This guide is not just about how to create a meal plan. It’ll show you can maximise what you do to guarantee you save money each week on your food bill.
I’m hoping that you already have the basics down in how to go about meal planning. If not, please do check out our beginners guide on meal planning.
This is the next step on how to really make some savings. There is a lot to take in here, so please take your time and do what will work for you.
It may be worth trying one or two of the tips, getting used to doing them each week, then coming back and adding a new idea in. You will still save money on your food shop and you’ll just see more savings over time.
Meal plan like a pro
In this complete guide of how to meal plan, I’ll talk you through what you can do to really maximise the amount of money you spend at the supermarket (so you spend less). This guide should help you understand what tools you can use to help prepare your shopping list and what to look out for to make even more savings!
This guide covers:
Audit your cupboards
So you’ve planned out what you want to eat for the week and have a massive list in front of you. Chances are the total cot of it all has made your legs go like jelly, so you contemplate putting shopping off a day and have a quick G&T instead? Ok, maybe slightly far fetched, but food costs sure add up quick!
The thing is, you do not need to buy everything on the shopping list created from your meal plan.
Head to your cupboard, fridge and freezer. What have you got in them?
Use up what you’ve already got before buying a whole new one. Not only will this save a few quid in this shopping trip, but you’ll also not waste what you’ve already got on your shelf.
To really slash your costs more, rather than just eating off your list based on a few meals you’ve put together on paper, think about what you can just use up.
Have some frozen sausages in the freezer that could be the making of a meal for, say, Monday? What ever you had planned can be swapped for what you’ve already got in. Keep routing through the cupboards and freezer to see what you can be inventive with.
Top tip: If you’re struggling with what to put with what to make an appetising meal, use a tool like Supercook. Add your random ingredients and it’ll give you back a list of recipes you can make.
Now it’s time to adapt your meal plan.
Amend what you were going to eat to take into account your cupboard audit.
What’s on offer in store
Having a note pad and waiting for the supermarket adverts to pop up on TV is not practical in the long term!
In the same way, looking individually though each of the supermarket websites is going to be boring and a total waste of your time. After all, we’re trying to save time and money here.
Instead, use the nifty website MySupermarket. This site allows you to add in your shopping list and carries out an immediate price comparison to see which supermarket works out cheapest. It also makes lots of suggestions like swapping and saving products and branding down to save you a few more pennies along the way.
I would say that you need to be careful when looking at which supermarket is the cheapest. I can get very happy swapping supermarkets then switching on all sorts of products – it’s great fun watching the total come down 🙂
What can start to happen is that the supermarket you switch to doesn’t have the exact product you wanted. They suggest an alternative, which can actually push your price up again.
So, you may be making a saving overall, but it can be better (if you’ve got the time) to do your food shop over two (or even more) stores. This way, you can get the cheapest items from each of them, rather than just settling to who is the cheapest overall that week.
While this may not be a practical solution for everyone it’s worthwhile doing if you can.
Now it’s time to adapt your meal plan.
Change up some of the planned meals now you know what’s on offer this week. There is no point having a pork dish if it’s full price but beef and chicken are on sale.
Related: Here’s a list of all the latest supermarket offers
Pre-plan price guarantees
Taking it up another notch, you need to be aware of the price guarantees that supermarkets offer.
Many people just think of them as a lovely bonus at the end of the shop to get a few quid back. But, you could be savvy and plan your shopping based on what’s on offer and what extra discount the supermarkets are willing to give you for free 🙂
Here are the best ones to work with:
Asda Price Guarantee
The Asda Price Guarantee gives you the difference if your shop was not 10% cheaper than Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, or Waitrose. It may sound odd, but they will give you more money off than you can get it anywhere else.
You can use this to your advantage and can get some deeply discounted food if you play your cards right.
Here are the full details of the Asda Price Guarantee hack.
Tesco Brand Guarantee
With the Tesco Brand Guarantee you get refunded (then and there) if your shop was more expensive than at Asda, Morrisons or Sainsbury’s.
