Meal planning: how?

"FERRANTE" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

What methods do you use when shopping for the week? I thought about
getting a couple boxes of cereal and milk, bread, butter, and
breakfast is taken care of. Then lunch and dinner. Sounds simple. Is
it?

Mark
Bachelor cook

We shop for a month. We buy what looks good at the time, supplemented by
trips to the store for fresh fruits and veggies, bread, etc. . We have two
refrigerators and a freezer and a pantry of dried and canned goods. If you
keep enough stuff on hand, you can usually find enough ingredients to make a
meal.

Certain things we always have. Pasta, rice, potatoes. The freezer usually
has peas, corn, mixed veggies, green beans. Pantry will also have broth,
canned tomatoes, tomato paste, Spam, few cans of soup, tuna fish.

We don't often plan ahead except for a particular dinner. If we know we want
stew, or veal piccata, leg of lamb, etc. we make sure those particular
ingredients and accompaniments are on hand. Otherwise, it is just pick and
choose. Planning for vacation makes sense, but I'll be damned if I'm going
to commit to what I'm going to have for dinner or March 12 when I go
shopping this week.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

FERRANTE said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

What methods do you use when shopping for the week? I thought about
getting a couple boxes of cereal and milk, bread, butter, and
breakfast is taken care of. Then lunch and dinner. Sounds simple. Is
it?

Mark
Bachelor cook

It sounds like you decide that you want to eat a particular
"something" instead of looking at what is there and deciding what can
be made from it. Have you actually eaten all the $80 of food you
bought? If not, start figuring out what you need to make a meal from
the remainders.

I guess we all have certain things that we eat as a meal. If I buy
steaks, I try make sure that I have potatoes, sour cream, chives,
salad makings, etc to go with it. Keep dried, frozen and canned
ingredients on hand.

--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral, 48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)

FERRANTE said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

What methods do you use when shopping for the week? I thought about
getting a couple boxes of cereal and milk, bread, butter, and
breakfast is taken care of. Then lunch and dinner. Sounds simple. Is
it?

A single person should be able to eat pretty well on $80 per week. It is a
good idea to have a decent supply of staple ingredients on hand, flour,
sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, eggs, milk, butter, shortening,
cooking oil etc. You can keep a supply of frozen vegetables on hand. Then
your weekly shopping would include the meat, cheese, bread, fresh
vegetables etc. Some of your staples are perishable and will have to be
replenished on a regular basis. You should also accumulate a variety of
herbs and spices to have on hand. It can be an expensive proposition to
get them all at once, but if you buy one or two per week for a few weeks
you will soon have just about everything you need.

FERRANTE said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

What methods do you use when shopping for the week? I thought about
getting a couple boxes of cereal and milk, bread, butter, and
breakfast is taken care of. Then lunch and dinner. Sounds simple. Is
it?

I sit down with a couple of cookbooks and plan 6 evenings worth of
dinners (I allow one evening for leftovers or going out), plus lunch
on Sunday. This makes me feel virtuous because I actually use my
cookbooks :-), and it certainly broadens my cooking horizons. Then on
Saturday morning I go to the farmer's market and buy the meat,
vegetables, fruit and cheese I need, and I then go to a small
supermarket for fish, cream, yogurts, butter, etc.
The basics (flour, sugar, pasta, ...) I buy on the net and get
delivered about once every other month.
I devised the system 10 years ago, when I had my first son, and as
it's very convenient, I stick to it.

Nathalie in Switzerland

In article <[email hidden]>,

FERRANTE said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

What methods do you use when shopping for the week? I thought about
getting a couple boxes of cereal and milk, bread, butter, and
breakfast is taken care of. Then lunch and dinner. Sounds simple. Is
it?

When I was unattached, I'd do my shopping once a week. This has slipped
a bit since the SO came along, but we're moving in that direction. We
usually head to our favorite grocery store (Central Market in Shoreline,
WA, for those of you who need to know this info) on the weekend and
stock up on meats, cereal, paper products, household cleaners, juice,
and produce for most of the week. There is some casual planning of what
we want to have before we head off to the store. We usually need one or
two other trips during the week to get more milk or juice, or perhaps a
protein source for a main dish.

