2 adults and a baby - cutting the shopping budget!

mmummy21

Hello ladies and gents. Hope someone can help. Our shopping bill is getting out of hand and we now spend more than we are bringing in! We don't have Sky or any other luxuries etc. we just waste money on food! We seem to do a shop of £120 every 10-14days as well as £20 here and there every few days. I think we are spending around £500 per month.

We go through 6 pints of milk and a loaf of bread every 3-4 days. Our baby (10 months) usually eats from jars or her own little meals that I make and freeze but we are now making a huge effort to eat healthily so she can eat our meals too. What's a reasonable shopping budget to start with? £80 per week and then slowly drop down? Most nights we could from scratch with something like chips + kievs from the freezer once a week. We need fresh fruit and veg as well and I find that even when I buy a big weekly shop I have to go back to stock up on fruit etc.

I have to be careful of the jars of sauces etc. I buy as I don't like the little one to have any artificial flavours, sugars, presevatives, colours etc. If I don't recognise something on the ingredients I don't buy it. Although I don't mind frozen or tinned stuff that has nothing added to it but I find it really hard to find these! I find that often dolmio, schwartz brand names etc. don't have the added stuff I'm trying to avoid but when I look at the cheaper brands they have preservatives or additives so I can't buy them :-( I hate tins of spaghetti hoops/meatballs etc. and won't feed them to baby. Probably isn't the case with all the cheaper brands but with a whiny baby/toddler in my trolley and having to get home for meals/naps etc. I don't have time to look through all the labels!

I would love to make a big pot of soup for all our dinner one night and then lunch the next day.

To give a rough idea, these are the types of meals that we mainly eat now. Can anyone give me some suggestions and tips?

Breakfasts - cereal for myself and OH, weetibix/oatibix or cereal for baby and a banana or a handful of grapes. sometimes scrambled egg + toast at the weekend for a change

Lunches - OH has packed lunch of sandwiches (4 slices of bread with cheese and ham or similar as a filling), with a yoghurt, crisps and a few biscuits) Me and LO usually have something like pasta and a tomato based sauce and some cheese. Or tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches and then some apple slices, or kidney beans then cheese sandwiches, ran out of ideas

Dinner - spaghetti bolognese + garlic bread (made with a dolmio jar and we usually add half an onion and a red pepper as extra), sausage casserole (made with a schwartz packet, a red pepper, half an onion + served with potatoes), pasta bake or pasta and a sauce such as arribiata, chicken curry (rice, a pack of chicken and a jar of curry), chicken fajitas (made with a pack, red peppers, onion, chicken and cheese), a full roast dinner once a week/fortnight usually with a roasted gammon joint, home made roasted potatoes and mash, roasted peppers, onion and carrot, yorkshire puds), chilli con carne (kidney beans, tin of tomatoes, onion, red pepper, rice), lasagne, cottage pie etc.

Would really really appreciate anything you could say to help! Thanks :-)

Mrs_De_Bris

I'm quite new to this but we were in a similar situation. Most of our money was spent in Supermarket trips. I've now cut our shopping bills from 100 to 60 per week but I did it slowly.

Are there any items you could swap for the supermarket's own brand? For example, I can't tell any difference between Sainsbury's own brand weetabix to the real thing but they are much cheaper.

Could you try to cook some meals from scratch? I used to use Dolmio but it's so expensive. Now I just use tinned chopped tomatoes, herbs, garlic and seasoning. I've saved a fortune.

The other thing we did was to make a pact to stay out of Sainsbury's during the week, if we run out we try to make do with what we have or if it's something like milk/bread then we just go to the corner shop as then we're not tempted to add in other things. We would go to Sainsbury's for milk and spend £30.

Sorry I can't be much more help; I'm sure you will get lots of helpful advice here. Take baby steps and you'll get there. Best of luck!

pawsies

Maybe go to local shops rather than supermarket? These are -less- likely to have preservatives etc and you'll know the source. Depending on your local shops and whether it's good quality or not it might work out cheaper as most grocers base food on weight rather than a general price which a supermarket might charge? I would advise value brands especially for non-food items but for food you're right they are more likely to have preservatives etc but are the brands you do buy any more honest about it? It may say no flavourings or additives on the pack but that doesn't mean it has no preservatives? They may try and manipulate it to their advantage.
Therefore I'd go local supplier so you know for sure how it's grown/killed and this might help reassure you

ikkleosu

I'd say from looking at your list of foods you are paying a lot of money for essentially a handful of spices/herbs etc. For example, if you are making spag bol with Dolmio - you are already providing the mince, the onion and the pepper, so you're paying over £1 for basically tomatoes and some herbs. Same with the sausage casserole and the fajitas.
Dump the packets and buy the ingredients separately. Although you'll have to pay out more to begin with, to stock up a good range of herbs and spices - they will last AGES.


