How is it looking so far? As far as I can see, there’s nothing particularly important going on this week for us; a nice normal week of the usual routine. That should mean a low spending week! I am not even sure we’ll do anything particularly. I’m hoping to get out a bit if the weather stays fine; being out in the sunshine does us all good. Plus, it normally means a low spend, if not a no spend. Especially if we go to the park.
Monday means another meal plan post which just goes through what we are eating this week so keep our food spends under budget. I have definitely honed my skills in this area for a long time now – and have even written a course about it here – so we have very little food waste and our meal plans are cheap and tasty I spent just under £50 this week for a family of four. I meant to get a couple of extra things for the freezer but forgot! Oops. I will do next week. I track all of our spending in my March budget planner, to make sure I stay under budget, including on food.
One of the only things I am missing on my No Spend Year so far is my takeaway coffee. I have been making it at home – I love having oat milk in my coffee – but it’s not quite the same. Having said that, the longer it goes without it, the easier it becomes. I might not say this when I get to month six, but so far, so good.
This week’s meal plan looks like this:
Monday – pizza and salad
Tuesday – prawn curry + rice
Wednesday – slow cooker spaghetti bolognese
Thursday – smoked salmon tagliatelle
Friday – filled pasta + sauce
Saturday – creamy garlic chicken
I do our food shop on a Sunday so I haven’t thought about what we will eat on Sunday. But I’m looking forward to the meals this week. Both boys will eat the same as us all week as well which helps. I love it when we can all eat the same meals together plus it makes it a lot easier as I only have to think about one meal rather than different things. We do tend to eat similar things week in week out. Do you do that? Guess I’m a creature of habit! The creamy garlic chicken is a new recipe though which I’m looking forward to trying!
For my lunches this week there are two options. When I’m at work I’m going to take soup, some crisps and some fruit. At home it’ll be a sandwich or cheese on toast, as the norm. Alfie will have school dinners and Charlie usually has a sandwich of some description with fruit and yogurt for afters. Although he’s taken a liking to waffles, which I suppose is a bit of a change. Breakfast in our house is just cereal; either wheetabix or shreddies with banana. Goes down well with everyone and fairly healthy + cheap! We have biscuits and fruit for snacks, should the boys want any.
Related posts:
- Healthy Eating On A Budget
- 3 Healthy Breakfast Recipes On A Budget
- 3 Healthy Lunch Recipes On A Budget
Part of our planning and budget for food means that some items are used from our stockpile every week. This is so the food we already have in the cupboards is used regularly and rotated so nothing goes to waste, but it’s also a good habit to get in to so that if we cannot get to the shops for whatever reason, I can make meals from what we already have in the cupboards. I’m using quite a few things from the freezer this week, which also keeps costs down. Plus pizza night is always a cheap one – I just get a big frozen one from the supermarket and it does all four of us – for the moment, anyway.
Using a combination of fresh and frozen food really keeps our grocery budget down. I do need to build up our stockpile a bit more though; slowly but surely. I like having things to hand and I don’t like having empty cupboards. Rice and pasta are staples in our stockpile, plus some of the other tinned ingredients are things I had in as well. Looking forward to our meals this week! Then again, food is one of my favourite topics 
Related posts:
What are you eating this week? Trying anything new? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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Monday – chicken pie with left overs from roast dinner + veg
Tuesday – butternut squash & bacon risotto
Wednesday – slow cooker chilli nachos
Thursday – Sausage & mash with baked beans
Friday -Pizza & salad
Saturday – Fish pie with whatever veg is left
As we are home this week, lunches will be choices from sand which, egg, cheese, tuna or corned beef + piece of fresh fruit
Breakfast – porridge, overnight oats or maybe egg or beans on toast
It’s good to be organised, I make a meal plan every week.