4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Margalot]

Due to large scale disruption and all of our spare cash being ploughed into a major home refurbishment project, I have finally had to knuckle down and make my money go further.

 

We are moving into rented whilst work is being carried out and i will soon have 2 sets of bills and costs etc spiralling out of control! (dont even want to think about it at the moment )

 

so I need to shop only once a week if at all possible and start to meal plan. Currently I pop to the shops at least once a day to buy something whether it be for dinner or lunchboxes or just run out of something and inevitably buy other things and special offers or just something that looks good!

 

How do you plan? Does anyone have any ideas excel meal planners / shopping lists etc? I admit to throwing stuff away(or feeding it to the chooks) cos its was bought and then not eaten or gone off due to my lack of planning

 

What are your tips for me

 

It would also help as I work full time and now will have to make 2 daily trips back to the existing home to see to the chickens, (It was bad enough trying to find rented that would take the dog, so I never even mentioned the chickens!!)

 

Please share your ideas with me I am so un organised it is unbelievable

 

Thanks!!

[The Dogmother]

I don't plan meals as such, but have an idea as to what we'll be eating that week. I shop online once a week, so no cruising the aisles being tempted by deals.

 

I work full time, so find it better to batch bake and freeze stuff to eat when needed. Good luck.

[Helly Welly]

I'm in the process of putting menus onto the computer, with matching shopping lists ready to print off as necessary. It's mainly because i hate working out new menus each week so i'm doing it all in one go but it does help with budgeting too.

[jess]

I use jamie olivers website to find four or five recipes i want to make that week.

I get everything in one go but i always forget something, i think midweek shopping can be quite therapeutic though so its nice.

 

I usually print the recipe out and put it on the fridge to remind me and also probably the most effective tip is if im cooking, i tell my boyfriend what were having and he is really greedy so all day he says things like wow cant wait to eat _____ later for tea! and that keeps me motivated.

[Gem_Seb]

I have a fruit and veg box delivered every week then pop to the butchers on my lunch break to get meat so im not tempted to cruise the isles as well!

 

Then we go to the supermarket after work on a Monday I literally grab milk,bread and any toiletrees! If i can i try and get my toiletries in Boots or Lloyds chemist to collect the points of Lloyds always have good offers on.. also do this in my lunch break, it helps the browsing issue as you only have a hour to get it all and get back to the office!

 

My friend writes on her calender on a Sunday night what they will be eating every day for that week then on a Monday night they go and get everything..

 

Also if im cooking meat i buy a slightly bigger portion for a few pounds extra which we then use for packed lunches or a few meals...

 

Hope this helps!!

[poachedegg]

I have just recently done the same thing - for efficency, rather than budgeting.

 

I have done a 4 week meal planner on an excel spreadsheet, taking into account what activities are on what evening. Then the end of the previous week I do an online shop with said meal planner at my side (and knowing what we have in cupboards,freezer) and then pop to farm shop for fruit and veg.

 

It is working well and I feel very organised...though I have tweaked it a little bit along the way too!

[Chucky Mama]

My daughter and I did an experiment a few months ago as I was tired of hearing the 'feed a family of 4 for £5' - I didn't think it was that difficult so we put it to the test. We decided to feed our family of 5 for £5 main course plus a pud (very important). We drew up an 2 week menu and bought ingredients from scratch even though we already had them (like flour and oil). We were allowed to use our eggs and anything that we could pick or be given (were given some apples). We went online and bought everything we needed and had enough for the delivery £5 and had enough for a bag of wine gums!

 

We didn't buy anything of poor quality and I still bought organic carrots. We ate things like roast lamb followed by shepherds pie with the leftovers. Jointed a chicken instead of buying pieces. Ate more baked potatoes with salad and cold meats. At puds like crumbles and rice pudding. It was all in the planning; finding out what we could make with the leftovers. Making big stews and curries with potaotes to eek out the meat etc.

 

It was great and the next week out of interest we priced up how much is would have been to eat pizza, frozen pies, pot noodles, thing that we consider 'junk' food. It would have cost over £20 more

 

Now I tend to shop online. I am now using Ocado. The last couple of weeks I have let DD loose to draw up a weeks menu of things she fancies (I find it hard trying to think of new things) she makes up the menu and puts the thing in the shopping basket for me to check, add to and finalise. There is a recipe section on Ocado so you can get ideas and then easily tick off the ingredients and put them in your basket. (I have a £15 off voucher that I was sent yesterday for your first order over £45 if you want it). I like food shopping but I spend much much less when I shop online as I am not tempted to add unnecessary things to the trolley. I do still top up with fruit from Lidl though as I go right past it once a week and they are cheap.

 

I have put the Ocado voucher on the Free to good home section if anyone wants it.

Edited September 12, 2009 by Guest

[Cinnamon]

I plan our meals,have done for ages.

 

I just made a weekly menu planner on Word, which I copy & paste for the following couple of weeks.

Then I fill in what I am going to cook, & if there are leftovers to freeze,I slot them on to the following weeks plan too.

