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Thanks for your new post and the idea about having a meal plan. I live alone, don't make a meal plan, and sometimes food goes bad. I also don't have any set meal times. I just eat whenever I am hungry. Recently my health insurance company sent me information about the Livongo program which is for people who are at risk of being diabetic. Anyhow, you record what you eat every day and I can see that I would probably benefit from a meal plan. Today I ate mostly fruit and salad, not much protein or anything else. Now it is bedtime and I am hungry.

Grandma Donna Wrote, Hi Becky Sue K, just this morning I woke to to the sound of the pets wanting me to get up and feed them, our usual wake up call.  They are "very" early risers and it seems they must have a meal plan of their own and they want me to stick to it.  :)  Sometimes we get busy and distracted and need a bit of of a routine or else we forget to drink enough liquids during the day or get proper nutrition.  A meal plan helps to save money on groceries and what I find with myself is that it helps me by taking away having to think so much about what to cook or wonder what I have in the cupboard or fridge to make something to eat.  Thank you for commenting. Donna

You reminded me that when I toured Pebble Hill plantation in Thomasville Georgia their kitchen still had the old menu book on display with the day’s menu pencilled in. Interesting side note, the entire staff ate what the family ate, so the employees got oysters, soup, a meat and 2 vegetables and a dessert every time the family did. What a lot of food those cooks turned out!

I struggle with menu planning but I do it anyway because it helps me not waste food and cook in batches rather than every day.  I work and have a long commute so my evenings are short. When I know say, meatloaf is on the menu I can have the meat thawed in time and cook it on the weekend along with any other oven dish that can cook with it, even if the cook time is different. I just set the timer and pull out what’s done first and keep cooking what isn’t done yet. 

I cook for four as a rule, although I’m feeding just me.  I have leftovers for lunches and another evening meal. Luckily I don’t mind eating leftovers. Sometimes I put a leftover meal in the freezer and take it to work when I don’t have enough current leftovers for lunch. I waste very, very little food. Maybe once every few months something gets away from me. 

Our weekly shop looks similar, basic ingredients to cook our meals and bake our bread and cake. We use the WW2 average ration quantities for loose leaf tea, butter and fats, cheese, meat, sugar and sweets. I avoid Ultra Processed Stuff, though we do have some bacon and good quality pork sausages.

We have our own hens which are laying well, and grow some fruit in the garden, and forage some, but have to buy vegetables. Seasonal British produce is usually the best value. 

We check the special offers and yellow stickered items. I look for plain fish or meat, not stuff in breadcrumbs or sauces, and I freeze them in portions. A family size joint of meat can be better value and I cut it into smaller joints and freeze some. 

Sunday is usually a Sunday joint, beef, pork, a chicken, or lamb. I like to do a pot roast, with the small meat joint over onion, celery, potato, carrots, parsnip, and swede, served with some steamed greens. The meat doesn’t shrink and stays tender, and the vegetables make it go further, with leftovers for several days. I tuck some large potatoes in to bake to reheat with cold meat and salad on Monday. I can bake a bara brith at the same time, then a baked pudding such as a fruit crumble or bread and butter pudding, and have a batch of rock buns or flapjacks ready to go in last.

Bara brith doesn’t need any of the fat ration and just one egg. The dried fruit is soaked in the last of the cold tea from the teapot, and can be eked out with grated carrot, saving a bit of sugar. I rinse the almost empty marmalade jar and add that, and the zest of an orange, for an orange and sultana bara brith. I use white sugar and a teaspoon of treacle because brown sugar costs more. The recipe I had from Midwife Mary Thoma uses 8oz mixed dried fruit soaked in a cup of strong cold tea, 4 oz brown sugar, 8 oz SR flour, 1 tsp mixed spice, I egg, a little milk to mix. Makes a 1lb tea loaf. 

https://the1940sexperiment.com/2013/04/21/wartime-bara-brith-recipe-no-110/

A fruit crumble uses less butter (or margarine) than a fruit pie. 

For the rest of the week there are eggs for an omelette, or some cheese for cauliflower or macaroni cheese, Friday is fish, and Saturday is a use it up day, with a vegetable soup made with carcass or bone stock, with lentils or beans, and bacon sandwiches, or sausage and mash, a bit of mince with plenty of vegetables, or some other favourite. I can defrost a portion of meat to do a stew in the pressure cooker. When stuck for a quick meal Smallholders say, “There’s always eggs!”

Dear Grandma Donna, thank you so much for sharing your meal plans with us. I have been plannlng meals out for  quite sometime as I'm type 2  and  and careful  what I eat.  My husband and I live with our daughter and her family and she also has always planned meals as she has 3 teenagers and a husband plus her dad{my husband} to feed. We share grocery costs and grow   a very large vegetable garden and have chickens for eggs. Our excess veggies and eggs we sell at our little roadside self serve stand . We are very blessed to have 4 acres  and we really enjoy the  ability to have the fresh veggies and eggs! And yes, having meal plans help to save money and time as  our grandchildren are homeschooled and it  certainly   means less stress ! I recently found a utube channel called NeeNee's House and I thought to share it as they are an older couple that are  retired and careful with their spending.They recently built a little cottage on the top of a mountain in the Ozarks,and they are originally from Louisana. Thought you may enjoy it. I have been reading your blog for years  and so much enjoy it! Hope you ,Charles and your family and pups are stay well.

