Meal Plan Mondays (16th July)

Thank you for the support (comments, retweets etc) on last week’s meal plan: it was cool to see how many of you also meal plan. Definitely reinforces that I’m doing the right thing to help with this budgeting malarkey. Anyway, on with things…

Monday: Chicken risotto
Chicken (which only cost £4 in the end) from yesterday’s roast, got the other ingredients already. No specific cost.

Tuesday: Lasagne
I confess, this is one of the few dishes I don’t make myself. I keep meaning to try doing one but never quite get round to it. This is a Tesco ready meal, cost: £3.85

Wednesday: Fish fingers ‘n’ chips
Cheaty one for the fish meal this week, but I fancied fish fingers. Birds Eye battered cod fish fingers, £1 for a box of 8. Chips will be made by me. Two boxes of fish fingers: £2 Bag of potatoes (different veg box this week, no spuds): £1.74

Thursday: Vegetable soup
Using up any leftovers from the week’s veg box, and anything that’s ready in the garden. No cost.

Friday: Toasties & beans
Using up the leftover cheese from last week. Bread at a cost of £1.15, beans multipack: £1.40

Saturday: Cottage Pie
Proper hearty home cooked food, mmm. Mince cost £2, other ingredients in already.

Sunday: Gammon, mash & peas
Just got to buy the gammon for this one, would not expect to pay more than £4

Total cost this week (including veg box): £33.09

This week I also plan on doing my “big shop” to stock the cupboards. This is how I usually have the majority of the ingredients in for my meals. I buy tins, flour, huge bags of pasta, rice, dried herbs etc. I have a coupon for Sainsbury’s online shopping: “3646-KLQ7-VDK9” £15 off a grocery shop of £80+ for first time customers. As I would normally spend around £80 to last 4-6+ weeks this should save me a chunk.

9 Comments

  1. You should definitely try to make home made lasagne, although it will cost a little more, the portions will be much bigger. There may even be left overs for the next day. ;)

    This week’s meal plan sounds tasty, especially since I’m currently in Hong Kong the meals are taunting me. :9 Thanks for sharing.

    • Jem

      16 Jul at 3:31 pm

      Leftovers rock – that’s generally what I have for lunch (which is why I only meal plan my evening meal!)

  2. I swear, homemade lasagna isn’t hard – if I can make it, you can too! It’s just a little bit labor intensive (arranging noodles, spooning sauce on top, spooning ricotta cheese on top, repeat x3) but it’s not particularly difficult. That said, I do love a good freezer lasagna and understand the appeal of pre-made.

    I’ve never grocery shopped online but it sounds right up my alley, heh.

    • Jem

      16 Jul at 3:31 pm

      Seriously? Online grocery shopping is the best. Probably one of the TOP ways I save money. It makes it so much easier to get exactly what I want and not succumb to the giant adverts in store, packs of biscuits and junk food on offer, that sort of thing. The only downside is the delivery cost but I always pick the cheapest slot (costs about £3)

      (I might make lasagne soon just to see if I can, haha)

      • I started to, once, because Safeway was offering a “free shipping on your first order” discount… but then I abandoned my cart. I remember thinking it was too hard to figure out if I was purchasing the product I intended to, or something. Maybe I’ll give it another shot.

  3. Do you have desserts? Or do you just not include them in the plan? :)

  4. I manage all of my money matters with a fantastic bit of software called YNAB (You Need A Budget) and I highly recommend it for squeezing the extra pennies out of your pounds.

    Each week or so I log into online banking, download my statement and import it into YNAB. It learns the categories I associate transactions with so processes most of them automatically for me. Then I can compare those categories to the budget I set out.

    It is good for keeping track, ensuring you don’t go over your budget and watching out for those magical “Misc” categories that sometimes grow & ruin your month.

    It does cost money, but I found it to be more than worth it in terms of the savings I make every month.

    Won’t be right for everyone though, and it does sound like you’re on top of your pennies, which I was certainly not.