Meal Planned... From Scratch... But still £60?!?!

hereigoagain22

Hi ladies and gents

Newbie here, please be gentle ;-)

I'm a DFW. There's myself, my OH, our DD aged 2 and DS almost 6 months. And of course our cat! I have entered the grocery challenge for January at £330. This has to include all nappies, cleaning, toiletries etc.

Now my meal plan starts on the 3rd of January when my first shop will be delivered. This meal plan is only for 5 days as I plan to start a new "week" every Tuesday which is when our Tax Credits get paid.

I don't have a lot of "stock" items as don't normally cook from scratch but I am desperate to start cooking healthy nutritious meals from scratch. I did expect the first few shops to be a little more expensive I have ZERO cooking skills and am starting with the simplest dishes I can think of. Myself and my OH don't eat very healthily so I have tried to base the meal plan around what I would usually buy and cook separately for the children (well DS doesn't really count as he just has a bit of whatever DD is having as long as it's healthy and homemade). In an effort to encourage healthy eating for myself and OH I have planned breakfast and lunch too to try and get a balance intake of fruit/veggies too. OH refuses fruit and veggies unless it's cooked into a dish so it's only really me and DD to buy for.

Anyway - my shop has come to £60!!! For 5 days?!?!? Where am I going wrong here? Normally it would be the same as this but barely planned and I'd also have jars of sauces, carton of smoothies etc. I've heard many people on here say they feed a family of 4 on less on home-cooked organic food - please please help me!!! Should I do a fortnightly meal plan instead and a fortnightly shopping delivery? Am I choosing expensive meals? I didn't think they were too bad! It's flexible and I can change it as I go along to use up anything about to go off etc.

There were barely any offers on the Tesco site this week but will re-do a few days before to take advantage of any offers and I couldn't find any vouchers (I'm not a new customer) but will check again before finalizing the order.

I also might have some items in the cupboards which I can take off the shopping list... my inlaws usually drop in 12 eggs every couple of weeks and I might already have chips etc. in the freezer.
I accidentally bought 5 packs of bananas last week (don't ask!!!) so I'm going to do my first MSE task and attempt to dehydrate them on lowest the oven will go before they go off meaning I can use them as a cereal topper or snacks. We eat lots of dried fruit usually but it's so expensive!! My oven is quite high-tech can be used really low so any fruit that usually goes to waste I'm going to attempt to dehydrate too. Sorry getting off-topic!

I should also mention that we all need to gain weight so I'm aiming to be quite high in calories without bulking up on junk.

I've had to cut some of the usual fresh fruit off my list and worry DD won't get enough now - I usually buy oranges, bananas, grapes, blueberries, strawberries and apples.

My meal plan is

Thurs B - Cereal + Banana, L - Cheese/ham sandwich, Apple, Yoghurt, D - Omelettes with hidden veggies, Chips & Carrots
Fri - HM Blueberry + Banana pancakes... HM pizza "toast"... HM Lentil Soup
Sat - Boiled egg + dippers...Toasties & leftover soup... HM spag bol & HM garlic bread
Sun - Banana & toast... Leftover spag bol... HM cottage pie
Mon - Cereal with banana chips, Jam or peanut butter sandwiches with a picnic of any leftover fruit... Pasta in HM tomato sauce with chicken
Snacks are usually rice cakes with the odd cookie or digestive, seconds are usually fruit and yoghurt or custard.

Juices are diluten juice or water and usually fresh orange juice with breakfast too (again for me and DD only).

