Looking back at our plan for last week, I think we more or less managed to stick to it – though we didn’t get round to the baking (other than flapjacks) or toffee making. The batch cooking was quite a success, though I can’t say the meals tasted very much of meat as the pack of mince was spread so thinly.  That didn’t bother me, but it made me think we could just do the same thing with more lentils and no mince, so I might do that next time.

We had lunch at Granny’s house (Paul’s mum) today, which is our usual Monday routine.  For supper we had leftover sausage casserole and potatoes. This is the plan for the rest of the week.

Breakfasts – cereal, yoghurt, fruit and toast, and maybe porridge.

Lunches – lentil and vegetable soup (Tuesday and Wednesday), sandwiches (Thursday as we will be out) and eggs (Friday)

Suppers

Tuesday – the last of the sausage casserole and potatoes.  (I deliberately cooked a lot on Sunday, and also extra frankfurters and beans as we had friends round, so that we would have enough for three days and I got it just about right.)

Wednesday – Quorn chicken pieces, rice and vegetables.

Thursday – pasta and pesto.

That’s as far as I need to plan this week as we will be at my mum’s on Friday.

Puddings – We still have a lot of cooking apples, so it’s likely to be stewed apple most days.  We didn’t manage to make the toffee for our bonfire night last night so we will try and fit that in tomorrow.

Snacks – fruit, biscuits and rice cakes.

There wasn’t too much to buy this week, so the shopping at Lidl was cheap – at least it would have been if I hadn’t decided to buy winter boots for myself and three of the children!  Taking those off the bill, the regular shopping came to around £50.  There will be one or two top-up shops (the first occurred this evening as we needed more treacle which Lidl didn’t have, and also sparklers, so Paul has been to Sainsbury’s for those) but I don’t think we’ll need to spend too much more.  I will try to keep up the meal planning because it is definitely making it easier to save money.