Budget meal planning for beginners: a weekly system to cut your food shop

TUREFF• •0

Meal planning is the habit that makes almost every other way of saving on food work. Without a plan, a shopping list is guesswork, and guesswork means extra trips, impulse buys, forgotten vegetables and takeaways on the nights nothing is ready. This guide sets out a simple weekly routine you can start this week.

Step 1: take stock before you plan

Spend five minutes looking in the fridge, freezer and cupboards. Note anything that needs using soon: the half bag of spinach, the open jar of pesto, the chicken thighs in the freezer. These go into the plan first, because the cheapest meal is the one you have already paid for.

Step 2: plan around a few anchor meals

You do not need a new recipe every night. Most households that stick with meal planning rotate a handful of reliable, cheap meals.

Pick five dinners for the week, not seven. Leave room for leftovers, an evening out or a "clear the fridge" night.
Choose meals that share ingredients. A bag of carrots can go into a stew, a stir-fry and a soup; a bunch of coriander can cover a curry and tacos.
Build at least two meals around cheap staples: dried or tinned beans and lentils, eggs, rice, pasta, potatoes, oats, frozen vegetables.
Plan one dinner that makes extra for lunches.

Step 3: write the list from the plan

Go through each meal and write down what you are missing. Group the list by shop section so you are not doubling back past the snacks. Anything not on the list stays on the shelf, unless it is a genuine staple on offer that you will definitely use.

Step 4: shop with the numbers in front of you

Compare the unit price (per kg, litre or 100 g) on the shelf label, not the sticker price.
Swap the things you buy most often for the own-brand version for a few weeks. Keep the swaps you cannot tell apart.
Frozen vegetables, fruit and fish are often cheaper than fresh and do not go off in the drawer.
Buy loose fruit and vegetables where you can, so you take only what the plan needs.

Step 5: batch cook once a week

A single session of an hour or two saves money and evenings.

Cook a big pot of something that freezes well: chilli, bolognese, dal, curry, stew or soup.
Cook a tray of rice or grains and roast a tray of vegetables at the same time, using the oven once.
Portion it into containers, label each with the contents and date, and freeze what you will not eat in the next couple of days.
Let cooked food cool quickly and get it into the fridge or freezer promptly rather than leaving it out for hours.

Those frozen portions are what stand between you and a takeaway on a tired evening.

Step 6: waste less during the week

Put food that needs using first at the front of the fridge at eye level.
Use by dates are about safety; best before dates are about quality.
Turn leftovers into something new: roast vegetables into a frittata, stale bread into breadcrumbs, vegetable trimmings and bones into stock.
Freeze bread, ripe bananas and grated cheese before they spoil.

A sample cheap week

Monday: lentil and vegetable soup with bread
Tuesday: egg fried rice with frozen peas and leftover vegetables
Wednesday: chickpea curry, made double, half frozen
Thursday: pasta with a tomato and bean sauce
Friday: baked potatoes with toppings from the fridge
Weekend: leftovers and one meal you enjoy cooking

Make it stick

Keep a running list of meals your household liked, and recycle it. After a month you will have a rotation that needs almost no thought. Keep receipts for those weeks too; seeing the total come down is the best motivation. What is your cheapest meal that everyone still enjoys? Share it, or ask for help with your own plan, in the comments.