please can someone start me off? £50 weekly food shop - healthy/low fat

JillD_2

Hi
I havent read through all the replies so apologies if I am repeating.

As others have said definitely meal plan, you say you've already done one for the week , well done. I think meal planning and shopping from a list are the 2 best things you can do.

We are a family of 2 adults, a 5 yr old (son with hollow legs LOL), a 4 year old and an 18 month old in nappies still. I have just given work and we've had a couple of unexpected hits money wise so I am trying to stick to the same budget as you, £200 a month. I am also trying to lose weight so like you everything has to be low fat and healthy but not too low fat for the kids and filling enough for my big husband (another one with hollow legs!). We are vegetarian (not sure if you are, though maybe as I saw you had quorn this evening ?)

Quorn is expnsive but I find one of the 350g (or whatever they are) bags will now do all of us for 2 meals, we used to have one bag for one meal but now I bulk it out with veg.

So for example tonight we had quorn parika - onion, carrots, peppers and quorn, fried off , then simmered in a bit of stock with a few teaspoons of paprika til the liquid reduces. You can then stir in yoghurt but nobody else in my house likes it like that except me
In a separate pan I fried off a leek and a green pepper (the kids dont like these).
I mixed the green bits in with mine and hubs on the plates.
Served with rice.
I saved half a portion of the quorn mix and froze. Will prob have some night next week with tin of tomatoes and sweetocrn over it and serve with mash or fried potatoes or something. Until last week we would have eaten far too much and probably chucked the remainder in the bin :rolleyes::rolleyes:

I've started hovering round the reduced to clear veg section in Asda, and buy smart price everything when I can. I'm sure there are people who would tell me off for not buying organic for the kids but we all seem to be doing ok on it and we just cant afford organic unfortunately.

Lots of OS recipes for HM stuff , esp for puddings , are crumbles and pastry things which of course are fatal if you are trying to eat low fat. For puddings our kids have yoghurt (smart price of course), fruit, and/or smart price scotch pancakes.

I have also started making my own bread again in the BM.
I reckon a loaf is costing me about 30p, prob about 15p in ingredients and I am doubling to factor in electricity though that may be way off.
I get the yeast fresh from Asda and as its fresh they dont charge for it its FREE :j
We get through 5 HM loaves a week therefore costing £1.50.
Normally we'd get through £3.50 of shop bread a week so saving £2 a week on bread alone. Not much but hey it all adds up.

I also make my own pizza dough, use smart price bol sauce as the tomato sauce, smart price cheese and smart price sweetcorn on top .
Also smart price garlic bread, and I have tried and liked (not too low fat though!!!) the smart price part baked bread rolls.
Oh my god I didnt realise we used quite so much smart price!

I've started making my own tortilla wraps, a bit time consuming but soooo worth it they are much nicer than shop bought ones. Recipe here and this weekend I did fajitas and made my own fajita seasoning from post 3 on this thread.

I have also discovered my new favourite lunch or supper - 10p smart price noodles, dont use the sachet, cook as packet instructions, when done chuck in handful of (smart price of course!) stir fry mix from freezer (even beansprouts seem to freeze ok) and a handful of frozen peas, splodge of chilli sauce, cook for few mins, eat - sooo yummy.

Lets see what else can I waffle on about.

oh yeah low fat snacks - smart price (is there no end to it !!!) crumpets with smart price (nope, no end to it) jam. Kids also love the crumpets.

I tried smart price cereal for the kids, they dont like it plus a lot of it seems to not be fortified with iron and minerals whereas the own brand non smart price stuff is fortified so I buy that. The smart price bran flakes are really nice though for me.
This is all Asda in case you havent realised :rotfl:butI guess Tesco value , Sainsburys basics whatever are as good.

I set myself a budget of £100 on the March Grocery Challenge for this month as we had tons of stuff in the freezer. Its going ok but I spent an extra tenner on nappies on offer today in Asda. 124 huggies for £10 seemed quite good to me. Asda ones were 3 packs of 34 for £10 so that was only 102 as opposed to 124. At least I won't need to buy any for the next few weeks.

Oh yes the first thing I wanted to say - I almost forgot - of you have time read mbaz's thread on feeing her family for the month for £20 (she had a lot in the freezer etc already though but still ......).

The onw thing that is killing us is milk though, we spend a fortune on tha, we get through 5 4pinters (3 full fat, 2 skimmed) a week so thats £7.50 a week, £30 a month! Thats mad! The only thing I could do is buy long life or powdered but I just can't bring myself to ....... Maybe we should buy a cow :rotfl:

Wow I had no idea I had so much to say! Sorry its a bit disjointed !

HTH and good luck, I bet you will get a real kick out of the challenge, I know I do
Jill

JillD_2

god sorry my reply was stupidly long, sorry :rolleyes:

Jaycee1972

Hiya

As others have said, I have started to keep an inventory and shop from a list. I still overbuy though for what we need. I reckon for myself, 2 yo in nappies and 2 cats about £40 per week would be about right.

A few tips (which may have already been mentioned):-
Look out for coupons
Collect loyalty points (just cashed in £50 worth of nectar points - took ages to save them but every little helps)
If you shop at tesco, join all their clubs (baby, wine, healthy living, clubcard) and they send you vouchers.
Keep your receipts and add up how much you are spending - join the grocery challenge and keep a running total in your sig)
Make free money - look at quidco, ipoints (used £30 of sainsburys vouchers from them today) other cashback sites.
Do the downshift challenge (I think it is called). If you usually by a brand of something try shops own, if you buy shops own try value. You only have to do it for a week and if you don't like it go back up. It is surprising how much you can save.

Little boy woken up. Gotta go! Good luck.
Jane

stinky_5000

I have been trying to make soups to take for my lunch, much cheaper than buying food at lunchtime and usually healthier and they are so easy to make... onion,leek, parsnips, ginger, boil in veg stock, whizz up in the blender yum! and my fave broccoli and stilton i miss out the cream to make it a bit less fatty.. loads of receipes on the internet, but i just throw in what iv'e got.
I always seem to spend less when i go shopping with a meal plan for the week, otherwise i end up stocking up on all sorts and it costs a fortune..

we have a home bargins shop in town they have some amazing deals! quite random items but good buys!