What's a typical day's food?

quintwins

theres 5 of us 2 adults and 3 kids we try to budget £200 a month before xmas we managed really well but it's went out the window since then i really nee dto reign myself in and use what i have rather than buying more

breakfasts are, values cereals, toast or reduced pancakes or english muffins from the frezzer or scambled egg on toast, on a sat we usually have a cooked breakfast so toast beans egg bacon and sausages

lunchs are usually leftovers, soup or sandwichs, tomorrows lunch is chicken mayo and sweetcorn in reduced value pittas (chicken breasts were half price aswell)

dinners we tend to have alot of mince so sheperds pie, spag bol, mince and taties, mince pie, i do pork shoulder alot in my show cooker one £3 roast will usually do 1 roast and 3 casaroles, alos chicken casroles, cheesy beans on toast of a weekend and baked taties and quiche are very common, also i make the kids mini pizza tarts if i'm making pies they love them

snacks tend to be apples, bananas, value crisps, biscuits, breadsticks, toast and recently strawberrys and grapes because there cheap

i buy also of reduced and value stuff and stock up on offers when i see them

i have also done a few aprroved food orders, but postage to me is £12 so i have to do big orders for it to be worth it, however they do have some fab deals

patchwork_cat

RachelS wrote: »

Thanks so much for your ideas, all. There's a lot of food for thought there and lots of ideas I'm going to try.

Patchwork, I was really ill for a few months this year, OH took over a lot, he said he returned the library books but in reality he lost them. Enough said :S.

Oh dear, yes they charge a fortune for lost books.

oldtractor

I think you could do with increasing your budget if possible. I think not buying certain things is a good idea. so, no fizzy drinks or juice to dilute, or bottled water tap water is fine. Limit your intake of tea and coffee and try to do without both, again tap water. Avoid breakfast cereals. buy a bag of porrige oats and make porridge for breakfast,also try toast and marmite or jam, poached eggs,omlette,pancakes. Make you own bread, biscuits and cakes. Have 2 or 3 vegetarian nights a week and a "simple" day, eg beans on toast for breakfast,panackes and jam for lunch,HM veg soup with lentils for tea.

[Deleted User]

sainsbobs do a smashing mueseli and I'm not a lover of it normally, but I mix a handful of their basic which is 62 p a kilo with a handful of bran flakes and a dash of cinnamon,cold milk on the top and it fills you up until lunchtime .inexpensive and delicious very full of dried fruit.
by the way I have just pm'd you

JillS_2

JackieO wrote: »

sainsbobs do a smashing mueseli and I'm not a lover of it normally, but I mix a handful of their basic which is 62 p a kilo with a handful of bran flakes and a dash of cinnamon,cold milk on the top and it fills you up until lunchtime .inexpensive and delicious very full of dried fruit.
by the way I have just pm'd you

Thanks for that, JackieO.

I was in Morrisons tonight and just about to buy some of their value muesli (67p) when I spotted it had gone up to 94p :eek: how can they justify that - a 50% increase. So, no muesli bought tonight. I'll see if I can manage a trip to sainsbobs soon - there's a few other items I want to try from there.

Still at least I found a whoopsied pint of double cream at 25p so some hm butter is on the cards.

ragz_2

I have 2 adults, a 5 year old, 4 year old and 18 month old, no pets. My monthly food budget is about £350/£400 and since prices have risen I struggle with that sometimes! However I do packed lunches most days and DH likes a LOT of meat and cheese. I could 'feed' us for half that if I had to, but I like quality things like FR chicken, real ham, granary bread, ground coffee etc. So your budget is probably doable as long as you don't have too high expectations - prices have risen a lot in the last few years on basics especially.

Typical daily foods would be

Breakfast
Toast with various things (mackerel, marmite and soft cheese, jam, peanut butter) followed by cereal.

Lunch
DH - Packed lunch -2 rolls/sandwiches with meat (often buy gammon joints and cook and slice up) and cheese, 2 bags of crisps (whatever's on offer), 2 biscuit/cake bars or HM baked goods! Yogurt. (I tried getting him to eat fruit but kept finding 'nests' of it in the car)
DS1 and DS2 - Packed lunch - Sandwich/wrap (ham/cheese/tuna), yogurt for DS2 choc mousse for DS1, fruit, juice carton, 'treat' (preferably HM, even though I'm sure it's not cheaper!)
DD - Whatever I'm having or leftovers that I've kept for her, or sandwich and fruit.
Me - Soup, sandwich/wrap (I'm rubbish at thinking of lunches for anyone!)

Dinners
Every week will invariably include
- Fish once (baked, served with new pots/wedges and salad/roasted veg) NOT a cheap dish
- a roast, usually chicken (again not cheap as I buy FR)
- leftovers from the roast eg chicken in sauce or chicken soup and dumplings
- a mince dish (eg chili/bolognese/lasagne)
- A 'junk food' dish like fish fingers/faggots/chicken nuggets
- A veggie dish like HM pizza or quiche, with chips and beans.
- A curry or something new...

I'm sure that hasn't helped at all, as my budget is so much higher, but I will now say where I would cut back if I had to drop the budget to a lower level (which I am always prepared for).

Breakfasts - no branded cereal, offer only weetabix, cornflakes or porridge.
Lunches - Less cheese for DH, less meat for DH (I would get a LOT of protests!), value crisps for DH (there would be a riot), bottle of squash rather than carton of juice for boys (if I could trust them to eat their fruit then I'd do that now, juice is at least one of your 5 a day).
Dinners - Drop the fish for a cheaper fish or (shudders) battered fish. More veggie dishes (I'd be divorced!), less FR chicken (as in eat it less often).

valk_scot

It does get easier with time as you stop looking at the overpriced parts of the supermarket and concentrate on what really matters. You get used to splitting your shop over two or three supermarkets, you can recognise a good buy the instant you see it and stock up and you know to only buy what you'll use, rather than just because it's cheap.

The family get more used to it too as they realise that there won't be treat food every day, that you don't buy things just because they whine and husbands get the hang of understanding that if they eat double or triple portions tonight it means beans on toast the next day. And everyone gets the hang of eating what's cooked and put in front of them because there's no other option on offer.

And everyone starts to appreciate it in the end when there's money left over at the end of the month for other things, like maybe a cinema trip for the family.

Cats never understand this sort of thing though. It's either Whiskas and One in our house or starve according to my cats. I've lost count of the times I've shoved £10 worth of posh cat food down the conveyor belt followed by £5 worth of human food whoopsies. All I can do here is to make sure I buy the cat food when it's on offer and practice strict portion control by using a scoop, lol.

natlie

Hi
We all eat differently during the day

OH is at home (sick) he usually only eats a sandwich during the day either bacon or sausage and egg sandwich with brown sauce

Girls Brekkie is a slice of bread or toast with nutella or shreddies/weetabix

My brekkie toast and dairylea

Lunchboxes girls: 3 fruit: pear, clementine, apple or banana, sausage roll or nuggets, cucumber and carrot sticks, biscuit, squash and crisps

me lunch sandwich and crisps and a tracker or cereal bar

Tea: veg and butterbean fajitas today
other nights Jacket spuds cheese and beans, oven chips with fish and peas, sausage and mash

we don't really snack if we do have anything it would be cereal, crumpets or toast

Nat
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