fruit and veg ( and hi :o )

georgeyoggy

Hello all
First posting on this board I have been reading the board for a while now and would really like to get a grip on my food budget. I am starting to cook from scratch but would like to do more!!

We are a family of 6. Kids are 10, 9, 3 and 18mths, the 3yr old being very fussy. I'm veggie but hubby LOVES his meat!! I would love to make us all the same dinner but adding meat at the end so mine can be meat free.

Have tried the menu planner thing before but am having trouble making it varied enough so hubby doesn't dread tuesdays or what other day hes not to keen on having said meal on!

Also I'm stuck on lunches. For hubby I make an extra portion of dinner and he takes it to lunch the next day, only because I never know how long it will keep for!

Alot of money goes on fruit and veg. Hubby and eldest 2 take atleast 2 pieces each and 3yr old takes 2 to preschool each day. I often find I'm missing out as I'm always saving it for them as it costs me a fortune!

I do my shopping at tescos, sometimes tesco online and the niggly bits from sainsburys. I seem to visit sainsburys every day filling up on bits and bobs and its costing us a fortune! I'm not really an impulse buyer as I never have to time to lesiurly walk the aisles, I'm back and forth all day doing school runs 3 times a day which doesn't leave me much time for cooking either!

I would like to set myself a budget of £70 a week for all food, toiletries and cleaning products, hopefully to save a little each week out of it for saving for days out with the kids.

Please help!!!

Thanks for reading
Georgeyoggy

P.S. Any ideas for neverending toilet roll? We use tonnes ! ( should say they all do..I'm very carefull to use as little as possible )

lightisfading

How about things like wraps (think mexican fajitas) .. easy to make a veggie and non veggie option that way.

Jacket potatos + appropriate filling?

Do quorn mince in lasagne, chilli etc, bet they don't notice the difference

Not sure what else, i'm lucky enough that my partner is veggie too.


Veggie/shopping wise, AFAIK sainsbury's is expensive, is there nowhere else you can shop? Asda for example were doing a bag of apples and bag of satsumas for £1.50 last weekend. Lidl + Netto are also pretty/very cheap although the veg doesn't keep as long, and finally the old fashioned market is always good and usually a bit cheaper.

I also try and cut down my fruit n veg budget by substituting some fruit for canned - ie a large can of pineapple (in juice or rinsed well!) will do me for 3-4 portions, taken to work either in plastic tub or ziplock baggie.

shoe1206

Hi

welcome to the board, I'm fairly new here too (but have lurked for a while longer). You're family sounds similar to mine (although bigger - we're 4). Dh is veggie but i like to eat meat occasionally (but it is expensive so not all the time). DD (age 5) is fussy.

I find meals with mince are not only cheap, but can be subsituted with lentils / quorn and a veggie option made. It also freezes well. ie spag bol/ pasta bake, lasagne, cottage pie or meat / lentil hash.

Another option is pasta / rice dishes - you can add extra cheese / pulses to the veggie option at the end and serve with a piece of meat (ie chop or chicken portion etc.) for the non veggie

The other easy meal i can think of at the moment is sausage and mash - do meat and veggie sausages. good for kids too (and cheap).

If i think of any others i'll let you know.

For lunches we do the same as you - take an extra portion from the night before (ususally pasta or rice) or sandwiches.

Why not ask your husband what meals he wants and then put them on the meal planner - then he's not dreading any day. If he's involved too he can hardly complain.

I can't really help with the fruit problem, we're the same. I do buy tesco value wherever possible or go to the local greengrocer whatever's cheaper.
I try to buy fruit that's as small as possible - that way everyone still gets a piece but it works out cheaper.

If you're always doing a top up shop your weekly shop needs to be bigger. I've done much better this month at food shopping simply by being more realistic - we get through a lot of cereal, but i always buy small boxes. This time i bought the bigger boxes (cheaper in the long run - and we didn't run out - saving me another trip to the shops and less temptation to buy other stuff).

£70 a week sounds acheivable. I'm sure there'll be loads of good advice from here. I'd say writing a (realistic) list and sticking to it would be a good start.

Good luck

P.S. Any ideas for neverending toilet roll? We use tonnes ! ( should say they all do..I'm very carefull to use as little as possible )

'Squash' your roll so doesn't flow so easily. Kids are more likely to just use a couple of pieces. It works honest

georgeyoggy

hi again
Thankyou both for your replies I will try the tinned fruit option, never thought of putting some in zip baggies and the eldest two will love that! Hubby also liked the idea of fajitas so will be having them this week!