We also make one meat purchase last more than one meal. For example, we
got a package of two strip steaks on Saturday. SO grilled them both up
last night. We ate one of them then, and the other will become part of
a Thai beef salad tonight. You can do the same thing with chicken or
pork. I will often make a pot of chili or soup on the weekend and we'll
have that for lunches or a second dinner later.

Cindy

--
C.J. Fuller

Delete the obvious to email me

FERRANTE said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

What methods do you use when shopping for the week? I thought about
getting a couple boxes of cereal and milk, bread, butter, and
breakfast is taken care of. Then lunch and dinner. Sounds simple. Is
it?

I can't tell if you regularly spend $80 for only 2 days worth of meals
or if that happened once recently. You're asking a few questions at
once: How do I make the weekly food budget go farther? How do I save
on the time and effort of shopping and cooking? How do I plan meals on
a weekly basis? It is hard to answer without knowing more about what
you like to eat, but here are general ideas:

Eat leftovers.

Consider staples like pasta, rice, canned tomato sauce, spices as a
separate category in the food budget from perishables like meat, fresh
fruits and vegetables and milk.

Cook from a cookbook for a while. You don't have to do this forever,
but getting used to looking at a recipe and making sure you have
everything to make that recipe won't hurt. Later when you're in the
habit, you can go to the supermarket and wing it.

Try a weekly plan for a few weeks. Again, you don't have to do this
forever, but try sitting down and mapping out what you'll have for
breakfast, lunch and dinner for the week. Try to stick to the plan, but
don't worry about it if you don't. At the end of the week, look back at
what you ate, what you didn't, what got left in the fridge, what you ran
out of, what you hated eating or hated making, etc. Then make another
map for the next week. In a short while, you won't have to make a
formal list of meals, but you'll have a better feel for the amount of
groceries to buy.

Think simple. A meal doesn't have to be more complicated than burgers
with broccoli or baked chicken with a sweet potato. Breakfast can be a
bowl of cereal and a piece of fruit. With that in mind, I sort in the
basket at the supermarket. I group a meat with a vegetable, another
meat with another vegetable while thinking "that's Monday, that's
Tuesday." (I discovered that I save money by shopping twice or 3X/
week, but that's me.) Then it doesn't matter if I don't actually eat
Monday's meal on Monday, but I do get the right mix of meat and vegetable.

--Lia

Dave Smith said:

FERRANTE said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two
days later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not
there. I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to
the store with a weekly meal plan.

What methods do you use when shopping for the week? I thought about
getting a couple boxes of cereal and milk, bread, butter, and
breakfast is taken care of. Then lunch and dinner. Sounds simple. Is
it?

A single person should be able to eat pretty well on $80 per week.

No joke! I don't even want to *think* about what all I could eat for $80 a
week!

Quoted message said:

is a good idea to have a decent supply of staple ingredients on hand,
flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, eggs, milk, butter,
shortening, cooking oil etc. You can keep a supply of frozen
vegetables on hand. Then your weekly shopping would include the meat,
cheese, bread, fresh vegetables etc. Some of your staples are
perishable and will have to be replenished on a regular basis. You
should also accumulate a variety of herbs and spices to have on hand.
It can be an expensive proposition to get them all at once, but if
you buy one or two per week for a few weeks you will soon have just
about everything you need.

On top of this, I recommend thinking of multiple purpose foods (aka using
leftovers). For example, I marinated and broiled a 2 lb. flank steak last
night in an "Asian" style marinade. I ate 4 thin slices of it with steamed
(from frozen) brussels sprouts and a slice of toasted bread. I cut two more
slices off for dinner tonight; the remainder went into the freezer. Why?
For later use in a beef & broccoli stir-fry. It's what a call a
multi-purpose steak. I also have frozen (already cooked) rice in a freezer
bag from leftovers to use in the stir-fry.