You need to have at least 10 different products, one must be comparable and one must be a branded item.
While you don’t make any extra back, the savings are taken off your bill before you pay, meaning no printing out a coupon or forgetting to bring it back on your next shop.
By the way, I’m not missing Sainsbury’s as they stopped their brand match in 2016 and Morrisons stopped theirs in 2015.
Now it’s time to adapt your meal plan.
Work out what’s on offer elsewhere and re-plan your shop around the most savings you can make.
Get your coupons ready
Extreme couponing can be done in the UK, if you take a fair bit of time to plan. Even if you don’t want to spend ages writing to brands and scouring the internet you can still pick up quite a few easily. (And you don’t have to search too far anymore as here’s a big list of coupons).
Whether it’s 20p off here or half price there, getting a coupon allows you to save on food.
Companies give out coupons to get more people to try their foods. They hope that you’ll eat it once and get hooked. Maybe you will, but the overall plan is to use the coupon to get cheaper food and leave cash in your pocket.
Coupons will generally be for branded foods but don’t get put off if you’re always an “own-brand” shopper. Buying the store’s cheaper items doesn’t always work out cheaper. By adding a coupon you’ve clipped from a paper or magazine, you can make the food a bigger bargain than buying white label.
Again, make sure you’re seen what’s on offer in the supermarkets. Use your coupons where the item is at the lowest price to make the biggest overall saving.
Now it’s time to adapt your meal plan.
Work out what coupon to use and tweak what you were going to eat that week.
Related: Looking for more meal planning tips?
Use cashback apps
Using Cashback apps can seriously lower the amount of money you spend on food.
The apps are very easy to use. Simply take a look what’s on offer before you head to the shop, buy the item in store, then upload a receipt. They will then give you money back.
It may be a fraction of the cost or it could be 100% – meaning what you’ll have for dinner could be free!
Not got enough space on your phone for another app? Don’t have a fancy smartphone? Don’t worry, you don’t have to miss out 🙂
You can upload your receipts directly to websites with CheckoutSmart, ClickSnap and Snap and Save.
Now it’s time to adapt your meal plan.
Now you know what where the best cashback is, have a switch around of your meal plan to take into account the free food you can get.
Related:
- Use these apps to save (and make) even more money
- 6 UK Meal Planning Apps: Helping You to Cook Cheaper and Eat Smarter
Think on your feet
After all the planning in the world, it seems silly to suggest to throw it all in the air.
Trouble is, when you’re walking around the supermarket there are always the reduced, yellow sticker items.
Some of the time the reduction just isn’t worth it! Other times the limp looking veg can’t even be saved by a soup.
However, if you spot a bargain that everyone in the family will eat then it’s worth adding it to your trolley. If you won’t eat it then just don’t bother. It’ll end up just wasting your cash.
Tip: to reduce food waste (and save you wasting money), plan to have meals with items with a shorter use by date at the beginning of the week.
Now it’s time to adapt your meal plan.
Swap your cheap find for another day’s meal. Or, if you’ve got the spare budget for the week buy it as well. Add the extra meal to the freezer to save you during skint week.
Although this will take a little time the first time, you don’t actually need to follow every single step. But, by doing one or two of these ideas you really can cut your food bill down.
The best thing is to make sure you’re happy with what you’re going to eat, you won’t waste any of it and whatever plan you put in place will work for you.
Now, there’s just one thing left to do… decide what to have for dinner!
Still struggling to come up with ideas? Why not use some of our budget meal plans:
- £25 healthy meal plan
- £40 meal plan to reduce food waste
- £25 budget meal plan to feed 7 people for 7 days
Naomi knows the burden of living on very little and became debt free by learning from past mistakes and following her own money saving tips and tricks. She is studying a Level 2 Certificate in Awareness of Mental Health Problems and is a Youth Mental Health First Aid Champion.
