hello!, feeding a family of four.

Kim.hill2010

i need some help! money is being cut back ALOT.

atm were spending about 100 on food a week for 2adults&2primary children.

We buy alot of crap imo, and eat out alot.

i NEED to get our budget to about 40 a week, even less if possible!

we eat alot of chicken, not keen on much other meat, but like gammon,sausages,burgers,mince.

i need meal plans for a week, and a whole shopping list, with packed lunch too! is this impossible?

im thinking about getting big bags of potatoes ect are they cheaper from a farm or supermarket? help pleasee! :beer:

quintwins

Do you really spend £100 or so you acually spend more when you take into account your meals out?

Does your local butchers have any good deals?mine usually do a weeks worth of meat for £20, or theres abit of rivalry here and i can get 3 med chickens for £7.

I get those big sacks from the farm shop there abit hit and miss this year due to the bad weather, supply is low, product isn't great and the prices have gone up.

If you live near a supermarket you could go late in search of reduced items, also keep an eye on lidl and adli for offers of fruit and veg.

Kim.hill2010

quintwins wrote: »

Do you really spend £100 or so you acually spend more when you take into account your meals out?

Does your local butchers have any good deals?mine usually do a weeks worth of meat for £20, or theres abit of rivalry here and i can get 3 med chickens for £7.

I get those big sacks from the farm shop there abit hit and miss this year due to the bad weather, supply is low, product isn't great and the prices have gone up.

If you live near a supermarket you could go late in search of reduced items, also keep an eye on lidl and adli for offers of fruit and veg.

i think it could be more then 100, normally around there. We eat out alot too,which we are now stopping.

x

louby40

Kim
we are in the same boat as you. Family of 4 (with 2 step kids most weekends) and spend £100-£120 a week.

My OH lost his job last week so our income has halved. We sat down and looked at where we could cut our outgoings - food being one!

We made a weekly meal plan, a list and set off to Lidl. We spent £61 and bought what we needed for the week. Obviously we have stuff in our freezer and we didnt buy any cleaning stuff.

This is our meal plan for this week:
Breakfasts are cereal, toast, porridge
Lunches are sanwhiches, wraps, yogurt, fruit
Mon - burgers, chips, beans (freezer)
Tues - cornbeef hash + veg
Wed - 2 ready curries (freezer) kids with their dad
Thurs - sausage casserole + mash + veg
Fri - chicken + salad + poataoes
Sat - lasgane (homemade) + salad
Sun lunch - meat pie (homemande) + veg

I was amazed at the difference with some of the prices at Lidl compared with Tesco.

I'm planning on making some biscuits/cakes at the weekend instead of buying shop bought ones.

Am sure you can do it!

Louise

littlejaffa

look at making some of your usual dishes veggie for money saving - ie veggie mince is cheaper than animal mince and in chilli/lasagne many can't tell the difference (it's lower in fat/calories as well).

Also bulk out 'meat' dishes with cheaper veggies - ie a chicken curry add onions, a meat pie add carrot etc...it'll save you spending so much on meat.

Soup is a great filler and easily made from leftovers

If something 'fresh' is on special - like root veg are just now, i tend to buy them and cook (or prepare) then freeze - so they will keep for weeks/months when the prices have gone up, it makes meal times quicker as well

If you buy things pre made - like the little microwaveable rice packs or flavoured couscous, soft noodles etc - look at buying the raw dry product it's much cheaper and doesn't take much more effort

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

Have you thought long term? Get a notebook and make a note of things you use all the time like rice, pasta etc and work out the cheapest price per item/kg. When the item is on sale at the lowest price, buy loads of it to stock up bearing in mind the use by dates. When you get into the swing of this you will find that all the food in your store cupboard/freezer is at the best price possible and over the year will save you a fortune.

For example, I wait until L!dl do the branstonbaked beans (4 cans for £1) and I buy about 10 packs (40 cans) I have an old wardrobe in my garage which i bought from a jumble sale for £3 and I use it to store cans. I never pay full price for beans now as they usually come on special offer before I run out. Use this idea for everything.

Plan your meals in advance, eliminate cr*p from your diet such as pop and crisps and your wallet will feel healthier too!

I serve tap water at mealtimes and we are all used to it and now prefer it. Its better for you anyway and cheaper.

We have porridge made with water and a splash of milk for brekky and I chuck a few sultanas in mine.


Dont throw any food away, save dry bread and make bread pud or stuffing or toppings for casseroles. You can ahve a box in the freezer to put the dry bread in until you have enough. Just cut up the bread very small and put in an oven proof dish, beat an egg with milk and sugar and put over the bread, leave to soak overnight with a blob of butter and some currants,, bake and serve with custard, delish!

