Hi Darlings, thanks for coming back if you're a returning reader and if you are new here I hope you like this post. Today I want to talk to you about Meal Planning, most get confused with Meal Prepping which is not quite true. While Meal Prepping helps with the making of the meals, Meal Planning helps you with organising a menu for your family, yourself, and you and your partner.
Since moving in together -(read my moving out post here) me and J have meal planned. It was never something that we originally set out to do as a part of our life rituals but it has become a major part in organising our food and life.
It all started off as a major contributing idea when we were shopping in Wilko for a bath matt and some fluffy towels. We bought what we needed but as I was scouring the stationary isle (I think any lifestyle blogger is OBSESSED with pretty stationary) I saw this Meal Planner and it was £1.35 see pic below. I thought it was a bargain back then but if I had known how much it would have positively impacted our lives I would have definitely spent over a tenner on this weapon!
Here's the exact planner I use! PLANNER - none affiliate link.
This planner is beyond amazing for doing our meal plan, I did the shopping list after this and tore it off and took it to the shop. You can keep it all too and just take the torn off section if you wanted to go back to a specific week where you had amazing meals, or even better where you saved the most money, which is a main focus of this post!
When We plan
So this is what we do! Saturday morning or Friday evening we sit down and we do it when we're hungry because all we can think about is yumminess, and we basically bounce ideas off of each other. What do we like, what do we want to taste in the next week, cravings, sandwich ideas. The whole shebang. We then do the meal ideas, and then I go into the kitchen and work out what "we have vs what we need" to make the meals. I'll do this while J makes the breakfast. J is actually the cook in our house and I am the cleaner and it works amazing for us. So his input is very important, if he doesn't wanna cook it but I wanna eat it, that night I will cook and he will do the pots. We work very well together as a team in our home.
We then have breakfast, we get ready, get any shopping bags we need and go to the shops. We think hungry, we shop full because of one main factor. Temptation. When I am hungry I will eat anything that is edible in front of me, unleashing that energy in a supermarket with unlimited food (its unlimited to me because I couldn't possibly eat it all in one sitting) will make my bank account break. I'll be "oooh, shall we get this, ooh shall we get that" at everything that appeals to me. So this is why we think hungry but shop full. I don't think J has realised I do this yet because he has moaned at me for waiting until we have breakfast to go shopping, but damn it works.
Where we shop
We are in no way a luxurious household, J used to work in a factory that made confectionery before he went onto work for himself and he knows first hand that the produce is all made in the same place. For instance, Aldi Mince pies vs M&S mince pies, have a higher butter content and more filling but are cheaper than M&S because investors and share prices drive the cost of everyday products. Also we really enjoy that even though Aldi is cheaper, it is turning a profit, building more stores and paying fairer wages than the main four; Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons. So obviously their margins are smaller but they are doing fantastic things with it. I'm an accountant in my day job. So we have three places that we shop that are budget friendly.
ALDI- Wholey Cheese grail store. (PUNintended) We live less than a mile away from one! Convenience heaven.
TESCO- Not the cheapest but we go with my family because my mum's husband works there! DISCOUNT
COMPANY SHOP- A discount store for people who work in the emergency services, also have a family member who works here. We go every 2-3 weeks to stock up on freezer and tinned sauces. I bought 100 items once and still didn't break the budget.
When we shop
We usually go Saturday afternoon because we like to do it on a day when we aren't doing anything else. If we have something Saturday planned we go Friday night, and if we are super busy on both of those days we do it Sunday morning, between breakfast and Sunday dinner, where we will get any bits for that afternoons dinner. I personally like to slow cook the meat on Sunday morning through to the afternoon so we can go and do our business.
How We Shop
So I'm armed with my meal plan, I've checked what ingredients we have in vs what we need and I have concocted a list. I take THE LIST and a pen, and as we trawl the isle, we tick off what we get. Now for some reason we get a trolley that works perfectly fine and then suddenly gets a sticky wheel around the sweet section because it tends to spend more time there than any other isle. It might be the driver, it might be the wheel, who knows. J tells me its the wheel, I think it might be J.
