I have seen loads of blog posts about meal-planning and how cost effective it is and you can’t miss the adverts from places like Sainsbury’s claiming to have plans that feed a family of four on just £50 so I decided to give it a go.
I started by having a look at various blogs and at the Sainsbury’s website for ideas as to what to plan because my initial attempt got stuck after about 2 days because I couldn’t actually think of anything to make. Then, fueled with other people’s ideas I put together a plan for the week and wrote myself out a shopping list which came to about £35 on Tesco online before adding a delivery charge. (That was just for food for me, Sy & Tori – The total bill was higher due to boring stuff like loo roll and toothpaste…) That’s much less than I usually spend and yet we ended up eating better – great stuff!
What did we eat?
Well for lunch most days it was sandwiches – either cheese, ham or BLT. I alternated to keep things fresh – with a packet of crisps. Though one day we did have jacket potatoes with cheese and beans instead and another day (when it was cold outside) I stuck our cheese sandwiches in the sandwich grill and made toasties instead.
Our evening meals were as follows:
Pasta with chicken and bacon in a cheese sauce
Pie, chips, veg and gravy
Cottage pie
Pasta in spicy tomato sauce
Chicken and bacon risotto
and then toasties on the couple of evenings where we weren’t particularly hungry.
One thing I have noticed and enjoy is that we sit down as a family to eat more often now. Before it was so often a TV dinner or us all eating at different times and grabbing something quick and easy but now I’m enjoying cooking and we all get to sit at the table together and share. Arthur joins us too in his highchair even though he doesn’t eat yet which is nice because it means he isn’t ‘abandoned’ in his bouncer chair whilst the rest of us go and eat.
We’re not miliatary with the meal plans – we switch days round and improvise a bit but just having a guideline is enough to get us eating a bit better and the pennies we save mean we can afford treats for pudding some nights and still have a bit left over for a rainy day.
Carole Finds Her Wings 
Hi! Have you been looking at the Meal Planning Monday posts on At Home With Mrs M? They are great for ideas. When I first did a meal planning post (same week as Mrs M started doing it, I was writing a post about it anyway so I just added myself in), it only got a small number of views but now it’s one of my most popular posts every week.
I’ve meal planned for a while because it does make such a difference. I try to plan my meals to fit in with OH’s shifts so I’ve got better at it but I still swap things around and often leave a spare day for us to freestyle it.
I’ve just got my Ocado order for the week and it’s barely over £40! I had to add in some crisps to take it over the limit. But I did have a few things I’m using out of the freezer, but then that happens most weeks.
Sainsburys sent me all the food for one of their meal plans and OMG, there was piles of food!
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Ooo no I haven’t – I will go have a look 🙂 Thanks xxx
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