Go food shopping..STILL no food in house WHAT

[Thinkpositive23]

I'm pulling my hair out. Literally.
I go food shopping for a big shop come home and there is still no food in in terms of something I can make a meal from or a go to snack..

How do you do your shopping?? What do you buy??

I'm so rubbish

I'm struggling to understand this. If you're not thinking about meals as you walk round the supermarket, what are you thinking of?

Do you have a storecupboard? Is it things like spices, herbs, stock cubes, garlic, tinned tomatoes, pulses, pasta, rice, flour etc that you are missing?

If you have the space and a little spare money, it is worth keeping a stock of all these sort of items, providing that you will use them, and then all you need to buy each week is the meat, fish, veg etc to make these into meals.

We meal plan - always like seeing other people’s meal plans too for some inspiration! So this week I have bought oats/milk/fruit for breakfasts, soup ingredients and bread for lunches then for dinner stuff for:

• roast chicken, couscous and salad
• curry (using leftover chicken) rice
• homemade veggie burgers, wedges coleslaw and leaves
• aubergine lentil bake
• casserole and veg
• fish cakes and peas and peashoot salad
• pizza and salad
• Jaket potato and savoury mince, veg

I'm struggling to understand this. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Unless you are just buying crap crisps how can you not buy something for a meal.

How much are you spending when you go shopping.

Sorry posted to soon.

I do for example

Sun - Roast Pork, Chicken, Beef
Mon - Cold leftover meat with Chips and salad
Tue - Sausage either with mash and peas or Toad in hole
Wed - Pasta meatballs, Spag Bog or veg tom sauce
Thu - Chicken fahitas
Fri - I don't cook a 'proper meal' so Burger, Soup or Pizza
Sat - Fakeaway.

I spend about £70 / £80 per week for 5.

This is my meal plan and shopping list for this week... It feeds three for just over a week.

LUNCHES
Storecupboard pasta (2 meals): www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11418/storecupboard-pasta-salad

Sweet potato salad (4 meals): www.averiecooks.com/roasted-sweet-potato-salad/

Aubergine and pine nut salad (3 meals): deliciouslyella.com/2012/04/28/roasted-aubergine-and-sun-dried-tomato-salad-with-raw-courgette-green-beans-and-toasted-pine-nuts/

Quiche Lorraine frittata with salad (3 meals):
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/679639/quiche-lorraine-frittata

www.everydayeasyeats.com/cherry-tomato-spinach-salad/

Pitta breads with falafel and carrot hummous and spinach (3 meals):
thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/roasted-carrot-hummus

TEAS
Sausage casserole (2 meals): www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7552/sausage-casserole-with-garlic-toasts

Sardine spaghetti (4 meals):
www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/sardine-chilli-and-lemon-spaghetti/

Pizza and leftover tomato/cucumber salad (2 meals)

Peanut noodle stir fry with spring rolls and sweet chilli sauce (2 meals):
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/noodle-stir-fry-crunchy-peanuts

Roast dinner with honey roasted carrot/parsnips, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and stuffing (4 meals)

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9020/best-yorkshire-puddings

...

Shopping list (assuming no storecupboard ingredients!):
Pack of sausages
Tin of tomatoes
3 red onions
Pack of 3 peppers

Veg stock cubes
Garlic bread
Pasta
Tinned tuna
Sun dried tomatoes (jarred)
Pesto
Capers
Olive oil
Sweet potatoes
Mustard
Honey
Net of lemons
Salt/pepper
Tin of bean salad
Sweetcorn (tinned or frozen)
Spring onions
Paprika
Aubergine
Courgette
Pine nuts
Packet of rocket
Cherry tomatoes
2 limes
Parsley
2 tins sardines
Red chilli
Spaghetti
Garlic
12 eggs
Packet of bacon
Cheese/grated cheese
Milk
Half cucumber
Pack of spinach
Balsamic vinegar
Ready made pizza
Noodles
Unsalted peanuts
Frozen stir fry veg
Soy sauce
Frozen spring rolls
Sweet chilli sauce
Peanut butter
Pitta breads
Falafel (frozen or chilled - cauldron are nice, frozen are cheaper)
2 tins chickpeas
Tahini
Carrots (for making batons for hummous sipping snacks)
Cumin
Joint of meat for leftovers
White potatoes
Parsnips
Stuffing mix
Nice bread/rolls for roast leftover sandwiches
Loaf of bread (for toast)
Avocados (for breakfasts)
Greek yoghurt (for breakfasts)
Tinned/frozen berries (for breakfasts)

I already had quite a lot of storecupboard ingredients but all fresh ingredients came to just under £47 in ASDA. I buy mainly smart price/own brands.

I will always have a frozen pizza/oven chips and fish/frozen vegetables/tins of beans in the freezer/cupboards for emergency meals so I'm never left without a meal.

Hope that helps - I love a meal plan :)

Wow sorry - I DID put in paragraphs, promise!

I'm struggling to understand this. If you're not thinking about meals as you walk round the supermarket, what are you thinking of

We have great nibbles

The best

Eh up its Donald Trump!

Me too OP. The struggle is real.

I don't understand how anyone could go supermarket shopping and NOT have this happen.

My solution these days is buy a pack of crisps to eat in the car on the way home and a pack of cake or something to have in the afternoon.

Recently I downloaded the Yummly app. You can favourite recipes from the app or add them from websites. You can then tell it to add all the ingredients to your shopping list, which is automatically sorted into categories. Magic! I have not yet managed to cook any of the recipes but I am enjoying knowing the ingredients and recipes are all there for when I get the chance!

This isn't really to do with money. This is to do about lack of organisation, imo. No offence.

