Meal Planner Experts, help!!!

[grouchyoscar]

I undestand having a meal planner will help to reduce food costs but

Where do I start

Advice needed please

start by making a list of everything you have in your cupboards/fridge/freezer - absolutely everything.

Then make a list of exactly how many meals you will need to provide for the week (including breakfast/snacks) and how many for.

Here's what we do:

Shop once a week and plan a shopping list - in one of the corners write each day of the week and put a meal beside it:

Friday - sausage and mash
Saturday - jacket potatoes
Sunday - Spag bol

whatever. Then write on the list the ingredients you need for those meals, so:

6 sausages
10 potatoes
mince
can of tinned tomatoes
mushrooms
1 onion

etc. Then add on to the list other essentials - fruit, breakfast cereal, bread for lunches, milk, toilet rolls etc.

So the list only has on it what you actually need for that week.

It definitely helps with reducing costs but takes a bit of time to get used to writing as you need to do it very precisely to get it right!

I list down meals for the week

eg

Mon- Macaroni

Tuesday Oreintal Salmon and Veg stirfry with noodles etc

I jot down everything I will need to buy and but only what I need, normally from our local fruit market yum yum