Meal plans anyone?

Shall we try and put our meal plans on here?

(Red devil is trying to sort the colours out so it will make it easier.)

Right, I'm off to sort the freezer, cupboards etc. out to see what edible meals I can make this week

bacon sandwiches tonight its normally fish but we are having a change.

Tuesday not sure
Wed Lasagne
Thursday Tuna Salad
Friday not sure. :cheers:

We've had a big month this month so we've only got a fiver left in the food budget until the end of the month. We do have other cash but I won't spend that on food. So our plan for the next 10 days is a bit repetitive!

Mon - enchiladas
Tue - some kind of sausage and mushroom cobbler
Wed - out
Thu - lentil bol
Fri - curry w bulghur
Sat - out
Sun - chilli w garlic bread

Lunches will be houmous with various bits and bobs - salad, olives, sundried tomatoes etc anything to make it less samey

Breakfasts are homemade museli

Have to 'fess I don't meal plan (naughty bad homemaker - take a demerit!) I just tend to get whatever meat is on a good offer and work aound that for the week plus add in a few veggie meals. It's sausages this week as Mr T has them on offer 2 packs for £3. It can get a bit like Ready Steady Cook when the contestant brings a really cr@p selection of ingredients by the end of the week occaisionally!

I actually find it cheaper as it means I can make best use of special offers and avoid things when they are having a particularly expensive week. It also keeps my chef skills sharp making me think on my feet.

I don't bother cos they soak any juices up when cooking....and my hubby hates soggy lasagne

:cheers:

stiltwalker wrote:Have to 'fess I don't meal plan (naughty bad homemaker - take a demerit!) I just tend to get whatever meat is on a good offer and work aound that for the week plus add in a few veggie meals. It's sausages this week as Mr T has them on offer 2 packs for £3. It can get a bit like Ready Steady Cook when the contestant brings a really cr@p selection of ingredients by the end of the week occaisionally!

I actually find it cheaper as it means I can make best use of special offers and avoid things when they are having a particularly expensive week. It also keeps my chef skills sharp making me think on my feet.

I don't usually menu plan either. I usually have a vague idea of what we're going to eat 5 days out of 7 - taking into account evening meetings for the man, social activities and other stuff like that. The other two days are left totally blank so we can just use up whatever's left over. It works well for us. We don't work around special offers all the much as we don't eat meat so the things we buy are pretty much the same price each week.

We have the menu plan until the end of the month as I needed to cook for the freezer as we have no cash left! It was those bargain bottles of Method laundry liquid at Home Bargains that did for me

Week 1
• Hm Burgers, chips and beans
• Turkey noodle soup and hm bread
• Make your own – chips n curry sauce
• Hm pizza
• Chilli con carne, rice and tortilla chips
• Maltese casserole
• Mousakka

Week 2
• Lasagne and garlic bread
• Steak and chips (bday meal)
• Roast dinner
• Make your own
• Left over roast dinner
• Salmon and potatoes
• Take away

Week 3
• Shepherds pie
• Feta and pepper pasta
• Chicken dinner
• Vegatable risotto
• Toad in the hole
• HM onion Soup and hm bread
• Potato salad and sausages

Week 4
• Sweet n sour chicken and rice
• Cheese and potato pie
• Make your own
• Omelette and chips
• Pasta carbonara
• Roast dinner
• At mums


Week 5
• HM chicken kievs
• HM Moroccan spiced chickpea Soup and hm bread
• Make your own
• Bacon and eggs
• Fish fingers mash and beans
• Spring rolls, chips and sweet n sour sauce
• Braising steak and onions, mash and veg

Week 6
• Gammon and pineapple
• Chicken pittas
• Make your own
• Turkey soup and hm bread
• Calzone
• Chicken curry and rice
• Roast dinner


Week 7
• Ploughmans lunch
• Chicken supreme and rice
• Make your own
• HM Oxtail Soup and hm bread
• Chicken pie
• TAKE AWAY
• Corned beef hash

Week 8
• HM leek and potato soup and hm bread
• Mince and onions
• Make your own
• Chicken wraps
• Meat and potato pie
• Chicken fried rice and curry sauce
• Roast dinner

Week 9
• HM chicken Soup and hm bread
• Egg and chips
• Make your own
• Spag bol
• Chicken burgers, wedges and sweetcorn
• Beef stew and dumplings
• Cheese stuffed chicken



Week 10
• Chicken escalopes (my bday)
• Tacos
• Make your own
• Roast gammon
• HM pea and ham soup and hm bread
• Pork chops
• Mediterranean lamb tray bake

Week 11
• Spanish frittata
• Italian chicken
• Make your own
• HM vegi soup and hm bread
• Bangers and beans
• Roast dinner
• Macaroni cheese

Week 12
• Beef with pepper chutney
• Hm tomato and lentil soup and hm bread
• Make your own
• Chicken bake
• Moroccan tagine
• Veggi burgers
• Chicken stir fry

im on week 4 and all is going well!!! (for now!)

wow thats impressive!!

I might pinch some ideas from there

mags50 wrote:wow thats impressive!!

