Help needed with weekly food shopping

backtomum

I've been reading posts a lot lately. Previously I have been in terrible debt - but thankfully have now paid this off. Had to sell the house though and have ended up in a tiny 3 bed semi renting. Anyway with Christmas looming and the terror of debts always at the back of my mind - I've just got to cut my food bill. For myself, other half and 3 kids I spend £120 [inc. cleaning products, shampoo etc] per week. The thing is my cooking isn't up to much and I was wondering what everyone else does with regard to meals. We generally have a roast on a Sunday and I use the chicken left over for curry/casserole on the Monday. I do pasta, stews etc. Does anyone have any menu plans for the week. I make all our lunches [can't afford £60 per month for school dinners], we don't buy take aways very often and I can't think of ways to cut down. I try to not spend so much - but am never able to cut it down. I'm in awe with what people manage to do on these boards. Please help. Any suggestions will be greatly received. Thanks very much.

squeaky

The two threads linked below have lots of help on menu planning:-

Menu Planning:
The Menu Plans Collection
Weekly Meals Plans Links

LJM

hi by taking stock and keeping check of what you have in cupboards/fridge/freezer you could meal plan from there go through recipe books,have a look then you are not buying something you already have,try getting to the shops when the reduced is on ours is usually between 7-8 of an evening,plus there is a good thread on here for cleaning products get yourself a bottle of stardrops and you wont need to buy all the other cleaners.oh yea and another food tip i like to do is look online and do the price check e.g tescos/sainsburys etc,to see which have the better deals,i tend to do my shopping in 2-3 diff shops where i know i can get things cheaper,hark at me rambling hope some of this helps and makes sense

phizzimum

I've just discovered the weekly meal planning thread and I love it!

Just when I think I know my way around MSE I find another little gem, so many thanks to Squeaky for pointing it out.

I've been trying to plan my week's meals and have a serious case of writers block so I'm going to peruse the thread for much needed inspiration. Since having a tummy bug a few weeks ago I've lost my appetite and would happily live on cereal 3 times a day, if it wasn't for my family expecting nutritious, delicious, expertly budgeted, speedily prepared meals at regular intervals!

embb

I've managed to get mine down to £50 pw for me OH and 3 kids - finally hoorah! :j the way I did it was stop buying ready meals, biscuits,crisps,rubbish in other words, I make a menu every week including two roast dinners and get my list from that, the way I do that is buy enough veg and a large chicken which I then half on preperation and it does two meals, I buy a big bag of potatoes which I mash,roast,boil and add either sausages/chops/beans/peas/gravy to it, or sometimes Bacon, make pasta with garlic bread one night, buy lots of fresh fruit which we have as afters. The trick is making the menu and sticking to the list rigidly

JillD_2

Our food shop has come down from £350 per month to £250 per month for me, Oh and 2 kids (inc nappies, cleaning supplies and toiletries).
We did it by doing what everyone else has said - sticking to a weekly meal plan. I had to persevere with a few things to get hubby to like them - mainly switching from name brands to shop own brands eg Tropicana to Asda orange juice, doritos to Asda tortilla chips, diet coke to Asda diet coke etc. He is now sed to it though! I also stopped buying things like baby bels for the kidsk, they just have redular cheese, cubed, and things like dairylea dunkers, they just have breadsticks and cheese. I am terrible now, I take Asda cake bars with me if we go out , and if we go to a cafe the kids have those instead of me buying a muffine for them -saves a fortune!

I make my own bread which saves a lot, and I started buying this stardrops stuff they rave about on here and that is a cheap cleaner. I shop once a week, and oince a week only, and freeze my milk for the week so I am not tempted to "pop in for just a pint" as I always land up spending more.

HTH
Jill

newlywed

I halved the shopping bill by not buying crisps, biscuits and cakes. Instead i make cakes, flapjacks etc. Also by not buying fruit juice, fizzy drinks etc but switching to squash, that has saved over £5 a week!!

Also value brands are often very good value and always buy value brand tinned potatoes, chopped tomatoes etc. Buying frozen veg means that I throw less away - and any old veg gets made into soup now when it would have gone in the bin. Buying veg that is loose rather than trimmed, cleaned and prepacked also saves lots.

And now when I shop I never take a trolley (or the kids). I use a basket and that limits my shop to £25-35 as I can't fit any extra bits in and without the kids or OH, I don't have someone asking for extra icecream, sweets, biscuits etc and instead they can only have what is in the cupboards or what I make from scratch

Edit: using the basket means I sometimes have to do an extra shop in the week but still find this better than filling up a trolley where I'd spend £30 just on "extra bits"

melt71

Hi Backtomum,

If you can't see how you can reduce your bills by meal planning etc why don't you post a typical weeks shopping on here - then people may be able to advise you how to adjust it so that you get more for your money.