Budget meal planner?

Former Member

I've had a bit of a financial audit done with me and I'm not in the best of states. I am spending a lot of money on food and I think I really need to be budgeting better and planning my meals for a week.

Has anyone seen any good sites for this? Something that shows (roughly) how much a meal costs per portion? I tend to eat all my meals at home so i need to look at planning for an entire week, and seeing if I can make the food I'm buying go a little further. I eat a lot of fruit and veg (spending about £8 a week just on fruit and veg), so I tend not to have lots of expencive meats and stuff. I'm not sure where all the money goes tbh! Its about £120 a month on food (this is for 2 people, and my ex housemate was brilliant at getting out of paying me for food). Is that excessive?

Former Member

When I was a student I used a student cookbook that had a lot of budget ideas in food wise.

I find I save money (and time and effort) by doing an online shop every three weeks and just topping up with a few fresh things as needed.

Milk is cheapest in big containers so you can decant and freeze some if you don't get through it in time.

Lentils and pulses tend to be cheaper dried than in cans.

You can get a wide variety of vegetables frozen that are easy to use as they are already prepared and you can buy them in advanced (if you want to leave longer between shops than just using fresh would allow), I particularly like stewing vegetables bought this way.

Fruit and veg is often cheaper on market stalls than in the supermarket.

These are just a few of my random thoughts about food and money.

Former Member

Doing the milk thing. We have a dodgy freezer so frozen stuff is not really a goer at the moment. We dont have a market (unless you count the über posh farmers market) here, but I have been going to a grocers. That seems to be a lot cheaper, but it still seems like I'm paying a lot. Not been able to do stuff online recently, it hasn't worked for some reason but I might try it again. I quite like going to supermarkets and doing a bit of reduction bargin hunting though :P

Former Member

Pity about the freezer.

Last week i made about 28 meals (or the greater portion there of) for under £20. about 7 each of celery soup, leek and potato soup, bean stew and veggie bolognaise (sp). All generous servings

Former Member

Yeah I know between me and mr riot we could get by cheaply if we had good access to a market and a decent supermarket (I.e. not a metro one). I found tesco's meal planner which is fairly good, but not the most appetising stuff!

Reena

When I go shopping I try to stick to my list.
I tend to write it out in the house and roughly work out the cost. If it's a bit much that week I look at what I can leave off.
As long as it's good value for money and the fruit and veg don't get wasted I think it's okay. I know lidl usually has good offers on their fruit and veg (if you're near one) but I've only brought fresh fruit and veg a couple of times there. -It was nice.
One thing I do know, never shop when you're hungry. You'll just want to buy yummy things to eat that are a bit more expensive.
Something I find useful is the retail park I go to. I'd go in each shop for the best prices, e.g. 79p for pot noodle in one, 75p in the other just next door. And I always keep a look out for money saving coupons. We get some through the post every month.

Why not check what you have in? Use everything you can up. Plan what meals you would like for the week and stick to it. You could try that Asda price check thing.
Jamie Oliver has some sainsbury's recipes for under £5. You could always look at the reduced foods too, usually they have them on one self in Tescos.