I’m in support of this plan 
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Ok, week 1 roundup time.
- Meal plan at the start of each week - yep, done
- Not buying any groceries that aren’t on the meal plan - um… I may have bought hot chocolate. And marshmallows. Not a huge hit financially, but not great for the health part of this.
- Bring sufficient food to work that I’m not snacking on biscuits. Looking good so far - soup and apple crumble has been made.
- Eat out only on pre-planned social occasions- max budget of £40 for this. I had a £2.50 sandwich when I was stuck in town the other day - doesn’t come under pre-planned social occasions, but not going to blow the budget.
Specific goals for next week:
- don’t buy any food until Thursday.
- Make and freeze soup for next week before I go on Friday.
- Preplan lunch when I’m travelling on Friday.
- have a freezer meal ready for when I get back on Sunday.
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Week 1 check-in:
- I’m visiting family, so I’ve spent less than $10 on food so far haha.
- I’ve eaten about 6 servings of veggies on 3 of the 5 days, so that averages out ok, right??
Plans for the next week definitely include lots of veggies, just need to make sure I don’t go crazy restocking after traveling.
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Week one update is that I have no update because I’m still not home, and given travel delays I may or might not make it before midnight happens. I’ll start something in the slow cooker tomorrow morning before work (or possibly very late tonight depending on energy levels) so I can actually eat throughout the week and will have actual updates starting next weekend 
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Eating out so far in January:
$40 for lunch with new team member who started on Thursday (team Cinnamon Bun)
$50 for for anniversary dinner out
$2.50 for tea at my local yarn shop which doesn’t count as prepared food alone, because I was there to socialize with one of the LYS employees and other knitters who showed up
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So far, I’ve only bought some bulk items from a bulk store (in reused plastic bags), about $20. Today I will do a big stock up of fruit and veg from the local grocer and maybe a small amount of meat from the butcher in my containers. Our oven is currently not working so we need to fix that before I can get some of the freezer stuff out, I have an obscene amount of frozen bananas in there ready for banana bread and I’m itching to make some. I cooked something for the first time in about 3 months so maybe mojo is coming back? It wasn’t amazing, a mash up of a regular recipe and an internet recipe and husband was happy to not have to cook for a night haha. Let’s see if next week is better.
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Week 1 update: I have bought no bread, and my farro and beans for the week has been made. I’m planning to make pizza this weekend (time to try out my new peel!), so that will probably be at least some of my lunches next week. Then I’ll make bread next weekend, so I can have sandwiches the rest of the month!
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My goal is to eliminate throwing away of food. The ways I want to accomplish this:
Using as much food scraps as possible
Eat everything we cook (which includes creating a detailed plan for the week)
Use dried beans instead of canned
Try to use 2-3 coupons.
This week we used all of the mushrooms in our fridge for breakfast scrambles and risotto. We also used up all of the veggies we had that were about to go bad (eggplant, peppers, onion, and potatoes). This weekend we had some interesting meals trying to eat everything in the fridge and the meal prep plan was based on using up the rest of our food instead of starting fresh.
Did not need to make beans, used 2 coupons for $1/off of cauliflower gnocchi that was an impulse/IM SO EXCITED FOR purchase
I’ve been doing pretty well with my challenge. So far have done 2 leftovers nights, and want to do another “eat leftovers or stuff already in the house day” today and tomorrow, largely because I did not meal plan and have no desire to go to the grocery store.
I found some fried rice in the freezer so I brought that with me to work for lunches. There’s a large quantity, I’m hoping it will get me through at least a couple days.
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It is not uncommon for me to eat bizarre combinations of food for this very reason. I view it as kind of like having some appetizers at a party, or tapas. It’s fancy, not crazy. 
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First update… here goes. There were solid successes and some failures. Alas, that’s life, right? I’m hoping to do better this week!
Could do better…
- Ate out more times than I had planned. Friday I was on my own for dinner and after a long day (and a late workout class), I picked up takeaway Indian from my favorite local joint. Lots of veggies, and definitely was comfort food. Wednesday, my favorite vegan food truck was doing Texas State Corndogs… how could I not go enjoy one?
- Didn’t eat the lunch I packed. Luckily, numerous folks in my work group are trying to also eat more healthy in the new year, so more folks are bringing lunch. With only a few of us in the office the last two weeks, I said yes more than I would have liked to going out for something locally with coworkers.
Small Successes!
- Prepped two soup recipes and made socca flat bread for mine and my partner’s lunches this week, even though I felt like walking death (sinus infection + the cold that has been going around Seattle this fall/winter).
- Made dinner at home both nights this weekend! We managed to put together a few meal kits we we hadn’t eaten yet to make something different, yet delicious. This makes a dent in our eating our meal kits and not letting them go to waste.