There are some things I just dont buy now such as butter and marg as they are expensive and fatty, I have lost 3 stone over the last 3 years too!

Good luck with your adventure, my advice would be to look at your storage capacity in your house and use it to store food, even under the bed can accomodate a few bargain tins of tomoatoes!
edit to say porridge in ald! is only 75p a kg and does loads of breakfasts for us.

chelms38

If it is you buying the crap then only you can change your spending habits.Once you cut out the crap you will feel much better and will have money you can put away for a rainy day.

eric_blair

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

Dont throw any food away, save dry bread and make bread pud or stuffing or toppings for casseroles. You can ahve a box in the freezer to put the dry bread in until you have enough. Just cut up the bread very small and put in an oven proof dish, beat an egg with milk and sugar and put over the bread, leave to soak overnight with a blob of butter and some currants,, bake and serve with custard, delish!

We save all bread crusts and use them to make bread crumbs. Add some cheap tuna flakes and herbs and you can make great filling fish cakes. We have them a couple of times a month as they cost next to nothing.

The key we have found is making use of EVERYTHING, even if its using up all the manky veg in a soup.

lilys-dad

I try and keep our shopping below £60 pw (£240 pm)

we do a "big shop" once a month this is where we get the loo rolls' cleaning products ect usually £100 or under (sometimes over if we need washing powder& softener)

this leaves us with £140 for the rest of the month or £46pw

I buy stuff from approved food
reduced items from supermarkets, we tend to go later on a thursday seems to be when the bread ect is being reduced.
last year I got a chest freezer (off free cycle) which we have
bread, reduced i refuse to pay over £1 for a loaf
milk, yes you can freeze milk i tend to keep at least 3 4 pint bottles
chicken (from wholesalers 10kg for £15),
sausages and mince from a local meat van.
big bags of rice and pasta from wholesalers

buy a slow cooker so you can cook hearty stews and casseroles with cheaper cuts and bulk out with potatoes, sweed and other root veg.

we have also used a bread maker when we have run out of reduced bread.

breakfast we will have porridge with water (i add protein shake mix to mine but thats another story) with some raisins or whatever fruit we have in the fruit bowl.

lunch is wraps (approved food or reduced), salad, or last nights leftovers

diner ill make a big spag bol with pasta/spaghetti the left over spag bol add some chili powder and spice and have chili and rice the next day

plan your meals for the week before going shopping.
write a list and stick to it
eat before going to the supermarket, seem to buy more when hungry.
price check items on mysupermarket.com. it will tell you if its cheaper at asda ect
we always get the veg from a local car boot/market always better value and in the summer time alot of it is home grown.
grow your own if you have the space

crisps and pop are just money wastes and bad for you and the kids.
we send our little one of to school with salad leaves, carrot sticks, sliced pepper, cucumber, some cheese bits, a wrap and and juice box
oh and a cheap youghurt.

i also aim to get all my shopping for less than £1 per item for eg if i spend £40 i want at least 40 items on my shopping receipt. the best so far was 74 items for £39. coupons, club card vouchers, till splits, bogof,, bog2f, reduced items ect ect

hope this helps

dandelionclock30

I tell you what I do that are cheapish and will feed a family. Vegetable bakes.
Get a wide variety of root veg and roast it off in the oven in a drop of olive oil.Take out of the oven and pat dry with a bit of kitchen roll and make a simple cheese sauce and place this over the veg and mix well. Boil and mash some potatoes and spread over the top.Bake in the oven for 20 minutes on medium heat.Delicious served with chutney or lime pickle.
Another cheap recipe is a veg curry made with what ever veg you can find, either make your own curry sauce or buy one from the supermarket and add chopped tomatoes and water. Simmer on a low heat until done.
Also instead of rice- which can be really boring have this dish with potoato cakes. Boil the potoatoes,mash and add plain flour until mixture is stiff, obviously stirring etc. Form into round like fish cake size and either very lighly fry or do on a griddle.
Go shopping for Basics at morrisons or Asda and your local Market for fruit veg.Also look in Home Bargains for household stuff and some groceries. Stay clear of Sainsbuys which is a rip off and also try to make your own stuff like Pizzas and Shepherds pies etc.
Also dont be buying fizzy pop which is really expensive. Buy dilute only as its much cheaper.
Tesco- which Im not struck on actually has some quite good offers on but you have to pick and choose.There everyday value range is good especially the veg and the orange juice.

missmucksmum

If you have a look in the old style money saving threads you will get hundreds of ideas to cut food shopping bills and loads of cost cutting recipes xhttp://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4084527