Food budget reducing tips

alamaya

Hi,

As always there is that much info out there i get a bit overloaded.
My food budget is £200 at the min for 2 adults, 7 month old and dog.
I want to reduce this further if i can as im on maternity at the moment and just gone down to £500 per month salary ouch!

Heres my issues
Dog - On special vet medication food £30 for a months bag ouch
Baby - Goes through 3-4 tubs of milk @ £7.55 each. Two Heinz jars a day (10 for £5) and nappies. (I have been trying homemade slowly but apparently heinz is gentler on her reflux. Ie last night gave her homemade to have it all projectiled back on me ). Nappies i get 2 packs of Asda own brand for £10 total a month.
Cleaning stuff i generally dont buy i make do hence why my house is disgusting.

Final issue. I desperately need to loose weight so need healthy food. How the hell do you do this on a budget.


Any advice would really be appreciated as im sooooo lost.

xx

andrinaperry

menu planning helps sp mucha nd there are some excellent threads onthe subject

tracey12_2

A good thread to start on is the December grocery challenge which has loads of recipes and advice on the first couple of pages plus we are a friendly bunch who are all trying to keep the cost of groceries down.

When I first started I spent loads on groceries and have cut down considerably. Although my budget is still quite high in comparison with some on the board I am slowly learning how to stop spending unnecesarily and use up leftovers.

HTH

Tracey

jackyann

Tell your vet the situation, and google as well - there may be a cheaper alternative.
Encourage baby to eat finger food from your meals. If she wants goop then mix home-made with baby rice. Talk to your HV about the reflux.
Buy as much as you can from markets and eat food in season.
Weight loss: pulses and vegetable soups
My top tip: slow cook a cheap joint of meat as a pot roast (get lots of flavour from veg, herbs & home-made stock) then use left-overs in risottos, stir-fries, sandwiches, soups.
Good luck

rinabean

What kind of things do you eat? If you give a list of the typical meals you eat we could offer healthier and cheaper alternatives. One that will work in pretty much any meal is to replace meat with pulses. Don't worry, eating cheaply doesn't mean instant noodles all day, and eating healthily doesn't need to cost a fortune

Fruball

If you have an Ald! near you, use their Super6 special offers to meal plan.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h out every meal... ie if you have sausages one night, save a couple and thinly slice them into pasta with HM tomato sauce the next day... A chicken can last ages if its carefully planned...

MrT do 4 meats for £12 or 3 for £10 and they should easily last a family a week.

Have a soup and bread night once a week - do a HM pudding if people feel cheated

Have an "on toast" night - fried eggs on toast/beans on toast/spaghetti hoops on toast etc

HM pizza is absurdly cheap to make!

Look at what you throw away from the fridge each week... Most of us are guilty of that and in some cases BIG savings can be made by using stuff up... for example - my dinner tonight was soup made from onions I forgot I had, a head of brocolli that really needed using and a couple of potatoes, handful rice, stock cube and water. We had the part baked bread from Mr T. I could have fed 4 people with that, easily.

HTH

rising_from_the_ashes

What food is the dog on?

You can get most "prescription" foods online (often without a prescription) for a fraction of the price at the vets.

SpikyHedgehog

Cleaning - there are lots of homemade cleaning things you can make that save money. I actually enjoy using them because I've made them so it does encourage me to do some cleaning. (Though my house is a tip at the moment )

lilac_lady

Try boiled rice and any fish or chicken leftovers for your dog's meals. Even a couple of times a week would help financially.

Aldi, Lidl, Farmfoods for special offers - try them all instead of your usual supermarket shop.

[Deleted User]

Try here for very cheap recipes: http://www.growingcommunities.org/recipes. Some very simple meals, but usually very tasty, and healthy.

triticale

alamaya wrote: »

Hi,

As always there is that much info out there i get a bit overloaded.
My food budget is £200 at the min for 2 adults, 7 month old and dog.
I want to reduce this further if i can as im on maternity at the moment and just gone down to £500 per month salary ouch!

Heres my issues
Dog - On special vet medication food £30 for a months bag ouch
Baby - Goes through 3-4 tubs of milk @ £7.55 each. Two Heinz jars a day (10 for £5) and nappies. (I have been trying homemade slowly but apparently heinz is gentler on her reflux. Ie last night gave her homemade to have it all projectiled back on me ). Nappies i get 2 packs of Asda own brand for £10 total a month.
Cleaning stuff i generally dont buy i make do hence why my house is disgusting.

Final issue. I desperately need to loose weight so need healthy food. How the hell do you do this on a budget.


Any advice would really be appreciated as im sooooo lost.

xx

Hi alamaya, have you tried many different HM foods for baby?

Reason I ask is I remember having a bit of trial and error with my eldest, - particularly 'the avocado incident' when she eagerly scoffed a whole one (pureed) and 30 seconds later promptly threw it all back down my front (the feel of a bra filled with warm, green babypuke is something you cannot imagine _pale_) - anyway, I eventually found things that agreed with her better. Maybe try having the jars alternately with something HM - it would at least save you a bit.

Don't fret too much over cleaning. You have more than enough keeping you busy at the moment, so don't beat yourself up over housework getting overlooked.

As far as actual cleaning products go, you can get a big bottle of Stardrops from Home Bargains/Poundshops etc, I dilute it in an old spray bottle and use it for most things, kitchen/bathroom etc. Fancy cleaning products are one of the biggest rip-off markets.

I spend very little time 'cleaning' but I always make sure I've at least got clean kitchen worktops/hob and a clean loo, anything else is a bonus. Some clean-fanatics might view that as minging, but I rarely get ill and besides, nobody lies on their death bed wishing they'd spent more time hoovering! :rotfl:

Re: eating healthily/losing weight, one word - soup! It's proven that the same food components (veg, meat etc) eaten as a soup makes you feel fuller than if the same was eaten 'dry' with a drink of water. Lots of recipes and ideas on the grocery challenge and other threads. Remember that losing weight after a baby can be more difficult, so try not to get disheartened if it doesn't happen quickly (still waiting for my 'overhang' to firm up...only been 7 years though )

Good luck :beer: