Help with Budget & Problem Eater

blackbetty_3

Hello

My biggest outgoing (after my house) is food. We are a house now of three adults and I am spending £300 - £350 a month on food. It used to be a lot less but my DD became ill and after that became borderline anorexic. She has had treatment and is doing well but is really strict about what she will eat. As long as I cook/buy what she will eat she eats lots and she is putting on weight and was cleared as healthy. Which is a relief. But its is costing me so much! What can I do? She will only eat what she considers 'good' food, so brown seeded bread, wholemeal pasta, brown/black rice, any vegetables, fish, etc but prefers organic, or at least free range. She eats a lot fo fruit, whihc is good but so expensive. I hate so much to complain as I want her to be well but I am struggling to keep up financially. Any good ideas anyone?

Skint_Catt

Have you tried shopping at Aldi - at least for the Super Six fruit/veg every week?
http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/product_range/4862.htm
They change weekly & is always good quality.
Not sure if it would be cheaper to make your own brown bread too - maybe your daughter would like to do it as then she could see exactly what goes in? The Oldstyle Board are good for working out whether it'd be cheaper/where to source ingredients from.
Frozen fish is often a lot cheaper than fresh. Look out on mysupermerket.com for tuna offers too.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly who can help more than I! Good luck & I'm glad your daughter is well again.

C xx

hilstep2000

Have you looked at the Old Style Board? There are loads of tips on saving money on food over there!

milliemonster

have you thought about making your own bread? seeded bread is so expensive to buy and you can make it cheaper and at least she will know exactly what you have put in it.

For fruit, you can get huge bags of frozen berries from most supermarkets much cheaper than fresh so will go further, I often have these mixed with very low fat natural yogurt which is delicious but won't pay the prices of fresh berries as it's ridiculous.

Lidl sell wholemeal pasta cheaply, I bought a few bags of wholewheat organic farfalle for 50p last weekend (they are 500g bags)

ragz_2

Sounds like your daughter's got the right idea. You can all eat like that and still save money as long as you aren't buying junk foods and wasting food. Check out the grocery challenge, also there are loads of threads on here with similar things. Eating less meat so you can buy better quality will be better for your health too. Lidl/Aldi free range whole chickens are only about £5.

babyshoes

Also try to eat seasonally and grow your own if you can - things like salad leaves, radishes and herbs are easy, even if you only have a little space. Courgettes are also super easy to grow, as well as other members of the squash family. If you have more space and time you can also grow expensive crops like berries, as well as producing tomatoes that actually taste of something!

*miaomiao*

Can you get a veg box delivered from a local farm or scheme? There are a lot of them across the country. We find our bills are a lot lower. I think your daughter's diet sounds very normal except not enough of us eat like this any more.

Stephen_Leak

I find myself on the same wavelength as Ragz and miaomiao here. Why not try to buy the stuff DD now eats for all the family?

For example, there are usually always special offers on fruit. It's good PR for the supermarkets to do so, and good business as well. For example, ASDA currently has a "2 for £2" deal on bags of small apples, pears and clementines, which are usually £1.30 each. And, being small fruits, you get more per bag (8 apples, 9 pears, sometimes even 1 more if you rummage through and get lucky!). I went a bit mad on my last shopping trip, and the so-called "salad" drawer of my fridge is full of them.

JulieGeorgiana

This is pretty much how I eat due to health issues... fruit, veg, meat from the farm shop, granary bread, Wholewheat Basmati Rice (all low gi and very healthy).... We have a budget of £50 a week for 2 adults, 1 child, 2 cats and 2 rabbits and manage just fine. I agree with everyone else... try and get the whole family to switch and join the grocery challenge.

Try this Thread as on post #13 I put a load of cheap meal ideas which work well with the low Gi way of eating.

Also, the one thing I do is make my own bread (in a BM) to lower costs... This Thread has price costings for Granary bread.

Good Luck x

blackbetty_3

thankyou everyone thats a lot of good ideas. I think we have been concentrating so much on DD and her food that we forget what we eat. We have all agreed that we dont really eat meat much so were going to not eat it at all except maybe chicken as DD likes chicken. I have been to Aldi and I am going to try their stuff out and Lidle too maybe give them a go. We have a shared garden so cant really grow things but I might try and grow herbs on the window sill space.

Thank you again