I don't have multiple freezers; cannot shop for a month's worth of stuff at
a time. I shop for deals and multiple use stuff. And yes, I keep lots of
frozen veggies on hand for when the good fresh stuff is not in season or is
just terribly expensive. And the staples you mentioned, Dave.

Also, canned tomatoes, stuff like that... always on hand just in case. I
can't imagine buying $80 worth of food a week and having "nothing to eat".

Jill

FERRANTE said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

What methods do you use when shopping for the week? I thought about
getting a couple boxes of cereal and milk, bread, butter, and
breakfast is taken care of. Then lunch and dinner. Sounds simple. Is
it?

Get in lotsa staples so you have vittles on hand. Buy stuff in season/on
sale...

I don't do menu planning per se since I live alone, but I never worry about
having enough on hand to eat. And that includes having enough on hand in
order to invite folx over for some grub. I can say "Hey, why dontcha come
over for dinner tonight!" without generally having to make a major drama out
of it...

--
Best
Greg

jmcquown wrote:
I

Quoted message said:

can't imagine buying $80 worth of food a week and having "nothing to eat".

Sounds like a typical "bachelor cook" thing to do. Wondering if he bought
lotsa prepared foods? That drives the price waaay up...

I could throw a nice big party for that kinda dough, and that would include
some nice plonk...

--
Best
Greg

Quoted message said:

FERRANTE said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

Oh dear, I'm guilty of this. Why? Because I want fresh stuff - doesn't
matter if I have the makings in the freezer. I get poultry, beef, etc.,
etc. on sale and freeze it for a rainy day.

And now all my kids have moved out. I forget and still buy as if I'm
feeding 5..................

But I'm trying -- really, really trying to cut back and use up what I've
got.

It's hard though!!!

Elaine

"elaine" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

FERRANTE said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never went to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

Oh dear, I'm guilty of this. Why? Because I want fresh stuff - doesn't
matter if I have the makings in the freezer. I get poultry, beef, etc.,
etc. on sale and freeze it for a rainy day.

And now all my kids have moved out. I forget and still buy as if I'm
feeding 5..................

But I'm trying -- really, really trying to cut back and use up what I've
got.

It's hard though!!!

I know just what you mean. We are just two in the house now and I am still
cooking for 6🙁 I know how to cope with the cooked food now, I just freeze
it in portions and then I have days when I don't have to cook. I have
problems still with the cupboards though... I have stuff falling out now🙂

jmcquown said:

Dave Smith said:

FERRANTE wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two
days later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not
there. I am obviously doing something wrong.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

A single person should be able to eat pretty well on $80 per week.

Quoted message said:

No joke! I don't even want to *think* about what all I could eat for $80 a
week!

I don't think it's all that much for a week. I could easily
spend about that for stuff to cook. (I know ppl whose aim
is to spend less than $80.00 per day, but that's eating out
all the time.)

However, the OP can almost certainly get by on less (I do.)
Beans are cheap, and can be eked out with other stuff in
many ways. One can cook in batches and freeze some for later.
Look in a local bookstore for economy cookbooks and cooking-for
-one books.

"FERRANTE" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two days
later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not there.
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have never gone to the store
with a weekly meal plan.

What methods do you use when shopping for the week? I thought about
getting a couple boxes of cereal and milk, bread, butter, and
breakfast is taken care of. Then lunch and dinner. Sounds simple. Is
it?

First and foremost, read through the sales circular and stock up on the
basics ... butter prices, for example, vary widely. Buy it when it's on
sale
and freeze it. Same goes for meats ... one week chicken can be whatever,
the next week 69 cents a pound. Get yourself some chicken thighs and
make a pot of chicken cacchiatore using some chopped green pepper,
a cheap can of tomato sauce and some Italian sausage ... there are at
least three meals there.

How expensive is a meatloaf? Not very at all, and leftovers.

You make pasta sauce? Freezes in portions like a dream and you can
always pull some out and have a plate of pasta and maybe a salad?

