Menu planner for 14/4/2012 - 21/4/2012

Last weekend I was away at a wedding which meant that I wasn't as well organised as I could have been with regards to the shopping and my meal planning.  On Monday I picked up some shopping and spent just under €60.  For dinner on Monday night I did squash and chorizo stew, Tuesday and Wednesday was chilli, Thursday we had Salmon, baby boiled potatoes and green beans and tonight we had chicken stir fry.  I had no choice but to make chilli as my daughter requested it every night the previous week, so to make her happy I promised to make it for her.

My meal plan for this next week is as follows:-
Saturday lunch - Leek and potato soup
Saturday dinner - Beef in black bean sauce
Sunday lunch - Leftover soup
Sunday dinner - Roast beef (eye of the round), roasted potatoes and vegetables
Monday dinner - Leftovers from Sundays dinner
Tuesday dinner - soup (depending what veg is on offer)
Wednesday dinner - Skinny Irish Stew
Thursday dinner - Quick chicken chasseur
Friday dinner - Herb and lemon pork chops, mash and vegetables

For lunches this week we will have sandwiches, tuna salad and soup.  The dinners that I am making will make use of meat that we have in the freezer - chicken, lamb and bacon and quite a few of the leftover ingredients in my fridge.

My shopping list for the week includes:-

1. Milk - 2 litres full fat
2. Milk - slimline 1 litre x 3
3. Yoghurt's
4. Cheese - babybel
5. Bread
6. Streaky bacon - I have bacon in the freezer.  It isn't streaky bacon but it will be fine for the chicken chasseur.
7. Beef - eye of the round
8. Beef fillet
9. Ham
10. Lettuce - I checked this fridge and I have these in already!
11. Cucumber
12. Cherry tomatoes
13. Red onion
14. Mushrooms
15. Baby carrots
16. Baby potatoes
17. Parsnips - I checked the fridge and I have these in already!
18. Leeks - I checked the fridge and I have these in already!
19. Parsley
20. Oranges
21. Eggs
22. Bananas
23. Custard - pots of custard to go with some stewed ruhbarb that I will make with some ruhbarb I have in.
24. Weetabix - I don't really need these, but having checked the internet I know they are on offer in Lidl this week, 72 bisks for €4.39 which is 50% extra free so I am going to get some while the offer is on

This week I have a voucher from Dunnes that will give me €8 off my shopping if I spend €80.  I would like to use this voucher, but looking at my list I doubt that my spend will get me near the €80 at the moment.  I am adding a note to the bottom of my shopping list of some store cupboard items that I could do with stocking up in.  I will pick up some of these to take my shopping to €80 so that I can use the voucher.  Although this means I will be spending more money than I intended too, I think it is smart to do this as these are items I will eventually have to buy, so I may as well buy them now and get €8 worth of them for free.  The items I am adding to the bottom of my shopping list are:-

• cans chopped tomatoes
• cans of bean - cannellini, flageolet, kidney etc.
• cans of sweetcorn
• cans of peas
• teabags
• coffee
• formula
• pepper
• stock cubes (though I need to check which flavour I need most before I go)
• toilet roll
• kitchen roll

TIPS - if like me you have a voucher to use there are a few things you can do to make sure that you get the best use out of the voucher.  In this case my voucher is for money off is I spend a certain amount.  To make sure that I spend enough to be able to use the voucher I will use a calculator to tot up my spend as I go around the store.  As well as making sure I spend enough, this will also allow me to make sure that I do not go too far over the amount I need to spend to use the voucher. 

Making a list before you go of store cupboard items that you need means that you can be sure that you are spending your money on items that are off use to you rather than just blindly picking up items to increase your total spend. 

Another good tip is to have a look at the promotions on in store and pick up any of the store cupboard items that are on offer first.  If there is a particularly good promotion I will pick up a few more of these items than I will of the others.