This week I started my year of buying only second hand, as you may have discovered in this post. But I also want to have a generally very frugal year.
The grocery spend is always a good starting point when you are trying to save money. Meal planning, preventing food waste and writing a shopping list are key.
I am also making the most of the Olio app to get food for free, as you will see from the meal plan below to kick off my frugal year. So far in the past week I have picked up 3 packs of wholemeal rolls, a sliced white loaf, a pack of white rolls, some sprouts, two bags of salad, a cucumber, 3 ready made sandwiches, 3 packs of ham, some cress, two bags of potatoes, a pack of red peppers and a ton of mushrooms! It’s great to save food that might otherwise have been binned.
Saturday
We have a variety of leftovers in the fridge, so will eat those up tonight. A bit of tuna pasta bake, some chicken casserole and some leftover risotto. There is also a bit of a salad bag that I picked up free on the olio app, so that needs eating too.
I want to make sure we don’t waste any food at all, and I enjoy leftovers anyway as they make a quick lunch the next day. Always good when I am working!
Sunday
I picked up a joint of roast beef in Iceland a while back, so we will have the the full Sunday roast today. To go alongside, we have more free food from Olio: potatoes to make roasties and a bag of sprouts.
There are also some Aunt Bessie’s bake at home frozen Yorkshire puddings to finish that we ate on Christmas day. A nice treat, but from now on I will be making my own. Much cheaper!
Monday
Just me and my daughter home for dinner tonight. We will have grilled halloumi, mushrooms (again from Olio!) and baked sweet potatoes.
Tuesday
I fancy Nigel Slater’s Hearty Party Hotpot tonight, a veggie special that we have eaten several times. It will be slightly varied to use what we have.
We picked fresh chestnuts in the woods, so they will go in instead of a can. Parsnips and carrots are in the fridge, but we don’t have swede. I don’t think it’s essential. We don’t have porcini mushrooms, but have plenty of frozen sliced ones from the big stash I got last week on Olio.
Wednesday
Sausages and mash with broccoli. There is something so comforting about this simple meal when it is cold outside.
Thursday
We have a tin of hot dogs in the cupboard for some reason. I have no recollection of buying them, so I reckon they arrived via my daughter!
I quite like them mixed with pasta in a bake, so will invent something for tonight to have with frozen sweetcorn.
Friday
Smoky chicken with chick peas, made with chicken thighs. I actually prefer thighs to breasts as they don’t dry out and have more flavour. The fact that they are cheaper is also handy! Chick peas bulk out this dish and made it cheaper still.
We will eat this with some rice from the store cupboard.
So that’s this week’s meal plan to kick off my frugal year. What are you eating this week?
If you want more money saving ideas, come over and join in the chat on my Facebook group, My Second Hand Life.
As usual, I am linking up with Katy Kicker for her meal planning linky. For more of my frugal food ideas see here.
Katy Stevens says
That hearty hotpot looks so nice!
Hope you have a great week and thanks for linking up!
Amanda says
I love Olio! It’s great for saving on the weekly food bill and of course the good and warm feeling that you’ve saved precious food from going to waste.
You mentioned freezing mushrooms. Whenever i freeze fresh mushrooms they never look or smell great when i defrost them. How do you find them when they have thawed out??
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
They do go a little soggy, but they are fine chucked in a stew!
Sarah - Mud Cakes and Wine says
I need to have a look at Olio sounds interesting, your meals are tasty and good value its brilliant. I will pop over to your facebook as well x
Kim Carberry says
You are doing great with saving money. I keep hearing about the Olio app. I think I will have to look into it.
Great meal plan. The Hearty Party Hotpot sounds so good. x
Charlotte Zealey says
Olio is an app which I have started using mainly to give things away which we no longer want. Sadly we haven’t had anyone collect yet but I am sure this will change now we are back in a lockdown again. You have some amazing sounding meals this week thank you for sharing.
Karen Reekie says
I haven’t used Olio, I might have to have a look as I know someone else who could use it and might need it. I love Nigel Slater cooking recipes. I also have never cooked chestnuts and need to have a go.