My shopping list is here -

Thank you for shopping with Tesco
View all your order items
All my order items
Quantity Product Price Notes
1 Claude Cat Crunchies With Ocean Fish 1Kg £0.95
1 Tesco Ready To Eat Custard 4X150g £1.37
1 Tesco Everyday Value Chocolate Chip Cookie 250G £0.49
1 Tesco Everyday Value Milk Chocolate Digestives 300G £0.49
1 Tesco Thick Bleach 24 Hour Pink 750Ml £0.67
1 Daisy Powder Bio 2.4Kg £2.99
2 Tesco Everyday Value Baby Wipes Fragrance Free 72 £1.22
1 Tesco Skinless Chicken Breast Fillets 432G £4.00
1 Muller Light Raspberry Cranberry Yogurt 150G £0.65
1 Muller Corner Fruit Strawberry 150G £0.65
1 Muller Light Toffee Yogurt 175G £0.65
1 Muller Light Vanilla Yogurt 175G £0.65
1 Muller Rice Maple Syrup 190G £0.65
Your order items1 Muller Rice Maple Syrup 190G £0.65
1 Muller Rice Strawberry 190G £0.65
2 Tesco Everyday Value Fromage Frais 6X55g £0.90
1 Tesco Hazlenut Chocolate Spread 400G £1.48
1 Kallo Thick Organic Rice Cakes 130G £1.00
1 Pom Bear Cheese And Onion Snacks 6 Pack £1.39
1 Kp Discos Assorted Snacks 6 Pack £1.00
1 Sunsip No Added Sugar Orange Squash Double Strength 1.5Ltr £0.99
1 Tesco No Added Sugar Apple/Strawberry Ds Squash 750Ml £0.99
1 Tesco Everyday Value Orange Juice 1 Litre £0.74
1 Tesco Everyday Value Beef Mince 750G £2.34
1 Kallo Organic Beef Stock Cubes 72G £1.09
1 Kallo Organic Chicken Stock Cubes 66G £1.09
1 Tesco Dried Oregano 14G £0.75
1 Tesco Celery Each £0.89
1 Tesco Red Split Lentils 500G £1.09
1 Wheatfield Baker Part Bake Baguette Roll4pk £0.50
1 Tesco Sieved Tomatoes Passata 500G £0.55
1 Yeo Valley Natural Yogurt 150G £0.50
1 Tesco Whole Milk 3.408L/6 Pints £1.89
1 Tesco Everyday Value Peppers £1.10
1 Tesco Sweet Potatoes Loose £0.35
1 Tesco Red Onions Loose £0.19
3 Tesco Carrots Loose £0.27
3 Tesco Brown Onions Loose £0.57
1 Tesco Goodness Easy Peeler Citrus Pack 600G £1.50
2 Tesco Golden Delicious Apples Loose £0.62
1 Creamfields Mature Cheddar 400G £2.39
1 Country Store Steak Cut Chips 2Kg £1.40
1 Tesco Tomato Puree Tube 200G £0.55
2 Tesco Finely Chopped Tomatoes 400G £1.38
1 Trattoria Verdi Fusilli Pasta 1Kg £1.00
1 Tesco Finest Farmhouse Multigrain Batch Bread 800G £1.50
1 Tesco Free Range Eggs Medium Box Of 6 £1.48
1 Tesco Blueberries 125G £1.50
1 Allinson Wholemeal Plain Flour 1Kg £1.57
1 Tesco Multigrain Hoops 375G £1.59
1 Tesco Eat Me Bananas Min 5 Fruit £1.00

Total was £59.72 including delivery :-(

I'm sorry it's not in any order - stupid Tesco has put it into a random order!

arbroath_lass

Just a few comments :

Can you try the challenge where you buy Tesco stuff instead of branded or value stuff instead of normal Tesco?

eg you are buying organic stock cubes but value mince?

You have a lot of Muller yoghurt could you swap for Tesco's own brand? Or buy small plastic pots from the poundshop and split a large tub. Or make your own?

How much do you want to reduce it by? Most people looking to reduce their shopping bill by a lot use value ranges and shop when they can get whoopsies.

Kittenkirst

For the chicken breats could you switch to chicken portions? A lot cheaper and I find I prefer the taste? :0)

For the blueberries could you buy frozen (as they are going in pancakes) Supermarkets often have bagged frozen fruit on a 2 for £xx which is often cheaper (We use the frozen blueberries & cherries in smoothies- yum!)

I think you could save more immediately if you are happy to downshift (like Arbroath Lass suggests) a brand level (e.g value banana are 8 for £1.15 so 3 extra bananas for only 15p more)

:0)

arbroath_lass

There are quite a few threads on here with cheap meal plans but this site is also helpful : http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

hereigoagain22

I wanted to get to £50 a week main shop and a £5 top up eventually.

I guess I was expecting miracles from going HM but in reality I would need to buy in bulk and batch cook to save this way?

The organic stock cubes, the flour, the bread and the yoghurts are the only branded items there - everything else is Tesco's own or was cheaper to buy branded!