Also, I found 4 bits of bread for OH's sandwiches was killing us in the bread department. Have you considered swapping for cheaper breads just as pittas (6 value ones for 19p) and a couple of days a week giving him something with no bread at all? For example, when you do your sausage casserole, save 2 sausages back. Cut them up and add to half a pack of noodles, with some of the sauce and veg. My OH LOVED that cold, but if he has a microwave at work he can heat it up. Crackers and pate, cheese, olives etc was another alternative that I found very cheap.

Soup is a great idea, as even if it does 2 days lunches it will have saved you a packet and it's lovely in the winter months.

emmamed

frozen veg may be cheaper, look at the price per kg. make yr childs meals instead of buying baby food, just think of the crap in the baby meals with the staining they leave on clothes. value pasta sauce is good base for spagbol and such like, just add more to it (onions, herbs, mushrooms)
get yrself a slow cooker, cook up a nice stew, from cheaper cuts of meat as the slow cooker will make the meat really tender. then have some for lunch at work. my OH used to always take stews, chilli, etc to work with him as there was a microwave to reheat.
i find i dont spend so much when i do an online order, i just buy what i need and dont impulse buy.

browneyedbazzi

I really don't understand why people buy Dolmio or other prepared pasta sauces - I find I need to add spices or extras to make them edible so they're not really time-saving and it works out more expensive than making your own. With a little one you'll also have way more control over levels of salt and sugars etc if you make your own.

The one I do is really quick and simple - chop up and soften onion on low heat with a bit of olive oil, add passata and tinned tomatoes, a handfull of mixed herbs, assorted chopped veg (carrots, celery, peppers, mushrooms) and some garlic. I use a bit of salt if necessary (depending on what veg has gone in sometimes it's fine with just celery salt and some pepper). You can make big batches and freeze meal sized portions until they're needed. I can probably make enough for 4 or 5 meals for the price of a couple of jars of Dolmio and I know exactly what's gone into mine! I'll use the same tomato base with mince for spag bol or lasagna or add chorizo in and do a pasta bake.

Batch cooking in general saves time and money! There are lots of ideas on the Old Style moneysaving board about batch cooking and meal planning that you may find helpful.

[Deleted User]

Yes I too would try to not use the jars or pack mixes I know its a bit quicker but I like to know what I'm eating .If you manage to get as sometimes happens a big bag of tomatos reduced I would get them and put in boiling water for a few minutes to be able to peel the skin off easily then chop and get the 'hard stalky bits out.Put in a pan with some softened onion and a few herbs and maybe a dollop of 'lazy garlic'(Best thing in a jar ever and goes a long way) and cook gently intil its reduced down a bit and when cool freeze in portions.I can probably get a good 4-5 equivilent jars from a large bag of bashed about tomatos which may cost about a quid.This time of the year especially as the salad season is waning a bit.Sometimes you may see in the shops 'frying tomatos ' they will do just as well Oh I also when cooking down the toms add a spoon of sugar so they are not too acidic.This is great for using as a base for pasta etc and you know all the ingrediants that are going in it No nasty additives for your baby or you either

JulieGeorgiana

I find Sainsbury Basic jars don't have addatives and you're paying a fraction of the price. Dolmio tastes horrid and is basically a tin of tomatoes blended with some herbs! I suggest you make your own meals, make big vats and freeze portions for lunches and easy dinners.

Buy frozen veg as it has the most vitamins, and don't give your baby jars. Scrap the boxes and start cooking more from scratch. I spend £50 a week on 2 adults and 1 child (9), when the baby comes I have £20 a month for nappies and £20 a month extra for my food budget. Using the OldStyle board you can get so many great hints and tips on how to cook cheap easy meals which will stretch. I can feed a family of 3 with a large (butchers) chicken for a week, We have stews, casseroles, curries, pizza etc etc!

I also make my own bread and pizza dough, it saves us a fortune.

Start with a £80 a week budget and try and gradually bring it down... Join the old Style grocery challange to try and stick to budget, it also has an index of recipes.

I don't buy any jars or packets (okay maybe taco's once every few months). Tinned food has too much salt and sugar for babies and young children, so you are right to keep away from them. My DS used to have LO pasta fried with an egg with frozen veg thrown in... he loved it! Still does...!

