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Right. You’ve decided you want to make a meal plan, but how do you go about doing it? We’ve listed out a few things to think about before jumping in and writing a list of what you want to eat for the week.
Make a list of ingredients you have
Before you hit the shops, have a look through your cupboards. If you’ve already got a tin of tomatoes, chances are you won’t need to buy another one… unless the menu you decide is incredibly heavy on the Italian-front. Like the old DIY saying goes “measure twice, cut once”, check your cupboards twice – just in case a cheeky jar of curry sauce is hiding behind the beans – and go shopping once. Make a list of what you’ve got so you can tailor your meal plan, this will help when it comes to budget: use what you’ve already got to save on buying more.
How many meals do you need to make?
Just you, for two, a family of four? This will change your meal plan entirely.
Just you? Three meals a day, 21 per week. Double that if you’re feeding someone else on top.
If you’re making for a family of four, you’ll need four meals each course. Four breakfasts, four lunches, and four dinners. You’ll need to plan for 12 meals a day – 84 meals per week. For every extra person, add 21 meals a week to that total. When you think of it like that, it becomes clear just how important making a meal plan is. It also shows how vital it is to make a budget. How often do you plan and organise 84 things without checking the cost? That’s where the next part of meal planning comes in.
Calculate your food budget
Once you’ve calculated your monthly budget you’ll be able to allocate a set amount to your monthly food budget.
If you haven’t created a budget, you can do a quick one: subtract your mandatory expenses from your monthly income, then determine how much of what you’ve got left you can spend on food. Doing this will also help you get an understanding of where your money is going, and it may also open your eyes on just how much money you spend on stuff you don’t really need. Cutting unnecessary spending will go a long way to helping you get the most out of your money.
Right, so. You’ve looked through your spending, you know your outgoings, and you’ve decided on how much you’ll be able to set aside for your food shop per month. You can then decide a breakdown which works for you and the number of meals you need to make each week.
If you do a big weekly shop, it’s best to break your monthly budget down into a weekly one. If you’re only buying for 21 meals (one person) or 42 (two people), then you could probably get away with a fortnightly shop, so you’ll only need to halve your monthly budget to work out your per shop spend.
You could even get more detailed than that and plan around how much you’d like to spend per meal. But of course, if you’ve planned a menu, all you have to do is make sure your shop is on budget. As long as you’re on budget it doesn’t matter if one dinner is £1 per head or £1.50. Just keep to your shopping budget.
Decide the menu
Remember learning about the NHS’ Eatwell Guide? Five portions of fruit or veg a day, starchy foods being a third of your daily intake, and the rest being made up of protein and dairy. The Eatwell Guide also recommends two portions of fish a week and only small amounts of high salt and high sugar foods each day. A healthy, balanced menu should be your goal.
If you’re cooking dinner for four, you’ll probably need to make a new dinner each day, as opposed to cooking solo and being able to make one batch-cooked dinner last for 5 days (Note: I have managed to make a chili con carne last an entire week. When my mum cooked for five of us, that whole batch would’ve been scoffed in half hour.) The more new meals you need to make, the more variety you’ll have on your meal plan.
If your budget is particularly tight and you’re cooking for just yourself, you might only need to make two dinners and spend the week alternating between the two, making slight changes can zhuzh it up a bit.
For example, mince meat (and veg to bulk) in a tomato-based sauce can be split into daily portions, with each day being a different dinner. You could make bolognese, chilli, tacos, whack some on a jacket potato with cheese, or even remove a portion of mince before adding the tomato and make a shepherd’s pie. But of course, that tactic won’t work for every household.
Are you a household of quick breakfasts or one that opts for a piece of fruit and waits for lunch before having a meal? Are you a sandwich for lunch kinda house, or do you prefer wraps, leftovers, or something hot?
Planning your menu will come down to individual preferences and your diet. Are you cooking for a meat lover and a vegetarian? Picky kids who act like eating a vegetable will kick start the end of the world? Deciding a menu will take time, and may involve searching for new recipes if you find yourself cooking the same things week in, week out.
If you’re short on time, go for dinners you can whip up quickly, or something you can put in the slow cooker in the morning and forget about until it’s time to dish up. Meaty pasta, chicken chasseur and slow cooked beef fajita are some of our favourite lazy dinners – give them a go if you’re in need of some inspiration.
A meal plan isn’t just about dinnertime, so don’t forget to plan breakfasts, lunches, and snacks as well.
Go shopping
A healthy, balanced meal plan will be best for you, and whoever you’re cooking for.
It’s commonly thought that fresh food comes with a higher price tag than ready-made alternatives. And for many things, that’s true. For other things like fresh meat, while all received a price hike in the past few years, it’s cheaper to buy whole. The more money spent butchering and prepping, the higher the cost for the consumer.
For example, 1kg of chicken thighs at Tesco will cost you £3.15, or £2.99 in Aldi, while 1kg of skinless and boneless chicken thighs will cost you £6.50. Aldi doesn’t sell skinless and boneless thighs as a kilo, you can get 900g for £5.39 (which equates to £5.99 per kilo, which is still cheaper than Tesco).
However, it’s important to note that skinless will yield you nine thighs, while skin-on will only get you seven. Of course, this does depend on the overall weight of each thigh and is subject to change packet to packet.
Where you shop will play a part in designing your menu. Your budget will go further in some supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl compared to Sainsbury’s, Tesco, or M&S. Buying in bulk will also prove more cost effective than buying smaller packets.
Let’s use chicken as an example again. The 320g chicken breast fillet packet at Tesco equates to £7.62/kg whereas the 950g pack is £6.53/kg. You might not need 950g of chicken for this week, but you can freeze it and use it when a chicken dinner crops up on your meal plan.
Take things like vegetables: you can prep and freeze these, too. If you buy in bulk to save money, you can plan ahead to reduce your waste. A kilo bag of carrots probably won’t be used in one sitting, and if your meal plan doesn’t call for carrots for another week or two, you can chop ready for the dish they will be used in, and freeze.
Buy in bulk to save money. Choose the supermarket that allows you to get the best value for your money. Use everything you buy to avoid waste, both in terms of food and money.
Doing your shopping online can help you keep to budget; by not browsing the aisles you’re not at risk of adding little snacks or tidbits to your trolley and blowing your budget. If, like me, you enjoy leaving the house and prowling the aisles, make sure you’ve got a list and use a smart scanner to keep a live tally of your spending. You’ve gone through all the effort of making a budget and a meal plan, don’t blow it at the final hurdle.
