Meal Planning

To really save money and have exciting new dishes on the table each week, the best way is meal planning.

It does take time, but once you get into doing it, its fun to pick out what meals you want to cook and gets quicker.

Now you need to work out first what meals you need to plan, who has breakfast, lunch dinner and snacks on what days? Not everyone will need lunch on all the days. Keep weekday breakfasts and lunches really simple, but filling. That will save you money. The cheapest and most filling is porridge, different toppings will make it more exciting.

Try and work out what your basics are, what do you use every week. Some things you may only need to buy once a month. So work out your main monthly items, bleach, loo roll, baby wipes, back up nappies, sandwich bags, and bin bags. Are our main non food monthly costs. So the first week of the month will be a higher cost. Food items which are most likely monthly costs for us is flour, seeds, nuts, rice, seeds, and pasta.

Now meal planning means you only buy what you need for that week. So I try and pick meals which have a few of the same ingredients. So say I have had to buy mustard, to make a meal, I will pick other meals that week which also need that item. It's easy to make a hugely different meals all week, with lots of different ingredients and you won't see a saving. As you will end up with half used jars of different things. Even though am saying pick similar ingredients lists, try not to do three pasta dishes in a row or you will get really fed up. I mean like cottage pie with rot mash on top (with a little mustard mixed in the mash) and then a simple pasta dish with lemon and mustard the next day. A same ingredient but very different dishes. You don't want to spend out for a jar of mustard, for it to sit unused in the fridge for weeks. (Mustard is a handy item to have but still you get my meaning.)

To save money, you need to have a few basics in your cupboard, the things I always have are:

Cupboard Basics:

Black pepper

Sea salt (I always cook with sea salt, I have cheap table salt I used to make salt dough with the children)

Rosemary (plant in the garden)

Thyme (my pant is a little unhappy at the moment so had to buy some)

Mint (plant in the garden)

Sage (plant in the garden)

Chia seeds

Sesame seeds

Pumpkin seeds

Cashew nuts, peanuts, almonds and walnuts (These can be quite costly, but buying in bulk can help to keep the cost down.) 

A cheap bottle of red wine (We don't always have it but it does make sauces deeper in flavor.)
Yeast (We make our own bread, nicer, and good for you. Will save you money too!)
Plain Flour
S/R Flour

Sugar (am writing this blog at the start of the winter months so am using a lot to make jams, jellies etc.)

I haven't brought a jar of pasta sauce for going donkeys years! Making your own is so cheap and good for you. Here is a basic sauce. (I will be blogging more about basic sauces soon.)


Weekly Basics:

(Some stretch over 2-3wks.)
Soya Milk (I've worked out we use 2-3 cartons a week of soya +1 for the children and the same for us.)

Tinned Tomatoes

Tinned Beans

Yogurts

Frozen Pees (I buy a quite a lot of frozen veg, carrots, cauliflower, butternut squash etc. Great for throwing in a curry or sauce!)

Bread Flour (we use 1-2 bags of flour a week.)

Porridge Oats (amazing for breakfast, and to bulk up sauces.)

Jam (I try and make my own but I give out a lot so often just buy a basic jar.)

Butter/spread (I love and have used for as long as I can remember, vitalite. I love it on toast with sliced bananas.....)

Potatoes (one bag of cheap all round white potatoes, about half to a bag a week.)

Sweet Potatoes (we love them, from mash to throwing them in a curry. I get about 3 large ones a week.)

The veg I buy each week is, leeks, celery, courgettes, carrots, butternut squash. I always check the clearance section, as many fruit and veg can be frozen. 

Monthly Basics: 

Lasagna pasta sheets,
Pasta (shells and spaghetti)
Rice
Cous cous
Seeds
Nuts
Things like mustard, mamite and peanut butter or ketchup.
Oil 

I always start my meal planning by working out dinner for the week. I think of 5 or 7 meals, depending on if we are away at the weekend or out. I try not to repeat very similar meals or run the same type of meal two days running. So I wouldn't make spaghetti Bolognese and then the next night make a lasagna. I batch cook as much as I can, to save pennies but also time! Lunches change a little if its term time or not. I batch cook as much as I can, to save pennies but also time!

Click here for my weekly meal template Just copy and paste in your ideas!

Dinner - I try to pick only 1-2 meals with pasta in a week, 1-2 pie dishes, 1 curry and a sausage meal like toad in the whole. In the week the childern go to bed at 6pm (when my husband is arriving home) so I make an early dinner for them.  On a Friday they stay up later and we all eat together. 

Breakfast  - I manly make porridge but sometimes replace with Weetabix. (Porridge really sets you up for the day, you are less likely to grab unhealthily snacks, also perfect for the children off to school) I love my porridge, with banana slices, sultanas and pear honey. Mostly the children just like jam. I also put a spray vit B12 on it too.

Lunches - I make my own bread or buns for sandwiches. Mostly make plain jam or peanut butter sandwiches. I love vegan cheese, with tomatoes, grapes and homemade chutney (I will be adding my recipe soon.) Our two boys have school meals, so its just lunch for my husband to take to work. Our youngest is home with me, so we have the same or Avocado and Sweet Chili.


Click here for a three week dinner plan This is three weeks of yummy vegan main meal ideas. 

To give you an idea of how I do it-

Week one:

Monday

Breakfast -  porridge

Lunch - sandwiches, crips, fruit and yoghurt 

Dinner -Cottage Pie, with lots of green veg

Snacks - fruit, breadsticks, dips 

Tuesday

Breakfast - porridge

Lunch - sandwiches, crips, fruit and yoghurt 

Dinner - Lasagna (Split into two cooking dishes and freeze one.) with pees and garlic bread

Snacks - fruit, breadsticks, dips 

Wednesday

Breakfast - porridge

Lunch - sandwiches, crips, fruit and yoghurt 

Dinner - Curry (Batch cook and freeze half.) with rice or Cous Cous 

Snacks -fruit, breadsticks, dips 

Thursday

Breakfast - porridge

Lunch - sandwiches, crips, fruit and yoghurt 

Dinner - Pie (Made all in one large pie, not minis) with green veg, carrots and roast potatos or sweet potato mash

Snacks -fruit, breadsticks, dips 

Friday

Breakfast - porridge

Lunch - sandwiches, crips, fruit and yoghurt 

Dinner - Toad in the hole, with homemade chips and beans

Snacks -fruit, breadsticks, dips 

Saturday

Breakfast - Pancakes or croissant's with fruit

Lunch - big platter to share of sandwiches, crips, fruit, dips with carrots and celery

Dinner - Italian Tomatoes and Olives (Batch cook and freeze half.)

Snacks - fruit, breadsticks, dips 

Sunday

Breakfast - Morning dumplings

Lunch - late big lunch with lots of trimmings, early large roast.

Dinner - Nut roast with all the roast trimmings!

Snacks - fruit, maybe a walk to pick berries too

Am working on a shopping list for each of my weekly meal plans to make it extra easy for you to just print out the list and go shopping! So make sure you bookmark this blog as I will be adding to it!