Savings From Meal Planning

This week I had to stop to take stock of things. How could I make savings from meal planning?

I remember the days when I would cook a meal for dinner on Monday, remnants of it would remain and would be stored in the fridge. Come Tuesday, another meal would be prepared, remnants of it stored in the fridge and the same would happen every day of the week. By the start of the following week, I would be throwing away lots of food that I had paid good money for, used energy and time to prepare and bemoan the fact that I was broke. My fridge would be stuffed to the limit with lots of uneaten food and then the following week I would be back to the supermarket to start this wasteful cycle again!

I am so glad for meal planning. Ever since I received an amazing guest post about it, it has changed my life. With it, I purposely plan meals for a week or two at a time and shop only for those ingredients I needed to make said meals.

At the start of this week, I put our meal plan together. I focussed on including meals we had not had in a while, nutritive content and of course the likes and dislikes of my family members. Here’s what the plan for this week looked like:

Sunday – Katsu Curry or BBQ depending on the weather

Monday – Katsu Curry or BBQ whichever we did not have the day before

Tuesday – Jacket Potatoes with Minced Beef and cole slaw

Wednesday – Egg and Chicken Fried Rice

Thursday – Spaghetti Bolognaise

Friday – Vegetable Lasagne

So after I had made the plan, I made the shopping list based on the plan. I opted for a whole chicken that I could then cut up myself and use as appropriate.

• Update: Wednesday’s plan was changed to a risotto so the fried rice will do for Friday and the lasagne for Saturday.

LOOK HERE TO SEE HOW TO PREPARE THE CHICKEN INTO PORTIONS. It is a good skill to have and once you have done it, then you will begin to notice the savings as portions of chicken in the supermarket are quite expensive.

Depending on the size of your family, one chicken can give you boneless breast portions for curries or sweet and sour dishes, bones for soup or stock and chicken that you can also fry, bake or cook in a stew.

Check out how to make a fabulous jerk marinade here.

Mice beef was used for two of the dishes for the week and since we were having guests who are vegetarian, I opted for a vegetable lasagne which was chock full of delicious vegetables and is a filling meal served with a healthy salad.

YOU CAN CHECK OUT ANOTHER MEAL PLANNING POST HERE. IT INVOLVES NO SHOPPING!

No longer is my fridge full of unwanted food. Any leftover is properly cooled, dished up, labelled and frozen for a later date.

No longer do I go to the supermarket and pick up ingredients randomly.

No longer am I wasting my hard earned cash.

You too can benefit from the savings that are there to be gained from meal planning and purposeful shopping.

I’m happy to link up with Katy of Katykicker.com and Naomi of The Organised Life Project each week and I learn so much by seeing what they do.

Have a good week ahead.

Jo and Leisa

Ps. Do check out our Facebook group and help us to create a community where we share about any deals we are finding that we all can benefit from. It would be fabulous to see you there!

 

 

Grammarly