It’s been an age since I published a meal plan! Nevertheless, I always write one down; I have a magnetic wipe clean planner* I bought last year, and it’s still going strong. So, here is my frugal meal plan to take us up until Christmas. I am keeping it light, healthy and easy, as there will be plenty of rich food the following week.
In my experience, planning your meals saves money. I always start by going through the fridge, freezer and all the cupboards to see what needs using up and I make sure I incorporate those items into our meals early in the week. Then I write a shopping list of anything else we will need in the coming week.
I look ahead on the calendar to see what’s happening as well. If we are going out for the day we might need picnic things, or we could be very short of time that particular week, or have guests coming round at some point. I take all this into account when I am deciding on meals each day.
This week is likely to be busy work wise and we also have family coming on Friday for a pre-Christmas visit. I am planning on making a big pan of tomato soup using up our own frozen tomatoes from the garden. In addition, I will make jacket potatoes and a few different fillings, as well as a large salad. This should be a relatively cheap and easy way to feed a crowd.
I am avoiding using the oven at the moment. This is partly because the one in our new kitchen is awful! The numbers have faded off so you have no idea what setting it is on, plus anything placed near the bottom takes an age to cook. Another reason is that a fan oven is quite expensive to run with the high cost of electricity. So, my frugal meal plan uses other means of cooking – the air fryer, slow cooker, microwave and hob get used far more nowadays.
We are saving for a new oven and will be doing research into the best and most energy efficient model to buy in the new year.
This week’s frugal meal plan
Sunday
Out for Sunday lunch at my parents’ house, so we will have something light for tea, like eggs on toast.
Monday
Sausages, mashed potatoes, broccoli and peas.
Tuesday
Spanish omelette with home made air fryer chips and winter carrot salad. I picked up a couple of bags of the 19p carrots from Lidl the other day. It’s worth stocking up on your Christmas veg if you can store it, as it won’t be this cheap for long. All the supermarkets seem to be doing this now.
Wednesday
White fish in tomato and pepper sauce with rice. I will do the sauce in the slow cooker, make a large batch and freeze some for another day. It is good on pasta too.
Thursday
At Justin’s mum’s house for dinner.
Friday
Guests today. We shall have home made tomato soup, jacket potatoes, grated cheese, coleslaw, chilli, tuna mayonnaise and green salad. I am hoping my guests will bring the dessert!
Saturday
Two of my three daughters will be home. We will eat any of the previous day’s leftovers for lunch, and for dinner I will make tuna with black olives and penne, which is a nice easy meal.
So, that’s our frugal meal plan for the week before Christmas. What are you eating this week? Have you changed the way you cook because of the high cost of electricity?
If you are looking for further frugal inspiration, you might like to check out my book, Extreme Frugality: Save Money Like Your Grandma*.
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Ruby says
I am in the US and we have not had the drastic hike in electricity cost here yet. Our stove runs on natural gas, and that bill does go up in the winter, so we try to cook efficiently. A bonus of cooking is the kitchen is in the cold end of the house, so I prop the oven door open as it cools down to help heat that part of the house.
This week we’ve been having a nice winter vegetable soup and pork loin chops that were on sale (they are too dry, but we are gamely chewing through them). Next week will be quite cold, so I plan to use some of the ground pork in the freezer to make chili and do a side of cheddar-herb muffins to start the week.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I have some chewy pork loin in the freezer too! I’m going to stick them in the slow cooker to try to improve the texture
Mindo says
I shop at our equivalent to the Pound shop for UHT milk, spices, canned soup, vegetables, fruit and pasta sauce as well as cleaning products. Then I head to the supermarket for any meat and veg/fruit deals, and especially the 30% off meat section (which is nowhere near as good a reduction as I used to find in the UK). It’s an effort to keep my grocery spending at a reasonable level without the old standby of beans on toast – at current exchange rates one can costs around £3.50!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Oh my goodness! £3.50? That’s mad for a something that’s so cheap to produce
Simone Dutch says
Hi Jane, great meal plan! I have a meal plan right up to Christmas as well. Sorry to hear about your oven, but if you are looking for some great air fryer meals you might like to watch YT Budget Cooking UK. She is brilliant on the air fryer meals, and very cheap too!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Thanks for the recommendation. I will check her out!