A frugal meal plan using stuff up

I only need to do a small shop this week as we have a lot of food in the house. It should be easy enough to do a frugal meal plan, anyway. We certainly have plenty of tins and frozen stuff, so I just need to buy a few fresh bits such as veg, milk and eggs.

I am still trying to keep our meals as frugal as possible, without giving up meat or eating rubbish. All of our Christmas leftovers have been eaten, apart from a small block of Stilton and some chocolates. The latter have been hidden away, or we just eat them for the sake of it!

I think meal planning is massively important to help save money on groceries. It helps you to manage your money and prevents food waste. For me, it also means we eat more healthily. 

If you have your whole week’s dinners planned, you are far less likely to give into fast food, a takeaway or a ping meal after work. When you are trying to save money and cut your grocery budget, meal planning to use up what you already have and then writing a shopping list to buy only the things you really need will save you a ton of cash.

Saturday

Last week I picked up and froze some stewing lamb when I went shopping in Asda. It was only £3 for enough to serve 4-6. My daughter put it in the slow cooker with loads of veg and some red wine and it is bubbling away as I type. It smells delicious!

She is also using up some parsnips, carrots and sprouts that were yellow stickered. 

I don’t generally shop in Asda, but needed to do the shopping for my parents and knew I wouldn’t find certain things they had requested in Aldi. It was definitely  more expensive, but not too bad and I did find quite a bit of reduced stuff.

Sunday

We have 5 sausages in the freezer. Not really enough for the three of us, but there will be if I chop them up and make a kind of paella with some of the many bags of rice from our stores. We have peppers and mushrooms, so I will make it up as I go along!

Monday

I will use up the Stilton today in this blue cheese pasta recipe from BBC Good Food.  This looks nice and easy. I haven’t bought any fresh salad this week, so will make a winter carrot salad to accompany this.

Tuesday

It’s my daughter’s birthday! She can’t go out raving with her mates, so is stuck at home with us. How dull for her….

We have promised her a takeaway of her choice and I will buy some prosecco and a posh birthday cake from Waitrose or somewhere, to make up for having a boring lock down birthday. 

Wednesday

I found quite a lot of salmon in Asda’s reduced section, which is in the freezer. We will have this, fried simply in butter with some vegetables.

Thursday

An easy dinner tonight – cheese and bacon omelettes with home made sweet potato fries and maybe some frozen peas and sweetcorn.

Friday

Sausages, mash, broccoli and gravy. Love this – so easy and comforting when it’s so cold.

So that’s our frugal meal plan for another week.  Please share what you are eating in the comments below.

If you like to chat about all things money saving, please come and join my Facebook group. We are building up a lovely supporting frugal living community!

I am joining in with Katy Kicker’s meal planning linky. Check out her meal plan this week too. You can see more of my favourite food ideas and recipes here.