Usually I would struggle every day to come up with different meal ideas and lacked inspiration as to what to cook for my family which is a shame really because I actually really enjoy cooking for myself and for others but I started to get bored of it and the meals I was cooking. I don’t know about some of you but I felt like I was making the same meals every day and I was getting fed up of cooking them and even eating them which is one of the reasons why I decided to start meal planning. Meal planning is something that I have only very recently started to do and now I’m asking myself why has it taken me so long to start doing this?! Already I have found that it has helped me to come up with and make it easy for me to plan what meals I am going to cook for my family and because of this I’ve started to really enjoy cooking again as well.
By writing down what foods need to be eaten and what meals I can make with them each week has really helped with that, it has also helped to keep the cost of our weekly food shop down and to cut down on the amount of food that was being thrown out and just going to waste! We tend to bulk buy a whole lot of meat once a month which costs around £60 as we found that this saves us money. We then freeze it all and then just defrost what food we are going to use every other day or so and then each week when we go food shopping just buy foods to go with it but because I didn’t have a clue what to cook, I was just throwing all sorts into my trolley and still spending £70+ a week on food and that was without even buying meat and we was still throwing so much food away! Compared to now where I’m spending around £40-£50 a week on food and there’s hardly any going to waste.
So far this week I have cooked homemade lasagne with garlic bread, chicken casserole with vegetables, sausage casserole with mashed potatoes and shepherds pie and it’s cost next to nothing! I’m really enjoying experimenting with different recipes, cooking and trying them and best of all – eating them!
Does anyone else plan what meals they are going to make throughout the week? What meals do you like to cook for you and your family?
Life as The Lonsdales 
Sounds like you’ve got a great system going! I try to meal plan for 2-3 nights a week but other than that just keep a bunch of basics on hand because I’m never sure on our exact schedule. But definitely a goal for the future!
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http://www.areweadultsyet.com
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Thanks! I’ve got to I suppose, the cost of living is so high at the minute that I’m just trying to keep costs down anywhere that I can, but it helps to try and be a bit more organised at the same time too. It’s hard to plan ahead if you don’t have the same schedule every day, I totally get that x
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I never meal plan but I’d like to try it but I’m a very conscious eater and if I don’t fancy something, I won’t eat it and vice versa. So I’d be worried I’d plan / prepare a meal for one particular day and then really not fancy it!
Jenny in Neverland
http://www.jennyinneverland.com
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I totally get that! My son can be quite fussy and often I will make something for us all and he won’t want to eat it so I usually end up having to have a back up or make him something just for him that I know he will eat. This can be a bit awkward so I do try to plan and make meals that I know are well liked in our house so that usually they will want to be eaten and that way I can please everyone at the same time but I do know what you’re saying, sometimes you might just not fancy something in particular and then won’t enjoy it. Maybe have everything to hand and then if you change your mind you can swap your meals around for another day? Just an idea x
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I need to start doing this. I was doing it at one point and was saving money, I just got lazy with meal planning. So, thank you for this post, I’m definitely gonna start doing this again x
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It’s a great way to save money isn’t it! No problem, thanks for reading 🙂 x
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