HTH

Good Luck x

quintwins

your worries about preseratoves however there usually in baby jars and pasta sauces and even tina, after all how else could they keep for years

i would say cook as much yourself and ditch jars and packets (saying that i buy sausage casarole mix homemade one is never as nice ) your lo can eat anything you eat and my youngest has only had 2 jars in his whole life because i found it so much cheaper to make my own and i knew wat was in them, simple things like sheperds pie and stew can be frozen and heated from frozen for her if you decide to have a lazy night or takeaway, if i'm hving a lazy night i do a very simple pasta, which is just pasta and handful of frozen peas and sweetcorn and some tom puree all my kids loved this even from 12 months

i spend £50 a week on 2 adults and 3 kids but i cook pretty much everythin from scratch

also if you have freezer space it's worth looking for reduced bread and freezing it, if it takes you 3 days to eat a loaf then split loaves into bags of 3 and lift one out each night, you can also do this with pancakes, muffins, scones ect, same gones for reduced meat, reduced fruit is usually completely fine if abit softer which is fine for kids

i feel your pain we use alot of milk and bread it's power for the course with kids i usually ask family to grab me some if there coming 2 visit or i'll nip to the filling station it's alot cheaper than going 2 te$co and ending up with £10 off stuff

i also make my own pasta sauce (well i did i'm still working my way threw the 20p ones) it's relly simple and i'll throw in any reduced veg i can get and some frozen peppers it's much nicer than a jar and heathier

i buy grated cheese or slices because it's cheaper per weight, i buy big bags of value rasins and put them in wee pots for the kids these are fab for in the car or picnics and alot cheaper than buying the wee boxes, breadsticks, carrot sticks and slices of cheese are also very popular snacks in this house

mmummy21

Thank you for all the lovely tips! We eating out of the cupboards and freezer until the end of the month as we are ridiculously skint!

I'm setting a budget of £80 and going to do it online.

I'm going to make a list of priority foods that we should have in all the time - so milk, bread, butter, cheese, cereal, coffee, sugar, pasta, rice, potatoes etc. and then meal plan for the rest of the ingredients. Each week I will go through the priority list and check we have enough to last another week and only order it if we don't. Then I'll order whatever we need to stick to the meal plan.

I will start cooking from scratch as much as I can. Going to make up a big list of 20-30 cheap recipes and put them in order of easiness and quickness. The only thing is that my OH isn't back until about 7-8pm the little one is already in bed so she has her own dinner earlier. Although I have been saving her something from the night before's dinner. As I will be back to work soon both me and OH are out from 7.30am-6.30pm (OH usually later about 7-8pm) I can't imagine coming home, doing housework, sorting the little one, bathing and putting her to bed etc. (7.30pm) and then cooking something from scratch!! It would be 9pm before I've finished dinner etc. and then have to get organised for the next day. Although I will find a slow cooker so I can make casseroles etc. and they can cook while I'm at work. I could turn on the rice or potatoes to serve with them when I start putting the little one to bed and then everything is ready just to dish up!

I will have my online shop delivered every Friday to last a week and budget £70 including delivery for it. Then I will keep £10 by for a midweek top up of bread, milk and fresh fruit/veg plus anything I might have forgotten.

Good idea about the lunches for OH. I'm going to buy him a food flask as he has no microwave/cooking facilities as he works outdoors on sites all day. Then when I can make dinner I can make more than we need and we can take some to work the next day. Or I can make a big huge pot of soup, freeze it in bags and then heat one each for a day. Since it's Winter it'll be lovely to have something hot too.

kingkano

I can relate as we found the exact same problem! I found we were spending about £100 a week and occasional extras at the local shops, plus the milkman, it was out of control. Have finally got it down with tips read here and alot of effort. We now spend about 120 every 2 weeks at sainsbury plus maybe 20 the other week for some milk/veg. Make my own bread at home, cut out baby convenience foods. Although this does include our cat foods, nappies and cleaning/bathroom bits.

If your going to be going back to work then maybe make your recipes batch cookable ones. Do these at the weekends and freeze/fridge them which will cover say 3-4 nights of the week. This will reduce the stress alot as you only need to 'cook' 1 or 2 nights.

For the LO you can do exactly the same. I made up bolognese sauces, fish in white sauce, chicken with various sauces, etc. I would then freeze these in ice cubes which could then be bagged up. I could then easily give her a home cooked dinner every night from these! It was convenient because as her appetite grew I could just increase the number of cubes I gave her. The jars of food are sooooo expensive in comparison once you realise a batch of bolognese makes her 20 meals for example.

You say £500 a month? But only £120 per 14 days? It sounds like its the £20 here and there thats adding up. Weekly shopping MIGHT help but it might be just as well to do every 2 weeks and save delivery charges. Then find somewhere local (local shops or somewhere near work) to get your fruit/veg every other week?

Sounds like you have some plans going forward so good luck and keep us posted