£50 left for food shopping till the end of the month help!!

loobylee

Hi everyone!

I have had a really expensive month and have got £50 left to spend on food for the next 2 weeks :eek:

I really don't know how I'm going to do it, I normally spend £100 per week at least

I know all you guys here at old style manage your shopping money very well and hope you give me some tips.

The trouble is my family is very picky!!! My other half won't eat sausages, eggs or anything really spicy - the most he manages is a korma! Also the tap water here is gross so we buy bottled

I do have store cupboard bits and pieces and some chicken breasts and pork chops in the freezer, but I need pack lunch stuff and about 10 other dinners!

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

[Deleted User]

try and eat breakfast even cereals and toast(wont cost much)so you need less lunch
do you have a local market?ours is super cheap for fruit veg and bread
we had chops tonight cooked slowly in the oven with mushrooms and onion(and gravy)with some mash,good easy filling and cheap(ish)

tallyhoh

I bet you have enough at home to last you at least a week. Try making a list of exactly what you have & try meal planning.

loobylee

Thanks guys have tried the meal planning and it never seems to work as this one wants this and the other wants that!!!

The kids and OH have cereal for brekkie but I can't eat first thing as it makes me feel really sick!

I have a bag of boiling potatoes and a couple of packs of express rice but no normal rice or pasta

Trouble is we both work and by the time I'm in I just want to do something simple hence the express rice!!! I can not cook rice properly anyway it goes all clumpy when I try!

Valli

While you are waiting for experts to reply can you post a listy of what you've got in

eg tinned goods
dried goods (rice; pasta; pulses)
what's in your freezer
what's in your fridge

how many of you there are
what meals this has to cover
what equipment you have - slow cooker; microwave

rice is simple to cook - needs stirring though;)

you're going to have to be firm - there isn't the money to faff about so they eat what's put in front of them or they go without - they soon learn

with a slow cooker you can do soups/stews/casseroles for instance and they are ready when you get in

One of my cheap meals is jacket spuds - can be filled with cheese/beans - hot/filling - simple!

I batch cook stuff like bolognaise sauce & chilli and freeze - thaw it out overnight in the fridge and it's quick. Tomorrow they're having cottage pie (HM but frozen) which is thawing now as I know I'll be late in and they will pop it in the oven.

When my oven timer worked I used to stick a casserole in the oven with jacket spuds and set the timer to come on while we were out.

I also do homemade rice puddings - dead cheap and filling especially appreciated, by the Valliteens, with a dollop of (HM) jam

loobylee

I don't have time to got to the market, I don't even have time to go to the supermarket so normally do a Tesco shop online!

Skint_Lynne

Have a look at this old thread, it might help. x

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2116179

loobylee

Ok
In the fridge:
bag of boiling potaotes
4 2 litre bottles of milk - cravendale cos it last longer and tastes better
800g cheddar cheese
1 ball mozzarella
1 cuecumber
3 pots philidelphia
small pack chicken slices
chocolate mousse

In the freezer:
2 packs pork chops
4 chicken breasts
1 pack mince
i pack potato waffles
1 pack puff pastry
Big box of fish fingers
peas
sweetcorn
broad beans

In the Cupboard:
Tinned tomatoes
Gravy
dolmio sauce
1 pack express rice
pack of pearl barley
lentils
olive oil
garlic

I have a slow cooker, microwave & bread maker but I only use the microwave, feeling very ashamed writing that down!

Spendless

loobylee wrote: »

The kids and OH have cereal for brekkie but I can't eat first thing as it makes me feel really sick!

Could you take your breakfast to work with you and have it there?

You could potentially use some of the meat you have in the freezer for filling sandwiches.

loobylee

I'm a nurse so I eat whenever I get 5 mins, usually hiding in a cupboard some where!

valk_scot

Well, you'll need milk, bread, eggs, fruit and veg for two weeks, plus some padding out ingredients like pasta and rice, plus cereal and lunchbox items. But otherwise you've got a fair start on two weweks of groceries if you get creative. £50 should be plenty to feed your family with that amount of food in the house BUT not enough to be messing around making different meals to feed the fussy. You don't want to be doing that at any time tbh...coming in from work and making two or three different meals? If you feed them all the same you'll save a lot of time in the evening and probably find yourself more able to cope with cooking a wider variety of recipes.


Long term btw it might be more economical to buy a water filter that you could keep in the fridge.