Since moving and going from employed to self employed with no steady wage we have needed to keep a close eye on our spending. One thing that I find I waste a lot of money on is food. When we lived in the Midlands my Father lived with us and he well quite frankly ate like a horse. Now there is just the three of us and I have really struggled with quantities of food. Its taking a while to judge amounts to buy and cook for just the three of us. Just like before we moved I find at the end of the week I am throwing a large amount of food away. This is so wasteful week after week and I really need to get on top of this to cut costs.
Sadly here I don't have the option of internet shopping to stop those extras sneaking in the trolley each shop but also my kitchen is really small. I have the sink cupboard then 4 wall units, 2 of which house crockery. Try storing all the food you need in one double wall unit!
The last few weeks we have been making a menu plan and trying to stick with it. Yes, extras are sneaking in the trolley still but with the lack of storage there are few of them but as a result we are wasting less food. Still some waste but much better and my shopping bill has gone down quite a bit as well.
Hoping the weather will warm up soon as I am getting fed up with warming dishes like casseroles and home made soup. This girl feels like a salad but its been just too cold!
The plan for this week is to have:
Monday - Sunday roast left overs
Tuesday - Homemade tomato soup with homemade sausage rolls
Wednesday - Gammon joint, mash & veg
Thursday - Pasta with cream sauce and left over gammon
Friday - Chicken burgers
Saturday - Homemade pizza
Sunday - Roast Chicken, all the trimmings and homemade apple crumble.
Cinnamon & Choc Chip Pancakes
** Added ** I will put the recipe on next weeks post for these.
At some point I am hoping to sneak in another batch of these:
** Added ** I will put the recipe on next weeks post for these.
Personally I love home cooked food and was raised on it. Being a close knit family with my Grandparents living opposite us I learnt to cook, something which a lot of people now a days can't. As a family it is very rare for us to have ready meals. To be honest it really is unheard of; ready meals for us are packets and jars of sauce mixes. As a family do you eat home cooked food or ready meals? Is it convenience or are you culinary challenged? I'd love to know.
What are you cooking this week? Don't forget to pop over to Mrs M's blog to see other meal plans for this week.
9 comments:
As you can see from my meal plans, we tend to mix and match home-cooked and processed food, to differing degrees, depending on if we've just had a baby! I usually roast a chicken once a week, and love to cook or at least prepare from scratch most nights, but also take a breather some nights & have meals with oven chips. My absolute favourite thing is home baking - I find this & cooking very therapeutic. I'm curious to know how people who don't enjoy these things fare!
Thank you for your meal plan and inspiration. I cook about 99% of our evening meals from scratch. I have started to grow more of our fruit and veg too, but I don't really enjoy cooking because I struggle to get my 2 boys to eat much. I have just this weekend started baking for the lunches instead of buying the baked goods so we shall see how that goes down. Please can I have your recipe for the cinnamon, choc chip pancakes. Thanks H
Since joining in the meal planning linky I find myself cooking a lot more. Probably as there's so many delicious ideas! x
Yes! Finally someone who eats soup and sausage rolls....lol I put it on a meal plan a few weeks ago and people thought it was strange...Glad someone else does it and it's not just me....hehehe
Great meal plan!!
Do you have a freezer? Mine is very small, only 45x45x55cm but I fit lots in it and it means I never waste leftovers! Plus it's my solution to the convenience food issue, as I always have a "microwave meal" to hand but it's one I made myself from scratch :)
Some lovely meals on your plan. Love the sound of cinnamon and chocolate pancakes. We try to make as much as possible fresh,especially now I'm off on maternity. We freeze left overs for quick meals when they are needed. Have a good week.
I agree with the freezer comment. I have a fairly large one for only one person and I fill it. I cook extras and then I have leftovers that I can heat up quickly and those are my ready meals. I do occasionally have a weightwatchers ready meal, I did the plan last year and there are a couple that I really like so I have them in the fridge for when my plan has fallen apart and I need something to eat!!
I also buy large quantities of things and freeze the rest, which saves me quite a bit of money too.
Have you tried the website "love food hate waste"? Its got lots of great tips for using leftovers etc.
The gammon tonight sounds lovely :-)
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