Student Homemaker

While I’m shopping at Sainsbury’s, I’m playing ‘the Basics game’ - only buy Basics range or offer items. While I’ll be relaxing that rule, here’s how to menu plan with these in mind.

I start with the offer items. Note down those you want for meals/extras against days of the week you plan to eat them. Stop when you have reached the end of offer items.

Then, look at the days you don’t have anything down for. Trawl through the Basics range (a longer search than offer items, it seems), picking a meal for each slot left.

Finally, review what you need to have fro extras - snacks, lunchboxes, and use Basics/offers to fill these spaces in much the same way.

As one last point, as a student, cooking for one is enevitable sometimes. So when I cook for one from a 2 pack/ 4 pack, I plan that dish to appear again, same time next week. This also gives me less slots to fill next time, and hence less money spent.