Boy loves a wagonwheel!
Our Weekly food Budget
We spend less than £70 per week but £70 is provisioned each week for food and basic toiletries, I'm talking standard shampoo, conditioner, body wash and deodorant. Whatever we don't spend we save.
The reason I don't add any other items to the list, such as sanitary towels is because me and J also have personal expenditure allowances a week. So if I want some £30 shampoo I will get that out of my personal spends, it is not a nourishment item. It will not sustain me or my partner so it's not fair that it comes from the sustenance budget. Same goes for him.
Since being in my house, near on 2 months, 8 weekly shops, we have NEVER gone over £70 for two of us and we take pack up four days of a five day week, we have biscuits and we eat steak and good quality fish and J has ham from the Deli section (so the good stuff).
What we eat in a week
It was one of the things that my mum said to me on moving out, "Make sure you have some decent dinners, some good quality in your diet" because if we didn't we would have got bored and started eating out and filling our body with shite!
We have a fish night, a beef night and the rest is chicken or pork.
We make our own wedges or chips, we drink eons of water. The meal planner that I took a picture of is a typical week of meals for us. I love to throw in a mid week slow cook so that both of us can have a rest from cooking.
We made this meal using flatbread, cheese, chicken and tomato puree/bbq sause.
Saving Money HACKS
Since moving in together -(read my moving out post here) me and J have meal planned. It was never something that we originally set out to do as a part of our life rituals but it has become a major part in organising our food and life.
It all started off as a major contributing idea when we were shopping in Wilko for a bath matt and some fluffy towels. We bought what we needed but as I was scouring the stationary isle (I think any lifestyle blogger is OBSESSED with pretty stationary) I saw this Meal Planner and it was £1.35 see pic below. I thought it was a bargain back then but if I had known how much it would have positively impacted our lives I would have definitely spent over a tenner on this weapon!
Here's the exact planner I use! PLANNER - none affiliate link.
Here are a few similar planners which will definitely work well with meal planning- Affiliate Links
When We plan
So this is what we do! Saturday morning or Friday evening we sit down and we do it when we're hungry because all we can think about is yumminess, and we basically bounce ideas off of each other. What do we like, what do we want to taste in the next week, cravings, sandwich ideas. The whole shebang. We then do the meal ideas, and then I go into the kitchen and work out what "we have vs what we need" to make the meals. I'll do this while J makes the breakfast. J is actually the cook in our house and I am the cleaner and it works amazing for us. So his input is very important, if he doesn't wanna cook it but I wanna eat it, that night I will cook and he will do the pots. We work very well together as a team in our home.
We then have breakfast, we get ready, get any shopping bags we need and go to the shops. We think hungry, we shop full because of one main factor. Temptation. When I am hungry I will eat anything that is edible in front of me, unleashing that energy in a supermarket with unlimited food (its unlimited to me because I couldn't possibly eat it all in one sitting) will make my bank account break. I'll be "oooh, shall we get this, ooh shall we get that" at everything that appeals to me. So this is why we think hungry but shop full. I don't think J has realised I do this yet because he has moaned at me for waiting until we have breakfast to go shopping, but damn it works.
Where we shop
We are in no way a luxurious household, J used to work in a factory that made confectionery before he went onto work for himself and he knows first hand that the produce is all made in the same place. For instance, Aldi Mince pies vs M&S mince pies, have a higher butter content and more filling but are cheaper than M&S because investors and share prices drive the cost of everyday products. Also we really enjoy that even though Aldi is cheaper, it is turning a profit, building more stores and paying fairer wages than the main four; Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons. So obviously their margins are smaller but they are doing fantastic things with it. I'm an accountant in my day job. So we have three places that we shop that are budget friendly.
