At this time of year, when there is so much to spend your money on, it is particularly important to stick to the budget. Meal planning keeps me organised, stops me spending too much and prevents food from going to waste. We buy what we need and no more. Here is this week’s budget meal plan.
This week’s budget meal plan
Saturday
We have all three daughters for dinner – quite a rare occasion these days. We are having Spanish cod bake. It should be made with chorizo, but I substitute this for tinned anchovies. It is a delicious dinner from the Ocado website. They have lots of lovely recipes on there.
We will have it with chopped greens and carrots. No 1 daughter is bringing pudding.
Sunday
We are out for the day and will probably have lunch out. So tea needs to be easy. We will have jacket potatoes with beans and cheese, accompanied by a green salad.
Monday
Macaroni cheese and salad. I like a lot of sauce on my mac cheese. If there is veg hanging about, such as mushrooms or sweetcorn, I will throw those in too to use them up.
Tuesday
I quite fancy a quick and easy mushroom stroganoff, like this one. I can’t eat soya so I will substitute this for Lactofree cream. If there is salad left we will eat that or maybe have a corn on the cob from the freezer.
Wednesday
Pie, mash, broccoli, peas and gravy. Another quick dinner for after work as I bought these mushroom and camembert pies from Tesco Groceries the other week. They have a 3 for £4 offer on a lot of their frozen vegetarian products still, which is good value I think. I hope these are as nice as they sound!
Thursday and Friday
Red wine and mushroom risotto. I will make enough of this to last two meals as it is going to be a busy week and it gives me a night off cooking!
As I type this, I have just realised that this week’s budget meal plan is heavy on the mushrooms! Never mind – I love mushrooms!
What are you eating this week? For inspiration on a budget meal plan see my Favourite Frugal Recipes page.
This week I am linking up with Katy Kicker. If you want more ideas on meal planning and saving money, take a look at her blog.
This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission. Thanks!
Julia says
Monday: Vegetable Masala & rice
Tuesday: Smoked Cheese Pasta & Garlic Bread
Wednesday: Ham & Cheese Chicken Kievs (homemade Spicy Sweet Potato & Peanut soup for me)
Thursday: Chickpea Shakshuka & Rice
Friday: Chippy for the kids & more of the soup for me as DH is out.
Saturday: Masala Fish & couscous
Sunday: Veggie Toad in the Hole with mash.
Our last week of ‘proper’ food before the students arrive home again and we have to resort to the brown crispy stuff, pastas and fast food that DS3 will only eat!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Oooh, smoked cheese pasta
Sue Cuthbert says
Those Tesco pies look and sound rather good, but I can almost 100% guarantee that they won’t have them in Tesco in Stowmarket!
Sarah - Mud, Cakes and Wine says
I adore mushrooms we are having them in lots of meals as well and my mac and cheese has to be rather saucy too hahaha xx
Margie from Toronto says
I am out every single day this coming week so food at home will be very simple and concentrate on using up what I already have on hand. The only thing I plan on buying is a small BBQ chicken tomorrow – I simply don’t have time to cook so this will go into salads, served with some fast, hot veggies and frozen for use later.
Salad veggies need to be used up (and I also have a lot of mushrooms in the fridge) plus there will be a lot of “things on toast” – probably avocado with tinned sardines, avocado with a fried egg and chicken & mushroom sauce over toast!
I was supposed to be joining friends for dinner out tonight but I’m a bit feverish and coughing my head off so I am going to cancel as I need to get over this as quickly as possible since next week is so busy – so much as I would have liked to see these people it will save me some money now and I’ll offer to entertain them sometime in January or February when we all need something to look forward to.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Get well soon, Margie!
Chrissie says
We had the mushroom risotto last night but as we are still using from the freezer ready for Christmas, husband had crispy lardons and croutons on top of his and I had garlic ones on top of mine ( I freeze left over bread cubed ready for croutons on soup ), they were really good on the risotto. Rest of the week, quorn fish fingers, wedges and salad, veg curry, cottage pie, spag bol and a chilli made from one pack of mince for carnivorous husband and veggie versions for me. Nearly enough room now to make a batch of mince pies, I really don’t like the pastry on shop bought ones, also make oat bars with the mincemeat in the middle instead of the usual dates and they are so yummy !
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
They do sound nice!
Kim Carberry says
We’re on a tight budget this week too. Saving for Christmas and all that.
Your meals sound so good. I haven’t seen those mushroom and camembert pies before. I will have to keep an eye out for them.
Katy Stevens says
I find that I go through stages with mushrooms. The other week I think we had 3 dinners made with mushrooms. I don’t like them uncooked, or large, but I’m happy to chop them and add to dinners!
Thanks for linking up, as always!
Kirsty says
Have just found your website pursuing a certain Red Dragon pie.
My reason for this being I suggested (as annoying daughter) yesterday that we could have a simple vegetarian week or even venture into some vegan before the onslaught of rich delights next week. Of course, judging from everyones shared sentiments about this week, no wonder there was a slight look of horror on Mums face as in, ‘I dont have time for new or complex and essentially, added expenses on the bill’. The answer is however that I do some of the cooking and give Mum a break. Hence remembering my friends delicious Red Dragon pie and thinking how handy that would be this week, if only I could remember the recipe…
Very happy to have had mini worlds collide in finding the recipe here and sharing in the same anxieties of eating easy but healthily this week.
Thanks and peace to all mums and dads making Christmas special.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I hope your family lie it