Am new here, need tips on feeding family of 5 please!

nuttybabe

Hi

I try to spend £50 a week for 5 of us and a dog, rabbit and 2 tortoise's. Although I have been getting a bit slack and going over budget recently - really need to get back on track!

One mum I know spends £40 a week and does not go over budget! It can be done, although the fact she is a chef probably helps!! :P

I tend to look at the reduced stuff. Or offers and cook most stuff from scratch.

And I am on this board almost all the time looking for new ideas!! Or even just reminders to keep me on track.

toolittletime

Mine are allowed jam sandwiches once a week as a treat. They also quite like tuna and egg as well as cheese or ham. Cheese spread goes down well too. We often have pitta bread, crackers or wraps too. Quite cheap and make a change. My pack ups are usually left overs from the night before!

I always make cakes or jam tarts, sometimes cheese straws. Fruit is whatever is on offer and I've got a few little tubs for putting raisins, peeled oranges etc. It's really hard trying to stop the kids getting bored though!

rosieben

Welcome Flipped, well done for dealing with your debts!

you've already had loads of good advice; my main pointers would be

• do an inventory of your cupboards and freezer
• meal plan, make a shopping list to match your meal plan and shop to the list!
• try going down a label, from branded to shops' own brand, to basics/value range, most of it is very good
• look out for whoopsies (yellow stickered reduced items) and good offers, and stock up with things you know you will use or can freeze for later
• packed lunches can be a headache, but try some OS recipes for traybakes, twinks hobnobs etc to fill them up and check out Lunches post #3
• rubber chicken!
• pad out meat meals with lots of vegetables; I use red lentils too
• check out the grocey challenge recipes in posts #3 and #4 and the complete cooking collection for ideas on packed lunches (post #3) cheap meals and batch baking
• and check out the old style index for lots more ideas, things like the Save Zillions on cleaning thread are great!
• Most importantly, dont try to make too many changes at once but work through new ideas slowly - one step at a time is the way to go.

if you have any specific questions please post, there's always someone around OS to help

Good luck!

Burp_2

Being a teacher I often watch what my pupils eat for lunch out of interest more than anything! lol

I teach first school children and it's always interesting to see what ideas parents have

• usual ham/cheese/chicken/tuna/egg/jam/marmite/honey sandwiches
• cold HM quiche/omlettes/Fritattas/pizza toasts (sliced white bread with tom sauce and cheese under grill sliced and cold
• crackers and sliced cheese/cheese spread/jam
• bread sticks
• extras like precooked cocktail sausages/scotch eggs/pork pies/sausage rolls
• veg sticks celery/cucumber/carrot
• the obvious fruit but also home made jelly pots (cheaper than prebought) pots of home made bananas and custard
• dried fruits
• Pieces of cheese
• home made fairy cakes/cookies/victoria sponge
• The kids tend to eat the fruit and veg when its chopped up in manageable pieces so they can eat quickly and get outside

One mum said she makes up the sandwiches on a sunday night and pops them in the freezer and pulls them out every morning and they are defrosted by lunch time ... you can also freeze home made biscuits and fairy cakes

this way u haven't got the drudge of making up everyones lunches ever evening just half an hour making them all up on a Sunday

PossumMum

Lunches for kids (and adults):

Baked potatoes filled with ham + cheese, topped with leftover chilli con carne, beans, shepherd's pie filling etc make great lunches.

Get a flask and put some delicious homemade soups - very cheap and filling (better for older children, not sure how old yours are).

Use leftover pasta to make a pasta salad, add pesto, cheese, ham, chicken, cherry tomatoes and so on.

Homemade pizza - it's just bread, tomato, ham, cheese (so basically just a ham and cheese sandwich).

ALIBOBSY

I have 3 kids (and a bump on the way!) so know exactly where you are coming from.
I go some little plastic pots from the pound shop which are fab for bits of peeled/cut up fruit and veg. Also turn cake receipes into tray bakes- there is a fab thread somewhere about traybakes, but just imagine a "brownie" tray and put in it any cake/bar you like. Ideal for sandwiches as you get loads of little yummy squares, plus they stack brilliantly in the freezer.
Definately have a read around for packed lunches as there are loads of brilliant ideas on this board.
Have to hold my hands up that since OH's pay increased (and our debts started to be paid off) we have allowed the kids school lunches during the cold winter months. I find I can then reduce the amount they have for tea (or dinner depending what part of the country you are in ) or have a sandwich/soup tea more often without them moaning.

Homemade soups are fab, did nigellas butternut squash and sweet potato one the other day, made a big pan full which did 2 teas and a bit to freeze for a lunch later on (and my lot are greedy lol).