Going to the local market on wednesday as hubby has a day off so will leave him on kid duty and have a good look round.

I'm going to do my meal planner to start wednesday too as its payday and I'll draw out my budget so I'll leave my cards at home so thats all I'll have!

I will also buy bigger as you suggested, less shopping trips much less stress!
Am also considering cooking as many of the weeks meals as I realistically can on wednesday..will stop me taking the quick option as I'll just pull it out the freezer when needed. Bit worried over this though as I've never done it before!

I did squash the loo roll today....IT WORKED!!! Over half of it left for a change, it will be life changing in our house!! thankyou !!

georgeyoggy

lamplady

I have 4 children too and get through masses of fruit. My solution is to buy lots of what's cheapest and a few of the other things (so at the moment mainly apples and pears, a few tangerines, small bananas and anything reduced. I then hide the fruit, just putting a bit at a time out in the fruitbowl, so first person to look gets the banana and everyone else has to make do with apples . If I get something nice reduced I will share it out on meringue nests or in muffins.

We are a mixture of veggie and meat eaters and I just have 2 pans on the go with everything except the meat identical. I pad out meat meals with potatoes, mushrooms and root veg, and if I serve dumplings with it I usually get no complaints!

In our household, everyone gets to help choose a day's meals for the planner, unless they didn't eat well the week before. I find it stops the whining.

redspot24

I'm amazed at how everyone on here manages to organise families and save money - I struggle with just me and dbf!
Just a quickie about fruit - raisins / bags of mixed dried fruit are quite cheap and can go a long way (certainly cheaper than those little 'Sun Maid' boxes!). I take some out with me everyday in a small plastic bottle; saves money on using lots of plastic food bags. That might help!

hardpressed

When you're shopping go for the cheapest option, value or basic range, most things taste the same, if your family is fussy decant things into brand name packets or bottles, it's likely they won't know the difference. Dried soya mince is much cheaper than quorn mince. Cleaning products can be kept to a minimum, most things can be cleaned with vinegar and bicarb, you'll find plenty of advice about that on here. Try cheapo washing powder mixed with washing soda and use less than the recommended ammount. Reading through this site will give you lots of ideas.

Penelope_Penguin

Hi, try taking a look at this week's menu plans for inspiration.

Also, we're updating the indexes and this is the link to [shameless plug] The Complete Menu Plan Collection [/shameless plug] There are loads of menu plans here. There's several threads for lunches.

We've started having at least 2 meat-free days a week. I'm including things like lentils and pulses, and even DS, who's the most picky of us, loves them. You can also add mashed lentils to a meat dish (such as bolognaise) to stretch the meat a bit further.

Do you have a market near you? I'm amazed at how much cheaper it is for fruit and veg - about half the price.

As for the loo roll, if you squash it a little, so that the centre is oval rather than circular, it doesn't rotate so easily, the theory is that you use less. Have a try and let us know if it works.

HTH, Penny. x

Spendless

georgeyoggy wrote:

We are a family of 6. Kids are 10, 9, 3 and 18mths, the 3yr old being very fussy. I'm veggie but hubby LOVES his meat!! I would love to make us all the same dinner but adding meat at the end so mine can be meat free.

Does your childrens school/pre-school not get the free fruit? It's been introduced here for all Primary age children and is also in many pre-schools and nurseries. Worth looking into if they get a piece at school provided, it might be one less you have to send them with.

lil_me

But surely if the fruit is part of what sounds like a great healthy lunch, it'll have to be replaced with something else as the free fruit is given at break time usually. Personally I spend a lot on fruit and veg, I do buy it cheaper where possible LIDLs are good and I have a lady delivers at a good price and very fresh weekly. Tescos are also doing offers on fruit and veg at the minute. Personally I would buy more wisely but make cutbacks elsewhere, wouldn't sacrifice fruit and veg intake to reduce budget. Plenty of ideas on here for cheap meals, reducing costs of cleaning products (and the amount used) etc

Loo roll stock up when cheap, and squashing roll works, especially with men! They use much less when it's squished. But I do find myself squishing friends loo rolls which can be embarrassing! Obsessive? maybe :rotfl:

Spendless

lil_me wrote:

But surely if the fruit is part of what sounds like a great healthy lunch, it'll have to be replaced with something else as the free fruit is given at break time usually.

oh I didn't realise that. I thought they were taking it as a snack at break-time which is why I was wondering if a piece was provided for free meaning they could take one less piece with them.