 

In the next column there is what I need to buy, so, if for example I have needed to buy Dill for my Swedish meatballs,I can see that I will have some left over & cook Salmon later in the week.

 

I have found 'Economy Gastronomy' very good & have done their Braised Mince thing, so I have 4 portions of that in the freezer & ready to make into various dishes.

I think I got 3 x 500g mince from Tesco for £5 on offer, which was good.

As my youngest is veggie I also need to plan for her, & we eat veggie 3-4 times a week.

Anything cooked especially for her I freeze at least one more meals worth too.

 

We do treat ourselves too, & usually buy the M&S meal deal,which is usually good value. I bought this today in fact & have saved £8 on the usual prices.

[..lay a little egg for me]

We do treat ourselves too, & usually buy the M&S meal deal,which is usually good value. I bought this today in fact & have saved £8 on the usual prices.

 

Ah but do you usually buy ready prepared veggies etc? I often look at this deal and think what it would cost to prepare from scratch (e.g., using loose veggies not pre-prepared veggies) and it is often not cheaper at all.

[Olly]

I was going to suggest 'Economy Gastronomy' - some really good tips on there.

 

I usually just write a list on an old birthday card on Saturday and shop from that - because I take my own lunch to work, it usually involves something that can be eaten in the evening and then leftovers or part of the main meal will do for the next day.

 

Things like fishcakes, shepherd's pie, pasties, etc are good for using up leftovers as you can eke out the meat with vegetables. I am also a big fan of quiches (summer) or soup (winter) which use up spare veg, you can make almost any combination.

 

I tend to be driven more by what is reduced in Waitrose, there's always some meat or fish with a red sticker on. Don't forget that you pay for preparation, so it's generally cheaper (as mentioned above) to buy a whole chicken and joint it yourself, than to buy pieces.

I also look for cheap cuts - oxtail is very good value, it makes delicious stew (forget that hideous salty dark brown soup you get in tins!).

 

Writing a list and planning the week ahead is absolutely crucial to budgeting but leave enough room to be flexible with leftovers.

[Cinnamon]

We do treat ourselves too, & usually buy the M&S meal deal,which is usually good value. I bought this today in fact & have saved £8 on the usual prices.

 

Ah but do you usually buy ready prepared veggies etc? I often look at this deal and think what it would cost to prepare from scratch (e.g., using loose veggies not pre-prepared veggies) and it is often not cheaper at all.

 

 

Ah but it wouldn't be a treat if I had to chop it all up myself

 

Actually, the veggie daughter generally gets the veggie side dish

[bluekarin]

I'm trying to do this myself. I will say that I have started buying whole chickens and jointing them. So much cheaper than buying a pack of ready done stuff. Then you've got the carcass left or stock for soup. I bought two chickens a few days ago (about £6 each for Sainsburys Freedom foods), jointed them. One I froze, the other we had as Turkish chicken with oranges and warms spices (v. yum), and stock I made is in the fridge ready for the potato and leek soup for tonight.

[Blackrocksrock]

I have always "doubled " up with cooking- eg cooked 2lbs braising steak and 2lb mince instead of 1lb at a time and frozen the rest - you can make lasagne with the cooked mince and layer it in a casserole dish and freeze it ready to cook when ready - just take out morning of cooking and I ususally have quiches cooked in there too and home made soups and roast beef sliced and little pots of gravy and sometimes yorkshire puddings too so when I get up each morning on a workday I can choose something to have that night and by the time I have boiled/baked potatoes and veg then the rest is ready. It is home made and not taken ages to do. Shepherds pie/cottage pies are good too and easy to do individual ones in case only 1 person is home for tea!. Economy gastronomy bedrock recipes are really good too and it saves on electricity to do the lot at one time too.

[Helly Welly]

As OH is usually working at home, leftovers tend to get eaten for lunch, which saves us money on lunchy things. When we have a roast chicken, we buy big and get another couple of meals out of it.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

A large free range chicken usually does 3 meals plus a day's worth of sandwiches for the four of us. Roast on the first day, sandwiches plus pasta or a curry made from the leftover meat and plenty of veggies on the second day, and then stock from the carcass to make risotto or soup on the third.

 

Really a bit of a bargain for the cost of the chicken in the first place.

[chickencam]

You will save a lot by using cheap cuts of meat with loads of vegetables and pulses, it is amazing how far you can get meat to stretch when mixed with these things. Good for you too.

 

I find it much easier to cook hearty cheap meals in the winter than in the summer, because I find that the ingredients for comfort food tend to be much cheaper and can be batch cooked.

[The Dogmother]

You're right Liz - you need to visit Deddington farmers' market sometime - they regularly cull the local deer herds and then venison there is as cheap as mince. That's when I batch bake my favourite venison sausage and bean casserole with dumplings - goes miles and tastes so lovely.

[bronze]

I do a big shop monthly online so no cruising we also buy stuff in bulk from the wholesalers. We the buy veg/fruit/bread etc when needed. Dh does this extra bit and hes under strict instructions not to buy extra on pain of death. I get milk delivered.

