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.
At some point I am hoping to sneak in another batch of these:
Cinnamon & Choc Chip Pancakes
** 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.