Fruit is a must, my lot go through piles and piles.

I find mince beef "saucey" dishes can be stretched by adding more veggies although I do like lentals-the longer they cook the more they disappear into the sauce.

Potatos and calliflower, even carrots go into curry to pad out the chicken. Definately stretch that chicken (or other sunday roast) out as long as possible. You can even freeze cooked portions if you don't want to eat say all chicken meals each week.
The freezer is your friend and I love my slow cooker, ask around your family and friends, I got mine for free off an aunty who had used it a couple of times and stuck it in a cupboard. Its the sort of thing people buy and end up not using.

I have to admit I also love my Kenwood, but my current one was a treat and is the high power one with food processor,grinder,liquidisor etc and was almost £300 so not an essential. But in my defense I bought it with a competition cash win (love those as well), and I use it nearly everyday and it will be working V.hard for the next week or so.

We have in the past managed on under £50 a week for all of us so I reckon you can do £80. Sometimes it is easier to work out what you spend now and gradually cut down to where you want to go (unless you have no choice). Things will also depend on how much time you have to shop/cook, although many on here work and are v.oldstyle as well-freezer comes in here as you cook when you can and make your own "ready meals" for when you can't.
definately watch the waste, we have some odd teas sometimes. my mum called them scratch teas as in "made from scratch all". So ends in the freezer (2 fish fingers a few leftover nuggets, 1 burger, tail end of a bag of oven chips) with leftover salad/homemade mash/baked spuds (or any "carb" leftover from the day before-rice,wedges etc etc). Cooked up on the table in dishes for people to help themselves-plenty of bread and a pudding if possible (left over cooked up fruit with a bit of pastry/crumble etc etc etc.

Meal planning is good, but I am not strict enough with myself over it. But I do find I need to decide early each day (if not already planned) what I am doing for tea. Its no good at 4.30 thinking what shall I do as it is too easy to just go and buy something ready made or even that dreaded takeaway-I found that for me I needed to make a start early to ensure I didn't fall for temptation, especially at the start.
Also try to get the family involved, my kids especially love baking and chopping veg-they fight, yes fight over peeling the sprouts/cutting up carrots (have to peel extras of these as they eat half as they go along rofl).
Use less meat and more veggies definately and even try one or more meals a week veggie completely.

Good luck and enjoy it, once you get going it is very satisfying and fun and the thrill when your son/daughter comes in and says "we had a tesco cottage pie at my mates for tea and it wasn't a patch on yours", or all the kids say your son/daughters birthday party was "the best ever" cos you did it at home all from scratch, is amazing and priceless .

ali x

patchwork_cat

Re soups at lunch, not all primary schools will allow them.

Cold pizza goes down well for lunch as does home made chicken tikka pitta pockets in this house! Wraps are nice and I make one with hoisin and cold chicken and salad that my DD thinks it is like Chinese duck and pancakes. (I buy my hoisin in a can at Chinese supermarket, transfer into a jar and it keeps in the fridge for a couple of months or more) Sausage and bacon sandwiches are popular as are left over cold chicken with mayo. Your kids may like pate. When I want something new for lunch I look at the sandwiches in the supermarket or butty shop and the sandwich fillers and steal some ideas! Ham is a staple though!

Do you have a slow cooker?

PasturesNew

£80/week = £16/week/person, which is £2.28/day/person.

Learn the cost of every ingredient and every meal, then you can find ways to cut back by dropping the most expensive ingredient entirely, or simplifying your recipes. e.g. if you follow a good chilli recipe it might have peppers and wine in it - drop them both and add some grated carrot and it'll go further and cost less than half the original recipe cost without anything seeming missing.

Read the labels when you buy and make sure you're buying by £/100g, so you can keep things cheaper. e.g. instead of large baked potatoes labelled "baked potatoes", you can buy ordinary potatoes at half the cost/100g that still give the same result.

Ignore the headline prices and zoom straight to that £/100g price... you'll be surprised how often you can get double the quantity for the same price without skimping on quality, just by not being sucked in by their clever labelling. This also applies to special offers, still check the £/100g price as you can usually buy cheaper by ignoring their offer of the week.

ALIBOBSY

I agree with pastures, sometimes you find buying 2 smaller packs are cheaper than the bumper "bargain" packs. Or they have different weighted packs, esepcially in meat to make it look like some are much cheaper. This goes shop to shop where quite often they have the same price per pound on a meat but on different sized packs so it looks like one supermarket is cheaper than the others.
Also watch fruit and veg sometimes the prepacked are cheaper, sometimes the loose ones are.

ali x