I might pinch some ideas from there

I know! Well done

I've tried meal planning and it's such a long process. I might pinch some ideas too but feel really guilty when you've done the hard work

It wasnt that much hard work. Son emptied the freezer, I wrote down what was in it and then came up with the meal plan!!! Yold you I needed to declutter!!! haha x

well this is my second month meal planning for the whole month but no way I could be as organised as you life in turmoil wow!
can I be cheeky and ask for the Taco soup recipe Julia and the Maltese casserole Life in turmoil pretty please
I am still writing up next months plan and will share it when Im done. I dont eat it in order just see what we all fancy that day oh and what i have remembered to take out the freezer
cant wait to see others plans

I watched extreme couponing last night and wow
I know we dont have coupons like that here, mores the pity, bet we could all clear the shops if we did
but I was trying to think how it would be possible here to do something similar. So I was thinking that this month instead of planning like I have been I would try and only get special offers and things with money off coupons and work around that
what I was planning on doing was looking at the specials the supermarkets have on mysupermarket and checking out iceland and farmfoods as well, I only have a tesco and lidls here but can go to morrisons and asda if the deals are really good (34 mile round trip but petrols loads cheaper there too)
then checking the internet to see if i can get any money off vouchers or coupons and see how that works out
if anyone has any other tips please please share as I have never shopped like this before just usually stick to value and lidls offers

I have to get a printer because I really want to try the couponing thing. I mean 50p off here and there would save me a fortune and I agree with you about trying to make meals around the great buys you can find. I get stressed out though when I'm shopping and don't have a list. I guess as long as I have the dairy, fruit, ham, breakfast cereal bread and packed lunch stuff anything else will go with condements, sauces and veg.

I'm lucky where I am because I have an Aldi, Iceland, Homebargains and Tesco all in one place. I now know what is the cheapest of what I use where and shop accordingly.

Come the autumn I'll be very strict with meal planning/bargain hunting as the gas bill increases

I know I am dreading this winters fuel bills but shouldnt be as bad as last year
they underestimated how much we would use, i think to get us to join them, you know oh yes we can cut your direct debit and I didnt really know about the differnt prices and things, tell you something I do now!
They more than doubled our direct debit the month before Xmas it went up to £204 a month, I did argue with them that that was ridiculous but they didnt listen so I changed to an online tarriff where I put in our readings every month guess what 2 months in they dropped our direct debit and now we are paying £84 a month and are nearly £200 in credit but oh I was the energy use police for a while!
I just dont trust something like that not to happen again and we are very bad and have no savings
so i am setting up savings accounts and trying to organise my budgets and food seems the best way to start...still wishing I was american at the mo!!!

lollyfin wrote:I know I am dreading this winters fuel bills but shouldnt be as bad as last year
they underestimated how much we would use, i think to get us to join them, you know oh yes we can cut your direct debit and I didnt really know about the differnt prices and things, tell you something I do now!
They more than doubled our direct debit the month before Xmas it went up to £204 a month, I did argue with them that that was ridiculous but they didnt listen so I changed to an online tarriff where I put in our readings every month guess what 2 months in they dropped our direct debit and now we are paying £84 a month and are nearly £200 in credit but oh I was the energy use police for a while!
I just dont trust something like that not to happen again and we are very bad and have no savings
so i am setting up savings accounts and trying to organise my budgets and food seems the best way to start...still wishing I was american at the mo!!!

yes not fair why cant we have it here?

i dont meal plan as such either. i usually buy whats on offer and plan around that.

if chicken is on offer one week ill buy loads of that and whatever fruit and veg is on offer.
the next week i might buy salmon if thats on offer.

ill freeze it so we always have variety.

i usually get something out of the freezer the night before and of course there is always left overs night in there somewhere xx

I have spent all day on this computer and decent coupons are hard to find!!!
Im devastated, most of the coupons I have found are for things I dont buy or are for brands that are a lot more expensive than my usual ones
the only things i have found that are of any use are £10 of tesco if spending £50 online groceries and the same for asda
I have posted the codes on the bargains thread
I am sooooo annoyed about our lack of couponing!!!

I am going to be making a start on my next months meal plan and was wondering if anyone else was planning as well.
I am going to make a list of the food i already have and work around that first as i have been terrible with shopping lately
I will post what i have done tomorrow probably and will be greatful for any ideas you all have

This week we're having -

today - no idea
Tuesday - chilli stuffed peppers w rice
Wednesday - leek and butter bean bake w rosti topping
Thursday - out
Friday - curry w naan & bulghur
Saturday - bean burgers w wedges
Sunday - soup and sandwich

Pretty basic, end of the month stuff, but always the stuff we like best!

I have done my list of food in the house and am to say i have so much i actually dont need to shop next month. I have done my meal plan and everything on it i have apart from the fresh veg which i will buy weekly.
I am sticking to this plan as i want to defrost my freezer at the end of next month so its ready for the xmas shopping. This is not in the order we will eat it just the order i organised it as i was taking stuff out the freezer.
this is from tomorrow till 30th October
Cicken pasta bake
corned beef mash veg
eggy toast and bacon
Kale and pot curry (HFW veg book)
chicken curry
sweet and sour chicken
chicken fried rice
chicken soup and pud
burgers and chips
steak pie mash veg
steak pie mash veg
beef curry
steak/mush pie mash veg
sausages mash veg
spag bol
spag bol pasta bake
meatballs sauce chips
meatballs sauce chips
mince soup
r. beef yorkies mash veg and skirlie
stovies
maltese pork
lentil soup and pud
breaded fish and chips
corned beef mash and spaghetti
fish pie and veg
fishpie and veg
3 bean chilli
sheperdess pie and veg
chillis stuffed wiht beans (HFW veg book)
stuffed cabbage leaves (HFW)
kale and mushroom lasagna (HFW)
tuna pasta bake
tuna pasta bake
I will have to buy fruit, veg and milk but shoudlnt need to get more than that