ALDI- Wholey Cheese grail store. (PUNintended) We live less than a mile away from one! Convenience heaven.
TESCO- Not the cheapest but we go with my family because my mum's husband works there! DISCOUNT
COMPANY SHOP- A discount store for people who work in the emergency services, also have a family member who works here. We go every 2-3 weeks to stock up on freezer and tinned sauces. I bought 100 items once and still didn't break the budget.
When we shop
We usually go Saturday afternoon because we like to do it on a day when we aren't doing anything else. If we have something Saturday planned we go Friday night, and if we are super busy on both of those days we do it Sunday morning, between breakfast and Sunday dinner, where we will get any bits for that afternoons dinner. I personally like to slow cook the meat on Sunday morning through to the afternoon so we can go and do our business.
How We Shop
So I'm armed with my meal plan, I've checked what ingredients we have in vs what we need and I have concocted a list. I take THE LIST and a pen, and as we trawl the isle, we tick off what we get. Now for some reason we get a trolley that works perfectly fine and then suddenly gets a sticky wheel around the sweet section because it tends to spend more time there than any other isle. It might be the driver, it might be the wheel, who knows. J tells me its the wheel, I think it might be J.
Boy loves a wagonwheel!
Our Weekly food Budget
We spend less than £70 per week but £70 is provisioned each week for food and basic toiletries, I'm talking standard shampoo, conditioner, body wash and deodorant. Whatever we don't spend we save.
The reason I don't add any other items to the list, such as sanitary towels is because me and J also have personal expenditure allowances a week. So if I want some £30 shampoo I will get that out of my personal spends, it is not a nourishment item. It will not sustain me or my partner so it's not fair that it comes from the sustenance budget. Same goes for him.
Since being in my house, near on 2 months, 8 weekly shops, we have NEVER gone over £70 for two of us and we take pack up four days of a five day week, we have biscuits and we eat steak and good quality fish and J has ham from the Deli section (so the good stuff).
What we eat in a week
It was one of the things that my mum said to me on moving out, "Make sure you have some decent dinners, some good quality in your diet" because if we didn't we would have got bored and started eating out and filling our body with shite!
We have a fish night, a beef night and the rest is chicken or pork.
We make our own wedges or chips, we drink eons of water. The meal planner that I took a picture of is a typical week of meals for us. I love to throw in a mid week slow cook so that both of us can have a rest from cooking.
Saving Money HACKS
- Check the weight per price. Sometimes getting the bigger jar even though you might not need it that week works out cheaper than getting the smaller for one meal. You can always freeze condiments and sauces.
- Ice- cube trays are your best friend for saving condiments and sauces. For example Pesto, for what you don't use put it in an ice cube tray and re-use for next meal, no need to overload pasta or fish with a flavor of something because you've opened the jar but only needed one tbsp.
- Marinade your own meat/vegetables. Herb packets are amazing for that pop of flavour. Or better yet, get a herb and spice rack and go ham on your ham. No need to splash out on pre-marinated ingredients.
- Make it yourself. Hummus, really easy to make, ridiculously expensive to buy. The most expensive thing in hummus is the tahini. If you have Amazon Prime/Pantry 270g it's £2.99 Or Holland and Barret for £2.49. Dried Chickpeas are £1.15 per 500g at tesco. Add Garlic, salt and tsp of oil. It will create way more yield of a product than buying already prepared.
- Stick to the meal plan.
- Allow for some wiggle room. I honestly wholeheartedly believe that the reason why we stay under budget (£70 per week for two, pretty tight budget) is because we allow the wheel to get sticky at the biscuit isle. I factor it in, otherwise J would go on a biscuit bender and the budget would be blown.
- Only buy branded if no other type exists. There is ONE thing that we buy branded and that is because no other brand creates it. It is what it says, "WagonWheels"
Homemade marinades are affordable and taste amazing! Win win!
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