£130 per week on food!!!

researcher

simm678 wrote:

Wow thanks everyone, there are really helpful ideas here!

I came up with a menu plan for this week (first time ever!), things I know I can cook without too much trouble, any ideas for improving it please let me know.

Sunday - roast chicken/quorn fillets (already have) & trimmings. Don't forget to save the bones for stock and the leftover veges to add to a soup. A homemade desert (the microwave lemon sponge sounds lovely!)
Monday - chicken/chickpea curry & rice any leftover rice can be added to the soup too - when you liquidise it, it acts as a thickener rather than using flour.
Tues - Spaghetti bolognese make extra sauce and freeze - can be used again with spaghetti, lasagna, in a pie, a bake etc
Weds - Split pea & ham soup and a desert
Thurs - Sausages mash & peas
Fri - Chicken/bean stew and dumplings

Another ideas for using up roast chicken is to make it into a pie - make a basic white sauce and add the chicken alongside veges such as peas, mushrooms, leeks, carrots, onion, garlic, parsley, tarragon. (The veges should be cooked). Just remember to let the mixture go cold before making the pie, or the pastry goes soggy. Once cooked any leftovers can be frozen (and the same basic mixture can be used for a veg pie - with added herbs).

simm678

Thank you for the ideas, I will definitely make extra bolognese, and I have no idea how to make stock from bones but I will have a look into it! And DH is happy with just a little meat sometimes, the bacon and egg pie sounds like his sort of thing.

gingin_2

Hi simm678, I hope you stay on the oldstyle board now! There is a daily chatty thread which you can join in and a really useful meal planning thread. I aspire to being fully oldstyle but we still have ready meals, just much less than usual!

lil_me

My main starting point was stop buying and use what I had in, I ended up spending £30 that month just because I needed bread, milk, fruit etc but was shocking how much I had in already. Got it down to the minimum before I went out shopping again. Kids were in a huff because some of the things I had to buy regular had ran out, but that was just tough as I wasn't going to stop.

I've kind of slipped again and did a few silly shopping trips, mainly when had children with me bending my ear, and have started another NO SHOPPING time again. When I do shop I am going back to doing most of it online with the codes off the discount codes area, find I don't buy on impulse and can check what I do have from walking 10 paces into the kitchen.

Writing down what I spent, every last penny, and what on made me realise it couldn't go on. And also realising I threw out so much food, I wrote down daily what I threw away and confessed it in here and most threw out less in a month that what I did in a day.

patchwork_cat

Hi
Don't feel bad about your spend it is very easy to spend at the shops - they are experts in getting us to part with our cash -(or credit!) I know that there are lots of people who also spend that much. Try to cut down slowly, make a menu and list and stick to it - I am good at saying that and not good at doing that, but hey I am far from perfect!

simm678

Well I checked my cupboard/freezer for what I already had, went to Tesco with my list, bought all own-brand, and spent....£50.89!!! I double checked when I got in that I hadn't forgot anything, and I think I really do have everything for the week. Amazing! And everyone loved the microwave lemon sponge today.

So far so good, thanks everyone!

Addiscomber

Well done.

LJM

let us know how you get on

chinagirl

! And everyone loved the microwave lemon sponge today.

So far so good, thanks everyone![/QUOTE]



cAN you post the lemon sponge recipe, I am intrigued, sounds scrummy!

Debt_Free_Chick

simm678 wrote:

Well I checked my cupboard/freezer for what I already had, went to Tesco with my list, bought all own-brand, and spent....£50.89!!! I double checked when I got in that I hadn't forgot anything, and I think I really do have everything for the week. Amazing! And everyone loved the microwave lemon sponge today.

So far so good, thanks everyone!

Great start :T

Keep it up and in a few weeks time, come back and we'll help you stretch that budget to a few more days or even another week