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:
- 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)
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