Money saving on food shop

hulahoop09

Hiya

I am just after some hints and tips really. In our household is me and hubby and an almost 8 month old baby girl. I usually budget £200 a month on food and would like to try and cut this down for the next year at least. My baby has milk intolerance and also isnt allowed egg so she does have some baby jar food but as she is getting older I do try to give her meals that we have which can be hard.

We dont drive an so I tend to shop online with Asda and sometimes pop in to get a few things but fall into the trap of spending more than I plan!! I go back to work soon and want to try and do a bit of batch cooking but that hasnt happened yet :rotfl:

I am after any hints and tips on cutting down our budget if possible, is it possible? We have breakfast and hubby takes chicken salad for lunch (I will probably have cereal for lunch when I go back to work) and then dinner usually consits of chicken curry, chilli, spaghetti & meatballs etc.

Thanks!!

Elisheba

If you do your Asda online shop through My Supermarket, you can make sure you are getting the best value for money on what you buy. You can sort products bu 'lowest cost per unit' or 'lowest cost per product' which is very helpful.

hulahoop09

Thanks. I use that site to do my shop

mummybearx

:wave: Hey huluhoop09!

I can't help with the budget side of it, even following all my own money saving tips, I still can't keep to a food budget each month :rotfl:

My biggest tips would be Eat soup, Use coupons, and Shop for reductions

I tend to make hearty soups, a few bits of chopped chorizo gently fried with onions/leek/chopped carrots/celery, add a tin or two of chopped tomatoes, some boiling water and a stock cube, let it simmer down for an hour till it's all tender, serve with some thick sliced bread. Sometimes I throw in a tin of butterbeans or chickpeas. Turns out like more of a tomato stew, it's lovely. Other variation is to do a lot less stock, but add a big (BIG) glug of olive oil, makes it taste and smell amazing

Yellow sticker shopping is another favourite of mine, I try and get loads of veg and make into a big pot of soup. Meat I buy as often as I can (when freezer space allows!) and portion it up before freezing. That way I don't need to defrost a whole pack of chops for example, when DH only needs one. But this totally depends on your supermarket, wether you can get there late at night or not, and wether the bargains are any good!

I think the key to it all is planning. Need to put the work in to get the results. I know people on here that batch cook once a month, making up kilo's and kilo's of mince with onion etc, ready to be made into bolognese/lasagne/shepards pie etc. That's too much for me, I can plan maybe 4 or 5 days max at a time. And I don't have the freezer space to do it :rotfl:

hulahoop09

Thanks hun!!! It is a pain as we dont drive and so it is a nightmare to get the supermarket late at night etc & specially asI go back to work next week after 9 months maternity!! Arrrgggghhh. I love veggies etc but hubby is a fussy git and doesnt like onions, peppers, peas etc in things. He mainly eats (when he eats veg) brocolli, carrots, greeen beans and that is about it. Lol. We are lucky that we have a small chest freezer so last month I tried doing a months freezer shop!

hulahoop09

I could do with writing a fortnightly meal plan and try stick to it. I do struggle though!! Lol. Specially as little girlie cant have dairy or eggs!!

meg72

I am finding it hard to think of anything that wasnt covered in your previous thread some great advice there.

quintwins

The best advice would be to stop buying jars and make and freeze your own dinners for lo, when my twins were little i used loads of jars so i'm not sitting up here on my high horse however homemade is better and alot cheaper, your lo is still little so i'm not sure if you've introduced meat yet howevere sweet potatoe and carrots and parsnips always go down well, or stew, mince and taties, and basicially any lo dinner can be frozen for dinners. Another issue with jars is kids get used to the texture then refuse proper food.Really at here age dairy and eggs shouldn't be an issue just don't add butter or milk to your mash, be careful of salt in gravys aswell.

Do you get free milk for her? i'm pretty sure if you need special forumula for her it will be free.


My biggest tip would be value brands, value philly tastes the exact same, grapes are grapes, apples are apple,bananas are bananas, and a carrots a carrot no matter what it looks like.

hulahoop09

Thanks!! Yeah I do make my own food for her I buy some jars as an emergency supply or if we are having something I am unsure if she can have. Yeah we get free milk for her (would otherwise cost £30 for a 400g tin). She cant have eggs or any cows milk products so we have to use soya milk on her cereals. At one point when we started weaning she wouldnt take homemade purees so I had to give her jars. Lol. And even now she isnt keen on lumpy food but is okay with finger food but also the 7 month old jars have caused her issues so we cant give her those. I have got to speak to the dietician again regards to possible gluten sensitivity even though I was told she cant be intolerant to it as she eats weetabix. So confusing.

I buy some value brand, veggies, tinned toms etc.

meg72

I really wouldnt be giving her any jars now, keep offering HM untill she accepts it. her tastes will change.

hulahoop09

I mainly give her hm as she is okay with most of this now (not tuna lol) but there are times when I have to give her jars.