Meal Plan Madness and Thrifty Living

Following my post 'Thrifty Meal Planning' which wasn't about actually planning at all, here's what we ended up having.

Monday - Chicken sandwiches for lunch and pasta bolognaise (with beef mince) for tea. I had to batch cook something that was easy to serve and reheat as we do a quick turnaround on Monday night. It's Crafty B's night!

Tuesday - After the suggestion from @bluebirdanielle we had chicken risotto. I used celery and half a bag of porcini mushrooms along with one pot of the stock and it was delicious. Such great comfort food. Definitely doing that again! 

Wednesday - Chicken and leek pie made with a block of puff pastry. I used the whole lot and made far too much. I was wary of reheating but this would easily have fed a family of 4 and then some! 

Thursday - I used another pot of the stock and the rest of the porcini mushrooms with some other mushrooms to make a soup. We also had chicken sandwiches for lunch. 

Friday - We ate lunch out and Hubby B ate tea out so we had 'podgy' for supper!  This is what Baby B I calls porridge and he is totally obsessed! 

There was still some chicken left over which the cat enjoyed. Although I haven't done the exact maths, I'm pretty sure there is something in this in terms of money saving and what I made in the week would have gone further to feed more people. I'm going to ask my hubby how he makes his celeriac soup too because that is delicious, cheap to make and it fed four of us on Sunday and me for two lunches. That was six (large) portions.

The planning of food and shopping lists at the moment has fallen by the wayside for the last couple of weeks. This is because, as I mentioned, we are big fans of batch cooking. We have several portions of homemade bolognese, pork and beans, chilli, sausage casserole, chicken stew and cottage pie in the freezer along with lots of fish and chicken portions. We tend to stock up on meals for ease during the week but once the freezer is looking a bit empty, I'll start meal planning properly with shopping lists. There are so many tools online which is a great help. Meanwhile I am trying to budget myself with a certain amount each week for shopping. I had to up it by £10 after my initial budget just wouldn't stretch. I did certainly cheat a bit as over the Christmas period, I took advantage of supermarket deals and vouchers and stockpiled things such as juice, cereal, washing detergents etc. I only have to get in fresh things in the week.

I feel this is just one part of my 'running an efficient household' that is well underway and I will of course keep you posted.

I would love to hear how you do your shopping. Bulk buy or buy as you need? Any thrifty meal ideas?

Get in touch!

Mrs Crafty B