I'm sure this wouldn't be for everyone, but what works great for me, is to just have a default meal that I make whenever I'm too tired or too busy to think of what else to make.  What this default is has changed over the years, but as long as it's cheap, healthy, filling, and something I can enjoy several times a week without tiring of it, I'm quite happy.

My current default dinner is steamed rice with a topping.  The topping is usually sauteed mushrooms or greens that I've foraged that day, pre-cooked venison from the freezer with carrots, cooked lentils or black beans from the freezer, or sauteed huitlacoche and garlic.  Of these toppings only the lentils, beans, and carrots are even storebought, and they're fairly cheap.

Even with the 20 pound bags of rice I buy recently increasing from $8 to $12, the half cup (dry measure) that I use per meal comes out to less than 12¢, since there are 101 servings per bag.  At least four nights a week I'm having this with free toppings from the wild, and usually one or two more with very cheap store bought toppings.  This allows me room to splurge when I want to cook something special, or on nuts and dried fruit for snacking/lunch and still keep my total grocery bill quite low.  When I first saw how much rice had gone up it stressed me out because it's something I eat a lot of, but then I did the math and realized, okay, I go through about 60 lbs. a year, so paying that extra $4 per 20 lb. bag is only going to cost me an extra $12 per year.  I think my budget can handle that, lol.  Really an example of how eating foods that are cheap to begin with and buying them in bulk can help cushion us against inflation.

Breakfast is banana orange juice smoothies for a few days after each shopping trip, so I use them up before they spoil (not the cheapest but sort of a treat) then oatmeal with flaxseed meal the rest of the month.  If I have company, I'll make pancakes with blueberry sauce.

I'm not a big lunch eater, but if I do get hungry in the middle of the day I'll eat dinner leftovers if there are any, and if not, usually grab a handful of walnut halves.  

Hi Grandma Donna, 

I tend to have an Autumn/Winter meal plan and a Summer/Christmas meal plan as we have two main seasons. I do a four week meal plan of meal ideas as I always keep a good supply of pantry basics and also a well-stocked freezer. That way I usually have on hand a number of things to make at a moments notice depending on what we feel like. Some weeks we can skip purchasing fruit and vegetables if we have some that still need using up from the week before. 

Tea S. I love your thriftiness with meal ideas. I'm a big fan of rice also, and like to keep at least 10kg on hand. My go to meal at the moment is jacket potatoes with a topping. Easy, cheap and delicious. 

Thank you for such a thought provoking post GDonna.

I have 35 to 40 recipes that I rotate depending on what time of year it is and what’s in season vegetable wise here in England, a meal plan is written and I head off to do the grocery shop with a list in hand but will change what I’m going to cook if I see something yellow-stickered ( reduced ) or on special offer. This especially applies to good quality meat or fish which is so expensive here in the UK, this means that at least two of our main meals each week is vegetarian and based around pulses etc protein wise which are a cheaper option. My budget is £400 monthly and looking back through my housekeeping records this has increased by £100 a month compared to two years ago so quite a hefty increase percentage wise.

We do grow some of our own vegetables which helps a lot, today we are due to harvest our second crop of potatoes this year, the Charlotte variety and I hope that we will get enough to keep us in spuds for the next couple of months at least

Love this post! I have been meal planning for decades but find myself less strict as my last one went off to college and now it's meals for two. I have always made all the meals from scratch for the most part (I don't always make homemade pasta or I use rice often) or did make ahead meals and freeze them. For me personally, I eat the same things every day (because I love them and I eat lots of fresh veggies and fruit, rarely meats) but for my spouse I do a variety of meal rotations. I receive a $20.00 coupon from my store every 6 weeks and use that when I do my stock up. That way I save the twenty and you have to spend a certain amount to get it. I also put it to use when most of my stock up items are on sale, just takes a bit of strategy! Then, in the rest of the weeks, I just buy perishables like produce and dairy. Works well for me and keeps me in line with my budget and also, keeps me for overstocking and not getting through the stockpile consistently. I make more simple meals now than when I had kids at home, I bake far less bread and goodies too. When the kids come home for a visit, I do make the meals they love and always send them home with goodies and leftovers. (and usually some stock up stuff because, well, I am still their momma and want to make sure they eat!) lol Great post, looking forward to learning more!

I really enjoy meal planning because it takes the guess work out of what's for dinner. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. Ours are extremely basic but filling and nutritious at the same time. We also eat really good food which makes such a difference. My friends eat out some each day and they wonder why their food bill is extremely high. I just couldn't imagine the cost and the time of it all. We pck lunches and sometimes dinners if we are going out for the day. I always pack us lunch for at our business complete with plates and silverware. It's just become such a routine we don't have to think about it. Our son went in the store to get me some garlic as I ran out for a caning recipe that I needed it for and he came back out with the cash change and receipt. I asked what else did you buy as the bag looks big. He said we needed to have some chips with our fermented salsa. He said it had been a long time and he knew we had some leftover cash for a special item this week. We laughed and have been enjoying them for several days now. One tip also is don't use the self checkouts because they charge up to 3 dollars more on each item we have learned. Wonderful post and beautiful zinnias!