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Reducing food costs
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If you have a garden, Lidl has veg seeds for 49p per packet and you could get kids involved in growing beans, herbs, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, aubergines, courgettes, cucumbers etc.
Would it be cheaper to buy own brand oven chips instead of chip shop ones ? Iceland does Greggs pies as well.0 -
Also, it sometimes pays to shop around. Id certainly second taking a look at approved foods for items such as pasta, rice and some other staples.
I have never heard of approved foods, I'll have a look at that, thanks.
I'll have a look at packed lunches for the kids too. Trouble is, at the moment, I have to get three little girls dressed and have there hair brushed as well as the baby changed and two teenage boys out the door on time for the bus most mornings more or less by myself so the idea of also making lunches for them all seems a bit much but if it could save me that much, then I will look at that.0 -
georgeholmer wrote: »Also, just to clarify £88 on fish'n'chips is per month.
yes - sorry , I had also read that as per visit !0 -
georgeholmer wrote: »I have never heard of approved foods, I'll have a look at that, thanks.
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Yes - in your position with a large family , bulk buying dry ingredients & tins from approved foods will be a good option. ( though you do have to keep checking regularly as they have a quick turn around of popular items )
For example they recently had 3Kg of pasta for £1 but have now sold out - and I have seen it low as 3Kg for 50p
The postage charge puts a lot of people off - but if you are buying a lot then the saving soon mount up.0 -
make packed lunches the night before. means they are ready to go in the morning and you can do them once the kids are in bed so no hassle!
I fully endorse switching supermarkets, maybe have a look on mysupermarket to get a comparison. I switched to lidl (which isnt on the site) and I use a small trolly, if I fill it, its no more than £60 a week, which for 2 people is loads!!Total Debt in Feb 2015 - £6,052 | DEBT FREE 26/05/2017Swagbucks £200 Valued Opinions £100Dave Ramsey Baby Step 2 | Mr Money Mustache Addict0 -
georgeholmer wrote: »
Monday Frozen cod fillets with parsley sauce, rice, carrots, peas
Tuesday Macaroni cheese with carrots, peas, sweatcorn
Wednesday Fish fingers with mash, carrots, peas, brocolli
Thursday Jackets with cheese and onion filling, large salad
Friday takeaway fish'n'chips, trifle for afters
Saturday Spag Bol with large salad and french stick
Sunday Roast dinner with crumble for afters
In addition breakfast is toast, jam, tea, cereal, milk, orange juice. I work from home and make coffee and eat either left-overs or pie ready-made soups, quiches or have scrambled eggs with some salad, sardines, beans on toast etc.
Lunch at weekends is mostly sandwiches, sometimes crisps, sometimes pasties.
£4.50 a day is quite a lot for what you eat. Just looking at the meals you list, but you eat a hell of a lot of ready made food. Fish fingers, mac'n'cheese etc. I've found this to be a VERY expensive way to eat. Cooking from scratch is much, much cheaper.
Is the spag bol ready made too? Do you make your own tomato sauce or buy Dolmio or similar? You could cut down cost dramatically by just cooking yourself. We eat a lot of meat and still eat for less per head than you.
For example, here's my meal plan for this week:
Sun: Sausage, mash, onion gravy, glass of wine
Mon: Beef burgers, chips, salad, glass of wine
Tue: Lamb chops & salad, glass of wine
Wed: Beef bourginon (with Welsh Black beef - can't wait!), side salad, glass of wine
Thur: Salmon in parsley sauce, mash, sugar snap peas, mangetout, glass of wine
Fri: Chicken curry, rice, glass of wine
Sat: Spag bol, salad, crusty loaf & a bottle of Shiraz
Everything is made from scratch (except for the bread) and in enormous proportions because my OH can really pack it away!
For lunches I take leftovers or salads or wraps (with ham or smoked salmon & crean cheese) with yoghurts and an apple, banana, kiwi and 2 satsumas. OH is home so he has soup (homemade mostly, but occasionally a tin), salad or sarnies. Neither of us eat breakfast every day, but we do sometimes have porrage or cereals.
We split our shopping between Aldi/Lidl and Waitrose (for the meat mostly).
I batch cook every couple of months: We spend a rainy Saturday in the kitchen with our industrial-sized saucepans making huge vats of bolognese sauce or curry sauce and then portion them up in foil containers and freeze them.
Our food shopping bill this week was £58.00 - £6.67 of that was just the beef for tomorrow's tea. And if we take out the £7.98 I spent on wine we eat really well for £3.57 each a day.
We don't eat quite so extravagantly every week, usually there's a lot less beef and a lot more chicken, which is cheaper. Mostly, our weekly shop averages out at about £44 a week.
Also, if I ate like you I would be starving all the time. Fish fingers are ace every so often, but I'm usually hungry again after an hour or so!You had me at your proper use of "you're".0 -
For example they recently had 3Kg of pasta for £1 but have now sold out - and I have seen it low as 3Kg for 50p
Do you also have a Farmfoods locally? Not as cheap as approved foods, but they do HUGE bags (2.5kg I think) of pasta spirals or penne for a couple of quid.
And Farmfoods are much cheaper than the supermarkets for things like fishfingers, Quorn, chicken portions etc. The milk is very cheap there too.You had me at your proper use of "you're".0 -
Lovelyjoolz wrote: ȣ4.50 a day is quite a lot for what you eat. Just looking at the meals you list, but you eat a hell of a lot of ready made food. Fish fingers, mac'n'cheese etc. I've found this to be a VERY expensive way to eat. Cooking from scratch is much, much cheaper.
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How do you know that the macaroni & cheese and frozen fish with parsly sauce is ready made ( that is a very big assumption ) ? especially when the OP says they dont buy ready meals very often0 -
How do you know that the macaroni & cheese and frozen fish with parsly sauce is ready made ( that is a very big assumption ) ? especially when the OP says they dont buy ready meals very often
Perhaps I have assumed, but when you say frozen fish in sauce to me that means pre-prepared. This is what I imagined:http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259958420
I've I have assumed wrong OP, then I apologise.You had me at your proper use of "you're".0 -
georgeholmer wrote: »
I work from home and make coffee and eat either left-overs or pie ready-made soups, quiches or have scrambled eggs with some salad, sardines, beans on toast etc.
For soup - How about Heinz soup at less than 3p per portion
http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/?pid=770930
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