Tenner Week Day 1: Mega Menu Monday
Hello, and welcome to another Tenner Week – are you taking the £10 challenge with me? Don’t know about you, but I’m embracing this one with open arms, after having a weekend away with the Beau for his birthday.
Having spent all our pocket money, it’s now time to do some serious cutting back. Bring it on!
If you remember back from a few days ago, our Tenner Week daily schedule this time around has today as Mega Menu Monday. It’s all about using up your leftovers and whatever’s in the store cupboard, and generally making the most of what you already have to keep that grocery bill as low as possible.
It helps if you go around your home and make a quick list of all the ingredients and seasonings you have. Look in the fridge and see whether there are any things that need to be used up quickly, and plan to eat them first. A quick online search for your ingredients might give you some inspiration for using them up, ideally without needing to buy any expensive things to go with them.
Wherever I can, I try to still have my five fruit or veg a day. That includes fresh fruit (I still have raspberries going in the garden), whatever’s in the fruit bowl (lemons and sad pears), tinned or dried fruit in the storecupboard (economy pineapple, peaches), frozen fruit and veg (garden veggies, peas, spinach, broad beans, economy mixed berries), windowsill herbs and peppers, pumpkins and garlic from the mini shed, and outdoor veggies (salads, onions, radishes, green beans, cabbage, chard, oriental greens etc).
My rough menu plan for the week goes a bit like this:
- Breakfasts: cereal + fruit + milk, or raisin + cinnamon porridge
- Lunches: soup + bread, or cheese salad, or egg on toast with spinach
- Snacks: fruit or cereal bar (might make coconut flapjacks)
- Monday: baked omelette with herbs + salad
- Tuesday: vegetable stew + dumplings
- Wednesday: leftover stew +green beans
- Thursday: fish from freezer + potatoes + peas
- Friday: might be out (or baked potato + cheese + chutney)
- Saturday: home made veggie pizza with sweet pepper + artichokes
- Sunday: mini-roast with rosemary potatoes, gravy + garden veggies
If you’d like some more inspiration about eating healthily on a tight budget, try our How to Live on £10 a Week article for a few ideas.
What are you going to cook? Any leftovers to use up?
