.

I would also look at bulk cooking, cook a large chilli or spag bog and freeze three portions and eat one - then you have the next three weeks covered on one night of the week from the freezer.

There's a book called Saving Dinner that does a seasonal meal plan and gives a weekly shopping list.

I do a monthly plan and a monthly shop for all staple items (fresh fruit, veg and milk get delivered every week.)Until recently, I planned everything for the month, even snacks and drinks. It works really well, as long as you stick to it and it definitely saves money because you can see exactly what you have and what you need. I have to be a bit more flexible, now, because I never know what is coming in my boxes, but even then I still plan a month at a time for staple meals and then fit my box in with what I have already. For example, I will plan to make a risotto one day and will use whatever suitable veg comes, same with soup, quiche, crumble (sweet or savoury) etc.

Your best bet is to plan multi purpose meals that you can spread out over the month. Some I make are:

chill, make a big batch and have it with rice or in chilli cheese subs one night, make a chilli dog bake and a tortilla pie for the freezer.

Chick peas, cook a big batch serve some with couscous cooked in OJ with onions, flaked almonds and dried berries. freeze some for spicy chick peas and chick pea burgers later in the month.

Pinto beans; serve some with rice, bread, sour cream and grated cheese, freeze some for refried beans to make quesadillas

Spicy split pea soup, freeze the rest to eat as curry later.

meat balls and hm pasta sauce, freeze seperately for all sorts of things during the month.

cooked chicken, freeze in meal sized portions and use during the month to make curry, pie, pasta bake etc.

If you work it like that, planning monthly is really easy and works well.

Hope this helps.