I don't know what you spent your money on or what you even like to
eat. It's hard to say. Roast a whole chicken and make chicken enchiladas
with the leftovers. Like that.

Having said that, cereal is not cheap last I looked.

nancy

cycjec said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

A single person should be able to eat pretty well on $80 per week.

Quoted message said:

No joke! I don't even want to *think* about what all I could eat for $80 a
week!

I don't think it's all that much for a week. I could easily
spend about that for stuff to cook. (I know ppl whose aim
is to spend less than $80.00 per day, but that's eating out
all the time.)

However, the OP can almost certainly get by on less (I do.)
Beans are cheap, and can be eked out with other stuff in
many ways. One can cook in batches and freeze some for later.
Look in a local bookstore for economy cookbooks and cooking-for
-one books.

OP identified himself as a bachelor. I do most of the shopping in our household
and I usually spend around $100. We pretty well. I realize that there is some
waste and you can't expect him to do it on half of what two people manage. We do
not buy any prepared meals. We do our own cooking and baking, so that $80 is
covering good quality basic foods.

"cycjec" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

jmcquown said:

Dave Smith said:

FERRANTE wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two
> days later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not
> there. I am obviously doing something wrong.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

A single person should be able to eat pretty well on $80 per week.

Quoted message said:

No joke! I don't even want to *think* about what all I could eat for $80
a
week!

I don't think it's all that much for a week.

But ... he said he ran out of food in two days.

nancy

"Nancy Young" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"cycjec" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

jmcquown said:

Dave Smith wrote:
> FERRANTE wrote:

Quoted message said:

>> I am doing something wrong? I go to the store, spent $80, and two
>> days later, I am looking for something to make a meal, and it is not
>> there. I am obviously doing something wrong.

Quoted message said:

> A single person should be able to eat pretty well on $80 per week.

Quoted message said:

No joke! I don't even want to *think* about what all I could eat for
$80 a
week!

I don't think it's all that much for a week.

But ... he said he ran out of food in two days.

nancy

Actually he said he is "looking for something to make a meal and it is not
there." He could be missing one ingredient out of six he needs. That is
more poor planning than anything else.

"Edwin Pawlowski" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Nancy Young" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

But ... he said he ran out of food in two days.

Quoted message said:

Actually he said he is "looking for something to make a meal and it is not
there." He could be missing one ingredient out of six he needs. That is
more poor planning than anything else.

Well, maybe he could tell us what he has left? I mean ... say I was looking
to make chicken piccata and I had no lemon or wine. I would find some
other way to prepare the chicken. Know what I'm saying? What exactly
does he have to work with. Me, if I have a can of tomatoes and some
pasta, I'm okay with that. Add a little this and that, dinner's on.

nancy

In article <[email hidden]>, "Ophelia"

Quoted message said:

it in portions and then I have days when I don't have to cook. I have
problems still with the cupboards though... I have stuff falling out
now🙂

Well, start using it up, Ophelia! If you don't you won't know what
you've got in there and then you'll buy some when you need it and then
you'll discover that you already had some and should have used that.
And then you'll wind up with a bunch of stuff the age of which is
unknown and suspicious and you'll wind up throwing it out. Tsk, tsk.
Wasteful. HTH.
--
-Barb
<www.jamlady.eboard.com>; Sam pics added 2-7-05
"I got the motive, which is money; and the body, which is dead!" - Rod
Steiger as Sheriff Gillespie, "In the Heat of the Night," 1967.

In article <[email hidden]>, Nathalie Chiva

Quoted message said:

The basics (flour, sugar, pasta, ...) I buy on the net and get
delivered about once every other month. I devised the system 10 years
ago, when I had my first son, and as it's very convenient, I stick to
it.

Quoted message said:

Nathalie in Switzerland

Curiosity, Nathalie: Why do you buy the flour, sugar, and pasta online?
--
-Barb
<www.jamlady.eboard.com>; Sam pics added 2-7-05
"I got the motive, which is money; and the body, which is dead!" - Rod
Steiger as Sheriff Gillespie, "In the Heat of the Night," 1967.