Eat Healthily on a Budget?

michie_moo

Hi everyone,

I expect there are some other threads similar to this one but i'm fairly new to this and hope I don't do anything wrong!!

Anyway, we are a family of 4 (2ads and 2ch) @ weekends we have another 2 children too and we have a weekly budget of £50. I am really struggling to feed our family healthily and I just don't know what to do (other than increase in size and have no clothes that fit!!).

Is anyone out there in a similar situation? Or, do you have some recipe ideas perhaps??

This week as something different I ordered my shopping online using the online recipe guide / food finder. For those of you who don't know what that is it's where the supermarkets suggest meal ideas and at the click of a button, the ingredients that you need are added to your basket. Good idea right? Well not really, no. I should've looked into it properly at the time but the calories and fat content in some of the meals is HUGE.

All I want to do is feed my family a healthy meal every day within my budget

richardw

Do you have a lot of time to do grocery shopping? or do you just do an online shop?

quintwins

those supermarket meals are a joke, there all very unhealthy and your not really saving an awful lot because i regulary feed my family for less than a fiver anyway, we are a family of 5 with 1 in nappies, and i still manage to feed my family for £40 ish a week, it just takes practice and finding out whats best for you, the best place to ask this is the OS forum there fab over there

tessie_bear

um...i find £50 doable but its hard work and sometimes i spend a bit more
we are 2 adults and 2 sons,,,,we have chilli and spag bol...i make everything from scratch...hm bread is a money saver....i make cakes for pack ups...i buy reduced stuff at times and have recently become a fan of aldi super 6 fruit and veg
hth a bit

michie_moo

richardw wrote: »

Do you have a lot of time to do grocery shopping? or do you just do an online shop?

I will do whatever it takes to stay within budget. Sometimes I do it online, other times I will go to the store :cool:

happy35

i usually spend about £50 we are a family of 3 but DS and OH are big eaters and will eat a recipe for 4 between them, they are both active people so stay slim

I cook from scratch and find it cheaper to make sunday dinner type meals a couple of times a week as it fills them up.

I make a soup once a week as it is filling and cheap, fajitas are nice and a small amount of chicken can be padded out with peppers and onions (iceland sometimes have the kits for half price)

I sometimes cook a LIDL gammon joint have a dinner from it one night and make carbonara the next night and they are only about £3.50

I find it cheaper to shop around looking for items rather than shopping at one supermarket I tend to buy whats on offer and make my meals dependign on what I have bought

michie_moo

quintwins wrote: »

those supermarket meals are a joke, there all very unhealthy and your not really saving an awful lot because i regulary feed my family for less than a fiver anyway, we are a family of 5 with 1 in nappies, and i still manage to feed my family for £40 ish a week, it just takes practice and finding out whats best for you, the best place to ask this is the OS forum there fab over there

They really are aren't they? I thought they would be a good idea to try but clearly not a healthier option - i've not lost anything but would like to try and be healthier. My Lil One is just out of nappies. Potty trained nice and early to save money - one pack lasts a long time as he only wears them at night now However, he does have a Dairy Allergy so I do have to buy different foods / snacks for him. Luckily, he is a good boy and not at all fussy (unlike my other!)

What is the OS forum please?

tessie_bear wrote: »

um...i find £50 doable but its hard work and sometimes i spend a bit more
we are 2 adults and 2 sons,,,,we have chilli and spag bol...i make everything from scratch...hm bread is a money saver....i make cakes for pack ups...i buy reduced stuff at times and have recently become a fan of aldi super 6 fruit and veg
hth a bit

Yes, it really is doable (we've done it for some time now) but I would like to make us a healthier family and not have too many convenient meals.
Yes, I enjoy making meals from scratch too, sauces for spag bol / chilli's are fab aren't they? I haven't gone down the HM Bread road yet but it's an option.
I don't drive and sadly don't have an Aldi near me but I don't always find supermarket veg too badly priced. That said, I tend to buy frozen veg to be honest.
Yes, that helps - thank you x

michie_moo

happy35 wrote: »

i usually spend about £50 we are a family of 3 but DS and OH are big eaters and will eat a recipe for 4 between them, they are both active people so stay slim

I cook from scratch and find it cheaper to make sunday dinner type meals a couple of times a week as it fills them up.

I make a soup once a week as it is filling and cheap, fajitas are nice and a small amount of chicken can be padded out with peppers and onions (iceland sometimes have the kits for half price)

I sometimes cook a LIDL gammon joint have a dinner from it one night and make carbonara the next night and they are only about £3.50

I find it cheaper to shop around looking for items rather than shopping at one supermarket I tend to buy whats on offer and make my meals dependign on what I have bought

Yes, i'm considering buying a meat joint and cooking a couple of 'Sunday' dinners through the week.


May I just stress to you all that my £50 a week is literally what we have for our full weekly shop (washing powder, softener, toiletries etc) and not just on food.

hermum

Have a look around the old style moneysaving board. Brilliant ideas for meals & cheaper ways for cleaning instead of the expensive products.

quintwins

it's the old style forum, can he not ahve any dairy? if he's ok with butter/marge it might be worth making him a few snacks, like breadsticks, buns, mini pies and a huge hit here is mini pizzas cooked and eaten cold from the fridge, the only time a meal is over £4 in this house is when we eat out or i do a roast, also i tend to do pork shoulder roast as there cheaper and leftovers can be used in sandwichs or casaroles, i try to have 1 meat free meal a week aswell

my weekly shop also includes everything including nappies and toilet roll for 2 toddlers who love to waste it, softener is a waste imo if you have decent washing powder/liquid your clothes will smell nice anyway, i stopped using it 2 years ago as it flared up my ds exzema, and theres nothing wrong with value brands espicially dishwasher tablets

michie_moo

hermum wrote: »

Have a look around the old style moneysaving board. Brilliant ideas for meals & cheaper ways for cleaning instead of the expensive products.

Ahh ok, thank you x Are you able to provide a link at all? Sorry, i'm a numpty!

quintwins wrote: »

it's the old style forum, can he not ahve any dairy? if he's ok with butter/marge it might be worth making him a few snacks, like breadsticks, buns, mini pies and a huge hit here is mini pizzas cooked and eaten cold from the fridge, the only time a meal is over £4 in this house is when we eat out or i do a roast, also i tend to do pork shoulder roast as there cheaper and leftovers can be used in sandwichs or casaroles, i try to have 1 meat free meal a week aswell

my weekly shop also includes everything including nappies and toilet roll for 2 toddlers who love to waste it, softener is a waste imo if you have decent washing powder/liquid your clothes will smell nice anyway, i stopped using it 2 years ago as it flared up my ds exzema, and theres nothing wrong with value brands espicially dishwasher tablets

No, he is unable to have any dairy. We do make our own biscuits / cakes for him as they are MUCH cheaper that way.
Totally understand the toilet roll saga :rotfl: My MIL gets mine from Farm Foods as it's £2 for 9 rolls (it's local to her).
We don't have a dishwasher so thats not an issue but I do like to use a nice washing liquitab and I guess i've just always used softenor - I could stop using it for a while I guess???