On to Week 2! 
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Week 1 update:
Groceries are a success. We ate lots of leftovers last week and this week I only spend $59 at the grocery store which should last us through next week’s trip. I won’t have as much control next week since it’s spouses turn to shop and prep lunches for the week, but he’s on board with lowering costs in theory.
Restaurants are less of a success. I went out to dinner with a friend and costs added up faster than I realized. She was having a really tough week and picked the place though so I wasn’t going to refuse. I did get coffee out this weekend and chose the cheap $2 drink instead of my usual (amazing) $4.5 breve latte. So, some progress?
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I just spent $30 on SO MUCH FOOD. I made qorn (fungus based chicken replacement) curry with cauliflower rice and roasted asparagus spears for dinner that I shared with my dad and had two more meals out of for the week. Made chorizo crumble (also alt meat) burritos for breakfasts, sweet potatoes/asparagus/green beans for lunches, have five delicious smelling bagels, cream cheese, four yogurt cups…like this is SO MUCH FOOD. How have I been spending so much on so little?? Eating convenience food has not been good for me or my budget.
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I bought extra veg for dinner, which was OK because I used it immediately. Tomorrow is Meal Planning Day.
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We ate some of the crostini from the freezer with spaghetti last night (nothing else because we used TVP, not ground meat).
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Coming in late with a very small goal: will bring my work snacks from home instead of buying them at the vending machine or coffee shop. In line with this goal, bought raisins and granola bars to keep at my desk.
Side question on food budgets - I’ve heard anecdotally from several people that their food costs went down when they went vegetarian (because they weren’t buying meat) but went up when they went vegan (because they were buying dairy substitutes) - does that hold water for anybody else? Ideas for cheap snacks for my vegan friends?
Although I’m not a vegetarian, oddly enough I have lived in vegetarian households for my entire adult life, so I’m fuzzy on how food prices work for more typical households.
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I made a baked egg casserole thingie to eat instead of oatmeal for breakfast. Unfortunately it is gross. Slimy. Yuck!
The last one I made was good. It called for way less milk though, and more eggs. Maybe that is the issue. Also I added the cheese after baking and not during. Hm.
Since I am working from home today and there is still oatmeal in the house, I succumbed out of hanger. (Everything else I have to eat in the house is way too spicy for this hour of the morning.)
FAIL. I am not supposed to be eating grains. (though sometimes I am questioning why. Will it really help me lose weight?)
Costs do go up on dairy substitutes, for sure. And I have a problem with that cause the stuff that tastes really good is really expensive, but cheese and ice cream are my FAVORITES. I think fake milk subs can be on par with dairy, but I haven’t actually compared in years. You can by VERY pricy fake milk, or you can get pretty dang cheap almond or soy milk. Cheap snacks include hummus and veggies, PB & crackers/apples. Clif bars/granola bars/trail mix. I make homemade vegan muffins I use as snacks a ton. Where I am a local chain has vegan soft pretzels that are cheap and delicious. For completely unhealthy, go with Oreos!
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I’ve been vegan for 20+ years, so I don’t know about any change in my own food costs…
But: anecdata - mine + my (vegetarian SO’s) grocery costs run lower than the average persons (Average for 2019 for just me was $101 USD per month for regular groceries + $13 per month for “treats” cookies/chips/etc)
I find that our food costs per month are relatively similar - cheese vs vegan cheese is pretty similar for both of us - I pay about $4USD a bag of shredded cheese 3 times a month, and I buy on sale (mostly at whole foods unless it comes to grocery outlet) and freeze it. I use about 1/8th a cup every day on tacos, and I get a $2.49 bag of the “bakeable only” vegan cheese from Trader Joe’s for nachos about twice a month.
SO can buy cheaper cheese in bulk sometimes, but it averages out about the same. I don’t get the truly fancy cheese, often though - just bags of shredded.
Vegan convenience foods are a LOT more expensive so I try not to buy a lot of them - cream cheese, mac and cheese, etc - most of them are affordable to make at home (except cashew-based items but I try to save those for special occasions).
They pay about the same for dairy half&half as I do for non-dairy unsweetened milk, we both only use it in coffee.
I LOVE vegan ice cream but I only buy it when it shows up at grocery outlet, lol!
My SO doesn’t eat refined sugar, though, and their sweets (stevia-sweetened, etc) are WAY more expensive than mine because sugar is so much cheaper 
Sure, they’re healthier but we’re moving on from that…
I also did a few years ago a month-long grocery budget audit where I tracked the different categories of my budget (grains/sweets/milk/etc) and I found the things that were disproportionately expensive relative to calories/volume of food were snacks, cheese, and hot sauce. We solved the hot sauce thing by making our own now.
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