Every couple of weeks, I go through the freezer and cupboards and stock take. I don't like to make mistakes when I shop or to buy more than I need. I like to do a monthly shop at the butchers and every so many weeks at the supermarket. After stocktaking the freezer, this is menu for the week.
Saturday - bacon, leek, mushroom and cheese quiche with coleslaw.
Sunday- slow cooked Brisket, roast potatoes, veggies and gravy. I will cook the spuds in the small top oven and I will also cook some chicken pieces for another meal, another day to save on electricity.
Monday - I don't cook on Monday but we eat 'ding cuisine' and we'll eat 'Sunday lunch' again. We'll also eat yesterday's leftovers for our packed lunches.
Tuesday - Chicken, ham (cooked that yesterday) and sweetcorn pie with green veg.
Wednesday - leftover pie for lunch. Supper, veggie pasta bake.
Thursday - Sausage and baked bean stew with mash potatoes and veg.
Friday - pesto crusted pollock with homemade oven chips and peas.
When there's no leftovers for lunch, then we'll take in a ham and chutney sandwiches. I'll also make some flapjacks to take as snacks and there's plenty of rice cereal for our breakfasts.
That's this week more or less sorted. DB has chopped kindling for the week so the stove can be lit easily when we get home. Getting planned means my top up shop this week will be around ten pounds and I won't buy what I don't need.
I'll be back tomorrow,
Until then,
Love Froogs xxxxxxx
I agree totally with your attitude. Our menu looks like this
ReplyDeleteSaturday faggots, veggies and mash
Sunday, shin of beef casserole in slow cooker
Monday tuna pasta bake
Tuesday poached eggs and beans on toast
Wednesday homemade wedges and homemade pizza with salad
Thursday spaghettie bolognese
Friday who cares ( i will think of something)
Tuna pasta good for the lunch box as well
I do the same thing here. Plus I never shop for groceries, unless I have another errand to run. That way I also save on gas.
ReplyDeleteYou might like to look at: www.cornwallscrapstore.co.uk if you're as frugal as a 'frugal queen' can be.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to look at: www.cornwallscrapstore.co.uk if you're as frugal as a 'frugal queen' can be.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gary - my local scrap store was closed down ��
ReplyDeleteas always your discipline is inspiring!
ReplyDeleteI do a little differently. I buy what is on sale or reduced and then work around what I have. So I do stock take and some thing is defrosted and meals are made around this until that piece of meat is gone. The process then begins again.
ReplyDeleteIt all sounds like a good plan, we have lots in the freezer and half a large carton of milk, so no shopping at all for me this week. :-)
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ReplyDeleteSounds fab! Do you have a range or wood burner as it might be worth looking into eco fans - a thermo electric fan unit designed to sit on top of the stove or wood burner and move the hot air evenly around eliminating the cold corners and is deemed to increase efficiency by about 12%. We bought one for the parents (no central heating) and it's been brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI am a horrible meal planner. I keep trying and failing. When money was the tightest I had to meal plan down to the tiniest detail. It is a habit I just could not keep up with. I love creative and inspired cooking. I look at what I have and plan from that. I buy items on sale, general stock items or items foraged or grown determine the meals and I usually think about this the afternoon it is cooked. I pull something out of the freezer than decide what I am hungry for and than do the best to create it. I narrow it down to, it will be something with the chicken or something with ground turkey maybe veggie tonight...A couple of times during the year we eat just from the pantry/freezer and nothing is bought. I like to get through last years garden produce to be sure to have plenty of room for this years. I am heavy in tomatoes so most dishes will have some kind of tomato and there will be lots of salsa to snack on. Thankfully we keep a well stocked pantry and are able to be very flexible. Due to my daughter's very tight budget I am teaching her meal planning, hopefully she will be better than I. My dinners last week were based around the ham we had for Easter, and a rotisserie chicken, one meal was a great big tossed salad with the scraps of ham and bits of chicken leftover and the dandelions growing in the fields (our stream should have some chickweed soon). Salsas and stewed tomatoes were incorporated. Tonight is a treat! The family was given premiere box seats to a baseball game which includes a buffet and drinks. Breakfast was light, egg and salsa with our coffee and lunch will be skipped (I actually just grabbed a slice of cheese and iced tea). Daughter started a new job that gives her a meal. She is only 2-3 days (she student teaches during the weekdays) I advised her to bring it home if she is not hungry and I will show her how to turn it into a meal for the 2 of them.
ReplyDeleteI really wished my mum taught me more about cooking before I left home. I started married life without a clue in the kitchen, we ate ready made pies and oven chips ! Luckily hubby was always hungry and soon started to investigate how to make nice meals!
ReplyDeleteI have a guest studying who is Muslim and I happen to have a freezer full of pork. Typical! So this weeks meals contain a lot of chicken with a bit of fish and beef chucked in for good measure. As she is a paying guest my really frugal veggie meals will wait until she has gone!
ReplyDeleteI do the shop ahead, plan at the last minute thing too. I have a large freezer in the basement and a dehydrator and canning equipment. Freezing is easiest. Freezer was at the point of not being able to get anything more in it, so I am not buying meat for a while unless it's a fabulous sale. Fresh fruit and veggies weekly, and milk. Make my own bread in a bread machine. I mostly cook at least four servings and we have it two nights, sometimes made over, sometimes not, depending on how much we like it.
ReplyDeleteThat's smart. I easily get caught up in buying something I don't need because I forgot what I already had.
ReplyDeleteYou always seem to have a tasty and varied menu. I am trying hard to be more disciplined with my food shopping and to plan ahead. It's too easy not to bother with a large supermarket around the corner. X
ReplyDeleteI try to batch cook and freeze as much as possible, this saves me time and money as I usually use the slow cooker. I have managed to plan meals for the entire month, a first for me. This means my food shopping is planned too and I know what is in my freezer and cupboards (in theory, I sometimes get surprises). Next month we have family coming to stay so I will batch cook and freeze for them so we can enjoy their company and not stress about food.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading about your meal plan for the week. I grocery shop more or less weekly and buy what's on sale that week for the most part. Then, plan my meals based on what I have in the freezer/pantry and what I bought on sale; with leftovers for lunch and future meals. The 1st weekend in April, I didn't grocery shop because I had plenty in the freezer (and my neighbor brought over dinner one night and a work-related training included lunch, one day). This past weekend, I went grocery shopping and spent $33.02 (US) and bought a bunch of groceries. I like to cook enough for several meals and then freeze them.
ReplyDeleteWe are coming around to the most difficult time of the year for food from the garden, Parsnips and Brussels sprouts are finished. Stored potatoes finished a month ago. Just a few more onions then I shall have to buy until August. We have a purple sprouting broccoli and some leeks left and a few cauliflowers if only they would grow a bit.The asparagus is just peeping through. Still have peppers and broad beans in the freezer. Pulled the first of the forced rhubarb today - delicious. I also bake bread every week and tomorrow I shall be using up some of last years gooseberries (that have been lurking at the bottom of the freezer) to make Gooseberry and date chutney. We still have apples, pears,plums and a few odd bits of other fruit in the freezer, but now rhubarb is available it's time to use freezer fruit up. I do a rough meal plan each week but not for definite each day. I try and bulk buy staples while on offer enough to last until the next time on offer.I like to keep full cupboards!
ReplyDeleteI am cross with myself for taking my foot off the pedal the past few weeks, so spent an hour this evening doing a stocktake and working out a ten day meal plan. A couple of quid and we will have a ten day food shopping hiatus. Definitely back to plan now. Not happy at feeling I have wasted money the past couple of weeks.
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