The food plan challenge for 2016

The facts

I spent the evening yesterday going through my bank statements to total up our spending on food for 2015. I was aware our spending was much more than it should be which is why we are going to do our best to try this food plan challenge.

As this plan is going to be started at the end of January I totalled up everything from 1st Feb 2015 to 31 Dec 2015.

Guess how much we spent on takeaways and eating out in this period I asked my partner who was sat nearby. Hmm he said, I don't know, I would say £1000 but that doesn't seem right, perhaps around £900? I started laughing, it was nearer £1900!

The odd takeaway, meal out, coffee in a coffee shop soon adds up and this was nearly £40 a week on top of our weekly food shopping spend!

I have been reading through a blog by a Lady called Lesley at Thrifty Lesley she teaches us how we can eat for £1 a day which for two is £14 a week and we are spending £40 on just meals out and takeaways!

I also looked at our spending on normal shopping and this comes to an average of £58.00 per week (including any cleaning bits, toilet rolls, gifts etc purchased from the supermarket so not 100% all food!)

So our 2015 spending looked as follows:

Weekly Spending

Normal Food Shop - £58.00

Takeaway/Eating Out - £40.00

Total = £98.00 per week

Yearly Spending

(based on the above averages)

Normal Food Shop - £3016.00

Takeaway/Eating Out - £2080.00

Total = £5096 a year

Sooo something really has to change!

The Plan

This week I am going to be shopping for meal plan 7 of the Thrifty Lesley meal plan adapted slightly (which makes it a bit more money)

The meal plan I am doing is as follows:

Day 1:

Breakfast: oats with milk

Lunch: Lentil and veg soup with bread

Dinner: Cottage pie, a yogurt

Day 2:

Breakfast: oats with milk

Lunch: Mixed veg soup with bacon and with bread

Dinner: Scone based pizza, a yogurt

Day 3:

Breakfast: oats with milk

Lunch: Leftover pizza

Dinner:Lasagna with cheese, veg and a jacket potato, a yogurt

Day 4:

Breakfast: oats with milk

Lunch: Lentil and veg soup with bread

Dinner: Bacon casserole ,a yogurt

Day 5:

Breakfast: oats with milk

Lunch: Mixed veg soup with bacon and with bread

Dinner: Spaghetti bolognese, a yogurt

Day 6:

Breakfast: Pancakes with jam and soft cheese

Lunch: veg pancake flatbreads

Dinner: dumplings stuffed with bacon, a yogurt

Day 7:

Breakfast: Pancakes with jam and soft cheese

Lunch: veg pancake flatbreads

Dinner: Fish with veg, oaty peach crumble with custard

Snacks of oaty biscuits and scones

 

I have changed her plan as follows:

Original can be found here

•  Oats 5/7 days as we already have quite a lot in the cupboard
• Changed the pancake type a bit
• I am going to buy some bread to go with our soup to take to work
• We will have fish on day 7 as we have some frozen in the freezer
• I am buying a pack of jacket potatoes
• We will have some yogurt each day to boost the calcium in this diet
• We will be buying different meat (free range/organic)
• I need to buy some strong white flour for the flatbread which wasn't on her shopping list (I already have the yeast needed for these)
• We are buying some cheese for our lasagna and to grate on top of things (we love cheese + added calcium again)

With my changes and deducting for a few bits we already have in the cupboard this takes the spend to around £24.50

 The Challenge

So with my 2015 monthly food spending being a whopping £425 a month with our old habits I am now budgeting a spend of £150 a month to include any takeaways we get in or if we decide to eat out a couple of times.

This will give us a saving of £275.00 a month to be spent on other things.

Challenge on!

I will be documenting how we get on so feel free to pop by to see pictures and more!

Anyone else doing a food plan this year? I would love to hear your experiences!

Emily