Start the month by taking stock.

Double click to enlarge the stock take

As I believe that food is precious and should not be wasted, I am therefore making sure I am not keeping too much stock in the house and that I must seriously use up all of what I have before I buy any more food. I've put together next week's menu plan to use up the fresh food first and then go on to plan later to use the long lasting goods. Here is this week's plan for three meals a day.

Breakfast - porridge/toast/glass orange juice each a day.
Lunch - savoury rice/tuna chunks/chopped fresh tomato x 3 for FQ. Tuna mayonnaise sandwiches with tomato for DB. Apple each a day. (For each of the three days we work this week)

Tuesday supper - cod in cheese sauce, spinach, carrots/peas and mashed potato - use up (very big piece of cod) steamed cod/cheese sauce and veggies with mashed potatoes into a pie and freeze.

Wednesday - Quorn mince bolognese, pasta, pasta sauce.

Thursday - Turkey pie, mushy peas, carrots or ham, egg and chips if feeling lazy!

Friday - Quorn stir fry, sweetcorn, broccoli, stir fry sauce, microwave rice.

Saturday - Poached eggs on toast/orange juice for breakfast - Cook shoulder of pork to eat over the weekend.

By my estimation, all I need to buy from the co-op this week are tomatoes! That's a cheap week's shopping!
I always shop with a menu plan and a shopping list, but this year, I need to get ruthless with my budget as I have had to cut my shopping budget to pay for the increase in fuel, utilities and rail fares, which means my new food budget is now £35 a week. I will have to evaluate my entire budget to take into account all of the price increases, although my salary remains the same. So, what will you have to do to make your books balance this year?