Realistic Amount to Feed 2 Adults

Bunnie1982

Me and DH will be having a bit of a tight cashflow for the next month and are trying to cut back wherever we can. Usually our weekly shopping bill is between £25 and £30 but I was just wondering what we could realistically cut this down to?

We have hardly anything in store cupboard at the moment because of not long moved house and we don't have a freezer (well we have a tiny compartment in the top of our fridge)

Neither of us are fussy eaters so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Butterfly_Brain

Without a decent store cupboard and freezer it could be a bit tight, but I remember being in the same tight spot as you when we first got married 23 years ago!
Here goes a few ideas that might help:
Get your milk in Farmfoods it is the cheapest anywhere
Aldi's super six are 29p this month (Celery, Webbs lettuce, Avocado,Cucumber, Tomatoes and Mango) Or get your fruit and veg from the local market because you can buy what you need (eg 2 Apples, 2 oranges, potatoes, veg etc)
Have you a butcher near to you ? We used to have a great one who would do 2 chops etc)
Chicken can stretch easily to four meals for two people (see the rubber chicken thread)
Look on the internet for the best deals before you go shopping
Meal planning and writing a list is essential
Drop down to Smart Price/Basic/Value lines
Look out for whoopsies late at night
Make your own bread/Soda Bread
Lge Chicken Aldi £2.99
Sun : Roast Chicken, Cucumber, Lettuce and Toms with new potatoes
£2.99 29p 29p 29p 60p = £4.46
Mon: LemonChicken and left over salad as above.
Tuesday: Shredded Chicken with vegetable rice 28p
Wednesday: Chicken and sweetcorn chowder made from stock from the carcass of the chicken, and Home Made Bread
Thursday: Frittata with Salad (Aldi 10 large Eggs are 99p)
Friday: Plate pie with filling of choice with new potaoes and green beans
Saturday: Left over pie with salad
Sunday: Gammon with Salad,new potatoes (Gammon £2.99 at Aldi ) easy do two meals.
Try this thread it may be of some help plus there are lots of other ideas for recipes dotted about in the forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1129333&highlight=mbaz
just put recipes in the search engine
Sorry for a long reply but hope some of the ideas might help.Good Luck x

sandycheeks

Do you have a local vegetable market? Our's do a saturday special where you can get a massive bag of potatoes/carrots/onions/swede and lettuce for £2.00 and this usually lasts the 3 of us in veg for a week!

tori.k

freegan.org.uk

Id make up things like soup and stick to simple meals like egg and chips, spag bol etc
my local butcher bags up the cooked beef trims i got 400g for a £1 its ideal for sarnies, ive learned dont be afraid to ask i always hit the farmers market at the end of the day and take home all the veg odds and ends for next to nothing

merlin1

i' think 25 quid a week a very good price to feed 2 adults! you are at less than a fiver a day on that, and to try and cut that, tbh, i think you'll struggle.

a few questions though - does this budget cover lunches and breakfasts?
does this shopping budget cover things other than food? such as cleaning stuffs etc?
why have you budgeted this amount - i'm an x bankrupt, so know about cutting down etc, not easy is it?? !

the reason i ask is that there are ways, we just need to know where your 25 quid is going now? :cool:

ifonlyitwaseasier

buy all basics/value veg, try frozen as well for some, how much could you fit in your freezer? have you thought about asking on freecycle if anyone is giving one away?
how about mince, could have basic mince made up as cottage pie, then using the extra bulked out leftovers make chilli?
egg and hm chipps is always a nice easy cheap meal, you need to think creatively for this but i think you can do it.

Bunnie1982

merlin1 wrote: »

i' think 25 quid a week a very good price to feed 2 adults! you are at less than a fiver a day on that, and to try and cut that, tbh, i think you'll struggle.

a few questions though - does this budget cover lunches and breakfasts?
does this shopping budget cover things other than food? such as cleaning stuffs etc?
why have you budgeted this amount - i'm an x bankrupt, so know about cutting down etc, not easy is it?? !

the reason i ask is that there are ways, we just need to know where your 25 quid is going now? :cool:

The budget covers lunches and breakfasts but doesn't cover cleaning stuff.

Typically we tend to eat a lot of mince in terms of home made chilli, spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, cottage pie - we usually buy these in the portion sizes we need for the particular meal we are making, do you think it might be a better idea for us to buy the mince in a bulk size?

We use a lot of own brand or value products already so not sure how/where we could cut back there.

I'm just covering a few "what if" ideas and seeing if there is any other way of knocking the price down. I think we eat pretty well for our £25 but trying to see what is possible.

Fire_Fox

Mince can be bulked out an enormous amount: I typically add equal parts of vegetables (tinned tomatoes, grated carrot, celery if in stock, onion) and get four to six portions from a 450g pack. You can get away with more - I have just started trying the red lentils trick and Mr. Fire Fox (a chef who hates pulses) has not noticed! If you add porridge oats the meat goes further still but I haven't yet tried this.

Pork mince and turkey mince are cheaper than beef mince (unless you get Value?) - I have successfully used both for chilli, and have bulked with sweetcorn as well as kidney beans. I also find if you have rice AND tacos with chilli or rice AND naan with a curry men are happier with less meat!

Other forms of cheap protein include eggs cooked any way and turkey drumstick which slow cooks or roasts very well. Soups can make very filling meals if you add lentils, pearl barley, potatoes and plenty of bread. French onion soup is cheap to make as is minestrone, and chicken soup is practically free if you have the leftovers from a roast!

Have you read Weezl74's thread about eating healthily on 50p per day? Lots of recipes - mainly vegetarian - which you could add to your usual diet.