I always plan my meals for the week so I know what to buy, and I check the fridge, freezer and cupboards when i'm making my shopping list. I do tend to stick to the same meals, so the shopping list does not vary much unless there is a special occasion.

I usually online shop so can think better but usually work through categories:
Household - I know what i use so see if anything needs topping up
Pets - what’s running low?
Breakfast - always need milk, what cereals are running low, eggs
Lunch - general bits, fruit, yogs
Tea - what are we going to eat for the next 4-5 days? What do I have and what do I need?
Snacks
Drinks

I think OP and co are going to Lidl and Aldi!

These are all great ideas and tips thanks all going to jot this down. Think DP doesn't help either he is very fussy and 9 times out of 10 hates what I cook so my shopping becomes a what the point issue too. Jotting as we speak

I don't understand how anyone could go supermarket shopping and NOT have this happen

Well, we put food in the trolley that can be assembled into meals. It really is that simple.

I'm just shit.
Plus DP is so fussy.

I've written down alot of hints from everyone going to attempt again!

Not got alot of money so try and not spend loads which is maybe why I mess up so much?!?

God I'm such a shit shopper haha

I don't meal plan as I've found out if I try to, either I don't want to eat what's planned or others don't want to eat it. I tend to keep basic items in stock and get general protein stuff that can be cooked depending on what we want to eat on any given day.

I have to go shopping when I'm hungry. I buy almost nothing if I'm not actually hungry. This is my only way to make sure food is in the house.

We keep an online list always on the go (Google Keep). Even the teenagers can add to it. DH ticks items off the phone when he buys, or I write them down & tick off when I get hoe.

But..I don't get what you mean when you say you've tried meal planning and it doesn't work!
So, let's say, you want sausage and mash...buy sausages and potatoes and away you go!
Fancy pasta and sauce? Buy pasta and some sauce! Garlic bread if you're feeling adventurous.
Honestly, this is not about money or cooking.

Are you very young, just left home? Because if this was your first ever supermarket shop I can begin to understand it. Otherwise I'm stuck.

What's your weekly budget thinkpositive? Could make some more useful suggestions.

If your DP is fussy just leave him to sort himself out or alternate cooking days and shop for meals cooked by both of you.

With the chicken, that will do a roast, so you need potatoes and veg, gravy and stuffing and there should be leftovers (don't start people) so you need something to make those into. This could be curry, pasta bake, fajitas, or have the meat with rice, chilli sauce and coleslaw ala Nando’s.

What do you plan to do with the mince? Chilli? Need rice, maybe tortillas, salsa, sour cream. Get some cheese, tomato sauce jar and wraps too and you could make enchiladas with the leftovers.

Or you could make bolognese sauce and have some with spaghetti and then make lasagne with the rest, need flour and Milk to make a sauce and cheese on top. Maybe salad to go With.

Maybe some potatoes and you can have a baked potato, with salad, cheese, chilli if there's some left.

Make chips and have egg and chips. Always get eggs and you can have omelettes, eggs on toast, egg salads, all sorts.

Sausage, bacon and beans for a cooked breakfast?

If any of these ideas appeal, write the ingredients on your list and away you go.

Maybe to start, if planning for a week is too daunting, try doing 2 or 3 days to start, unless the supermarket is miles away and you can't go there too often.

Weekly budget varies from 30 on a bad week to 70 on a good week so not alot of money to play with....
I wrote a meal plan dp literally looked at it laughed said he doesn't want half of normal stuff on there aka spag bol and fucked off can't sodding win.

Tonight is sausage mash peas and onion gravy I've got stuff in for that however tomorrow is 100% a good shop day as fridge is bare going to use my notes I've jotted down from you guys see if I can do better!

No I'm 26 own home since 17 been doing this a while now still not good haha x

Get your DP to write down what he likes not what he wants this week.. you do the same then compile the basic food plan and write a list.
Think what usually would get eaten for breakfast and what is for lunch and buy this, then your plan could start to work.
If he doesn't tell you what he likes and work with you he should have what's put.

He sounds very fussy! When you are on a budget that luxury has gone! Make a list of what he likes and then include some of these things each week.

I try and have a structure to my meal plan, eg. Monday is veggie, Tuesday is quick food, Wednesday is something with leftover chicken (from weekend roast), Thursday is something with mince, Friday is something that we love that's a bit special, Saturday is fakeaway and Sunday is roast. Then we freeze leftover portions for the following week or another time.

I also have a chalkboard in my kitchen to compile a list of things that I have run out of and this gets added to my shopping list.

I've not done this before, but it sounds like you're having trouble remembering what you need to buy, so this is what I would do. I would start on a spreadsheet a list of meals, so for example sausage and mash and I would write under it all of the ingredients (for us it would be sausages, potatoes, butter, milk, gravy powder, cornflour, stock cubes, onions, cabbage & peas). Then each time you do that meal I would copy and paste the ingredients I needed onto my shopping list.

It might also help you if you put together a list of staple items that you can just check for weekly - perhaps pin on fridge to check off. So milk, bread, eggs, cheese, cereal etc.

Lastly re your budget, I would even it out over the weeks. So rather than spending £30 some weeks and £70 others, and assuming this gives you £200/month I would only spend £50 on the £70 week and then put £20 aside for the £30 week. This might make budgeting a bit easier for you.

I meal plan WITH dh, that way we are both invested in the plan. We write down all the ingredients required for the recipes that we have selected and cross off any ingredients that we already have.
Then we do an online shop. We have a weekly budget and don't go over it and it's easy to control your budget in an online shop as you can avoid impulse purchases.
There is lots of advice for
Meal planning online together with suggested plans and shopping lists.
I would suggest that getting DH on board will be really helpful.