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Meal planning and budgeting

I used to plan meals out to careful budget how much everything cost but recently I have been buying cheap 'ugly' vegetables and doing a random meal. So tonight was carrots, brussles, courgettes (reduced price) with fried onions and mince. After frying the onions I shoved them altogetehr in the oven. Wish I had planned ahead and popped it in the slow cooker but forgot to get the mince out of the freezer until this morning. There is left overs which I will then portion up for lunches for me at work.

So do you meal plan or have what you fancy or a random mix?

Replies

  • Which I could be organised and meal plan. I tend to hunt the reduced price stuff and bung it in the freezer, so lamb, beef, chicken etc and then buy veggies from aldi. Tonight I thawed out batch cooked chicken korma not enough for all three of us, made some Bombay potatoes (got a spice mix for 29p, bit of oil 4 medium potatoes, a medium tomatoe and some corriander, cooked some rice. Have left over Bombay potatoes which I will make into fried potatoe cakes and serve with eggs for breakfast. I know that sounds random. Tomorrow going to shepherds pie with lamb mince (reduced price lamb mince)

  • I plan quite obsessively. I freeze loads too, to have on the evenings we've both been at work. I keep a list of what meals are in the freezer. On my non-working days I'll cook something where I can freeze the leftovers. I tend to experiment a bit on those days too.

    Online shopping helps me keep track of budget. And I use recipe sites to find uses for ingredients that weren't finished from a previous meal. I'm a bit of a food shopping saddo! But we eat well and affordably, so we're all happy.

  • We're terribly wasteful with food! I try to plan but it goes totally out of the window!

  • I write a list of what were eating for the week which normally gets switched around throughout the week when I forget to get meat out of the freezer!

    I am bad for wasting vegetables and fruit i always buy more than we need, I'm planning to do more batch cooking and freezing.

    Those that freeze alot what do you freeze in? I spend a fortune buying those little foil tray but I have limited cupboard space for keeping loads of klipfrsh tubs

  • not great a budgeting or meal planning but do try to work round what veggies i can pick at the allotment, my latest cheap meat is minced turkey thigh - to make Mexican inspired dishes

  • I need to get back into meal planning as it does save a fortune. I've got some apps that will help you meal plan and will then put a shopping list together for you, Change 4 Life is the main app that will do this.

  • We generally meal plan but often find that we don't fancy what's on the menu and have something different! It also goes out the window if H has to work late so basically we try to meal plan best we can.

  • Sleepy we freeze a lot and use leftover margarine tubs for a lot of stuff. they stack so don't take up much space and I find them a good size for a portion of chilli/stew/curry.

  • I meal plan for myself and L, and H meal plans to a point for himself (although he basically eats chicken, rice and potatoes, so its not really much of a plan!) I make double portion of some things to freeze, but we only have a tiny freezer so don't do as much as I would like. That's one of the things on the list of things I want in our next house, somewhere for a chest freezer! Meal planning does save us a fair bit of money, but we probably aren't as careful with budgeting as we could be.

  • I did slimming world for a couple of years, when I was doing that I was really good at planning meals and only buying stuff to make those meals, since stopping SW I've become a bit slack. I make a loose list on a Saturday when i do the shopping but find usually by Wednesday or Thursday we don't have anything in for dinner, so it either becomes a mismatch meal - last week was fish finger sandwiches - or I end up going midweek shopping, which I absolutely hate doing as I spend a fortune! Must try harder :)

  • I meal plan and only buy what we need for that weeks meals.  I take into account who's doing what each evening so I know if it needs to be quick, if its just me or just H eating or if its best to do a slow cooker meal.  The only negative is there isnt room for much flexibility if you dont fancy whats on the list!

  • I try to, but at the moment I never fancy what ive planned! However, when baby is here and im on mat leave I will defo be planning meals and budgeting more.

  • I try to meal plan but often change my mind!

  • I usually write a list of what meals we will be eating for the week, balancing it alongside H's shifts and other plans for the week to make sure it's practical. H never ever ever cooks and I would lose my *** if he came home and said he didn't fancy what was on the menu that night Laugh. H gets what he's given! I make a lot of bolognese, chilli, stews etc which I cook in bulk and freeze. We use leftover plastic tubs from take aways, got bloody hundreds of them. Other times I will save ice cream tubs to freeze stuff in. Veggie chillies and curries are a good way to use up veggies that might otherwise go to waste. On the whole, we are pretty good with not wasting stuff I think. My biggest fail is that I forget what we've got in the freezer, like chicken breasts and buy more but it all gets used eventually.

  • I'm getting back into it, I need to be careful with what we are spending just now while I'm on SMP. Plus H and I would both like to lose weight so we are choosing six healthy meals per week and on a Saturday we decide on the day, sometimes we eat out, get a takeaway or will just buy a ready meal or pizza in the supermarket so we don't need to cook.

    There's an online slow cooking blog that I keep meaning to check out, she basically meal plans for the month all slow cooker meals, bags all the ingredients together and sticks in the freezer then each night takes a bag out to defrost and chucks it in the slow cooker in the morning. I could do with that kind of organisation in my life!

  • I meal plan on a thurs before shopping on a Friday and I only buy what we need. I've found it saved us lots of money! Would love some meal inspiration though please

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