Need to reduce weekly food bill by more than half!

MrsBartolozzi

While you mention you cook from scratch, can you give an idea of how much mince you would use for say a bolognaise sauce?
I cook for 3 adults and a (soon to be) teenager , and I use 500g steak mince with veg (onions, peppers) to make typically 7 or 8 portions of bolognaise sauce or 8 portions chili with added kidney beans. So the two of you could get about 4 meals from one 500g pack of mince depending on what you add.

For a curry I would use 300-400g chicken and add lots of veg. This would usually give a 4 portion meal with maybe 1-1.5 portions for the freezer.

Have a look on the oldstyle board, there are lots of ideas for making meat stretch further, and you don't need to compromise on quality - extra veg in a sauce is not just a "filler" it's good for you. Others add lentils (I've had varying success - sometimes they are obvious and the family see them) or oats to stretch a sauce.
If you buy a whole chicken instead of portions you get more meat for your money. You can joint it raw and freeze in portions or roast it, have a meal of roast chicken and use the rest for fajitas/curries/pie etc and the carcass for stock to make soup/risotto etc. To give an idea we get 2 4-person meals and some sandwich meat/pizza topping from a 1.5kg chicken.
For the two of you this would be about 4 or 5 meals from one bird.
I usually spend about £270ish a month for the four of us for food/toiletries/cleaning supplies and this includes choc biscuits etc for kid's packed lunches so I am sure you can manage to get your costs down to about £40 a week.
The trick is though, to do it slowly maybe aim for £50 for the first few weeks - the grocery challenge on the OS board would be a good place to start, and if you have a selection of "interesting" tins or packets in your cupboard you don't know what to serve with, there are people to help there too. Just post a list of your ingredients and you'll soon end up with a list of dishes to try.
Good luck with your saving,
MrsB.

Lilith1980

wearesaving wrote: »

Breakfasts - we always have cereal & tea apart from at weekends when we might treat ourselves to eggs & bacon. I eat shop brand cereals but my OH doesn't like his version ( have tried!). He gets through approx 1 box per week (he's 6ft 3 rugby player and likes his grub!).

What cereal does your OH eat? To get mine eating shop brands I bought a couple of those plastic cereal storage things, bought shop/cheap brand cereal and put it in one and my OH still hasn't noticed.

I also spend 40p on value ketchup rather than £2.18 on a Heinz bottle of the same size and put the value ketchup into a Heinz bottle lol and again, OH is none the wiser! I think most of it is psychological

dollypeeps

Oooh I think that I am going on a grocery diet too......I used to spend about £45 -£50 per week but its nearer £60 now... I think that even though the food prices have risen I am being a little careless as well....I need to take a more careful approach.

I shop at Lidls, Aldis and then Asda for the rest of my list....Aldis being the best for fresh fruit and veg (always good offers and ours does fab prices on bread rolls) I use Lidls for a few grocery items but their cleaning stuff is very good and then Asda for the rest such as Birds Eye chicken fingers ....I try not to buy too much processed stuff... oh yes and my local butchers for my meat sometimes!!

I am going to be busy watching these threads to see if I can cut back

Dolly x

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

You seem to have a healthy diet, so would be a shame to spoil this with any processed rubbish.

Mealplan-Make a note of what you have in and buy food needed to add to this to make nutricious meals.

Buy BASICS tinned tomatoes, beans, kidney beans, sweetcorn, yogurts, butter, rice, pasta, teabags, UHT milk, juice etc...try a couple and see how you get on.

Aldis have their Super 6....excellent quality at 49p each for 1.5kg New Pots, 5 x Nectarines, 500g Grapes, Bananas, Vine toms and 3 peppers. Their fresh milk is 49p and freezes well.

Cereal-Stick with what partner likes but buy extra when on special for the future.

Tuna-Stick with what you know, but buy bulk when on offer.

Make larger amounts and freeze portions.

See if your butchers would do a weekly meat pack for you. Joint, chops, mince, sausages, bacon etc at a better deal?

I only buy FR eggs but you can often get these for £2 for 15 at supermarkets.

Bread-Stick with what you know. I only eat Warburtons but buy extra when on special or reduced.

Frozen fruit is great.

Keep up the good work and enjoy your pregnancy.

PP
xx

justevi

Make a large pan of vegetable soup. This will last a couple of days plus give some to freeze! My basic is bacon, onion, carrots, leek, turnip and potato with the addition of none, one or all of squash, parsnip or sweet potato if/when I can pick them up cheap, just chuck in what you want. Our family love it with a nice crusty roll and it has to be good for you!

wearesaving

Thanks everyone for their suggestions - these have been great and I'm going to start trying some out from next week.

Fingers crossed we can get our food bill down bit by bit every week.

I liked the suggestion of a meat pack - I'll speak to my butchers because that might also be good to get different meat each week rather than sticking to same old same old!

I'm on a mission now so thanks again for all your help

jimbugalee

Congrats on your pregnancy

Some people might not see this as a tip but I still think doing my food shopping online saves me money. There are two of us and we spent approx £35-£45 a week with alcohol and household stuff on top. For the last two weeks I have shopped in the store (with my normal meal plan list) and spent at least £10 more. Mainly I think it's because I'm finding it hard to find the cheapest items whereas online it's much easier i.e. I just shop from the offers section.

I also cook everything from scratch which is why I tell myself it's expensive! I do use the leftovers for OH lunch. I work from home so might eat a bit more here but then save on the lunches I may have bought out.

I'm going back to shopping online this week and plan to get it down to much less (we also now have a freezer which should help).

I'm just learning what are the good (I shop in Tesco's) 'Value' items and where to avoid. I think that's trial and error. I also find that if I buy extra snacks etc OH will eat them in minutes but if I don't get them he wouldn't notice!

Hope this helps a bit.

Gemma

the_cat

One small tip is not to discount all the value and shop brand cereals (or anything else) just because you have tried one and don't like it.

Often they will taste quite different from another shop. I always thought I hated value tea-bags until I tried them from MrS. They are the only ones I will buy though!!

craftynutters

Try this page
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1157641&page=143

Kimonokawaii

Maybe a different way of thinking?

At the moment you are saying this is what we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner so I will buy this this and this.

I go to the shops find all the reduced things, whoopsies, aldi super 6 and lidl bargains then meal plan to work out what we can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I also challenge myself to NEVER throw anything away! Recycle packaging, peelings and perishable inedible bits in the composter with the egg shells etc etc but left overs will always be used and nothing goes to waste - boil bones for stock for soups and meals like chili and spag bol instead of using jar sauces, stock cubes etc- pad out meat with veg to make it stretch.

I'm also one of those people that doesn't mind some things being a day or two out of date - obviously being pregnant you'll need to be more careful with fresh items like eggs, yoghurt, meat and fish but store cupboard items, tins and jars I don't mind!

I also had 2 strawberry plants in my garden this year and I have started to grow herbs. I was given 2 lettuces from my uncle's garden too. It's a small start but grow your own would be great for the little one when he/she is a bit older.