 

I have meals planned so I know what we will be eating throughout that month but we decide on the day what we'll have. Dh soon learned not to leave his least fvourites til the end of the month. My budget works out at something like £1.60 per day per person and that includes all groceries, nappies etc.

 

( I think it helps we have chicken in the freezer)

 

I found Economy Gastronomy ridiculous. The families they used wasted more money than we spend and the food isn't really that cheap though there has been a few nice recipes. Not really economy though is it?

[The Dogmother]

I thought that too Bron.

 

I shop weekly online, any veg I don't grow or am given is bought at the farmers' markets, meat is either bought there or from friends who raise their own.

 

I think we do pretty well TBH. my economies have to be based around working full time - it's not possible to just 'pop to the shops' when you work a 40 hour week.

[bronze]

my economies have to be based around working full time - it's not possible to just 'pop to the shops' when you work a 40 hour week.

 

 

I'm the same. I don't work but I don't have the ability to just pop to the shops either. In some ways I think it helps us not spend. I worked it out wrong I think my budget is about £2 per person per day but I also forgot I buy anila food within that too

[redhotchick]

Wasn't there an old saying along the lines of Roast on Sunday, Leftovers on Monday, La la la, Fish on Friday. It helped the planning for every week not to be from scratch, but still gave variety.

 

I can't remember what the actual suggestions for everyday where but say you had Rice/Pasta on Tuesday, that could be risotto, Special fried rice or paella, plus all the pasta dishes that are possible.

 

Mince on Wednesday, mince doesn't have to be beef, and you can make meatballs, bolognaise, meatloaf, chilli, Pie, stuffed peppers.

 

Thursday Something with eggs? Omlette, Quiche

 

You could have "takeaway" themed meals on Saturday, so homemade curry or pizza or burgers or stirfry or thai.

 

My favourite cheap meals would probably be stir fry, homemade pizza, risotto, bolognaise.

 

Tins of mixed pulses are good value and sometimes I just open one of them, rinse well, add chopped spring onion, tomato, cucumber, cooked cold green beans and tinned tuna, a little salad dressing made from oil, vinegar, sugar, and some fresh herbs (if I have any). I eat it in front of the tv from a big bowl and take it to work for lunch too.

 

My budgeting tip would be, know how much you have to spend and don't go over it.

Add up your shopping as you go round (or on-line) so there are no surprises at the till.

If you start to go over, put something back and pick up a cheaper alternative.

I must start doing this myself Having a list is not enough, you have to price out the list a bit too.

 

Good luck

[Alis girls]

You mean you dont just open the freezer hoping to find something like inspiration there? I am depressed just reading about you organised lot. I will peruse Jamies website - does he cater for the teenager and fussy eater of 8? if not why not?

[majorbloodnock]

I think there are several truisms which often get forgotten, all of which help with economy.

 

• The closer to its original natural state an ingredient is when you buy it, the cheaper it'll be. Any processing step will add cost.
  
• Less popular ingredients will usually cost less than more popular ones of equivalent quality (i.e. beef mince instead of steak mince, stewing beef instead of braising steak, coley instead of cod).
  
• The corollary to the point above - less popular cuts of meat are usually those which take more effort or time to cook, or have been through less processing.
  
• Cheaper cuts of meat will usually need slow cooking, but will generally give a richer flavour for all that, meaning they'll also go further.
  
• The more flavour you can eke out of your "headline" ingredient (i.e. the one that gives the defining flavour to your dish, be it meat, fish, cheese, tomatoes etc.), the more you can bulk the dish out overall with cheap veg and pulses. For instance, good quality strong cheddar is much more efficient, and therefore cheaper in the long run, than cheap mild cheddar in flavouring cheese dishes, 'cos a little goes a long way.

 

Most of these have already been dealt with in detail in previous posts (such as buying a whole chicken and jointing instead of buying boneless chicken pieces, but I'd definitely underline the idea of cooking larger dishes first time around and then making a second dish from the leftovers. I'd even suggest you consider the old practice of a perpetual soup pot in the kitchen; a big pot of stock into which offcuts from the ingredients you're preparing are thrown, topped up with a little water and simmered at least daily. If you do take this suggestion, you'll always have a reserve of ready made stock whenever you need it.

[Olly]

My mum used to keep a stock-pot going like that, Major BN!

 

A good point above, and one which has really come out of the 'Economy Gastronomy' programmes - cooking on a budget takes more time, and that's something a lot of the participants seem to have found a surprise.

 

Once you get into the habit you can cook in bulk or prepare things ahead. My slow cooker is a godsend in the winter for stews and soup.

 

I never ever buy anything without comparing the price per pound, or I suppose it's price per kilo these days - I do this on everything from meat to tinned tomatoes to cheese, as there can be huge variations especially with different-sized packs. This is second nature to me, I've always done it, and I was astonished when I went shopping with a friend and she just picked stuff off the shelf and threw it into her trolley! I don't always buy the cheapest, it depends on what it is, but I always check it out.

[Helly Welly]

And sometimes, the thing you thought would be cheaper isn't if there is an offer on so it's always worth checking the price per kilo/litre etc.