The 6 Muller yoghurt could be a big saving I agree but OH won't eat anything else, I have bought various others but he eats one and then the rest go in the bin :-( and then he moans because we don't have his yoghurts. Maybe I will buy him 2 only as a treat? I don't eat yoghurt and DS and DS eat the Tesco's own brand fromage frais I bought.

The stock cubes are organic as I thought they'd be much lower in salt for DS's sake (only 6months old although doesn't eat more than a bite anyway). Will change to Tescos own as just realised the salt content is the same.

The flour is branded as it was the cheapest wholegrain flour I could find.

The cat biscuits were cheaper than Tesco's own.

The Daisy powder was cheaper than Tesco's own.

The crisps were on offer - just an example of what I'd usually buy, the cheapest pack of 6 on offer. If none on offer I'd buy Tesco's own.

Tescos don't do own brand rice cakes so Kallo were the cheapest I could see. The chips, the cheese and the pasta were also cheaper than Tesco's own too.

I hate cheap brown bread so always buy the seeded stuff but would love to have a go at making my own but no breadmaker or breadtin for the oven!

ASDA and the others don't deliver to my area and I don't trust myself shopping instore as I can easily spend £150 on junk!

EDIT - I also find the value bananas split and go brown and yucky so don't last any longer. And when I order online and specifically put "5" loose bananas they always send me more and it comes out more expensive than the "eat me" packet.

Where would I find chicken portions? What do I search for? I looked at chicken thighs but didn't think it seemed cheaper? Is frozen chicken healthy?

The blueberries are mainly eaten fresh (just a handful in with the pancakes), I guess I could give frozen a try?!

Thank you so much, keep the tips coming even if you worry they are harsh!

esmy

Just a quick look at your shopping list but I think you could make some savings here by going for own/value brands eg value stock cubes are 10p for 100g and they're OK to use for cooking. They've all got salt in them. The easy peeler citrus are £1 per kilo dearer than the standard clementines which are usually easy to peel in any case. Berry fruits are often cheaper frozen.There seem to be rather a lot of crisp/snack products which can bump up your bill.

I don't know if you've shopped online before or whether this is the first time you've done it but it took me a few goes before I got used to it and learned how to compare prices. I look at the offers first but compare them to similar items as they're not always the best value I also go to the store occasionally to check out any new stuff. As you become a more confident cook you'll learn how to use cheaper ingredients (eg swap passata for tinned tomatoes and give them a good mashing or press them through a sieve).

Just keep at it as you will get more used to trimming you budget.

Sorry I've crossposted with the others. Tesco do do their own ricecakes - use the search box top right, type in ricecakes and all of them will come up

arbroath_lass

Kittenkirst wrote: »

downshift
:0)

That's the word I was looking for :beer:

Kittenkirst

Have you tried the Tesco value range products for things like pasta? 39p for 500g so 78p for 1kg instead of £1 for the tratoria verde. Its only 21p, but thats just on one product.

If you were happy to try those it might reduce it further?

Just trying to help :0)

hereigoagain22

esmy wrote: »

Just a quick look at your shopping list but I think you could make some savings here by going for own/value brands eg value stock cubes are 10p for 100g and they're OK to use for cooking. They've all got salt in them. The easy peeler citrus are £1 per kilo dearer than the standard clementines which are usually easy to peel in any case. Berry fruits are often cheaper frozen.There seem to be rather a lot of crisp/snack products which can bump up your bill.

I don't know if you've shopped online before or whether this is the first time you've done it but it took me a few goes before I got used to it and learned how to compare prices. I look at the offers first but compare them to similar items as they're not always the best value I also go to the store occasionally to check out any new stuff. As you become a more confident cook you'll learn how to use cheaper ingredients (eg swap passata for tinned tomatoes and give them a good mashing or press them through a sieve).

Just keep at it as you will get more used to trimming you budget.

Sorry I've crossposted with the others. Tesco do do their own ricecakes - use the search box top right, type in ricecakes and all of them will come up

Will change to value stock cubes as long as they are okay for the children? The snacks are for a hollow 2 year old and OH who never stop eating!! Will also change the rice cakes to Tesco's own. I've always bought Kallo thinking that Tescos didn't do any unsalted rice cakes but I've just realised the salt content in Tescos own is lower than Kallo! I can't even remember what the passatta was for - I think I meant to take it off and replaced it with a tin of chopped tomatoes, it's just habitual laziness! Thank you.


Does anyone have any cheaper snack ideas? I'll take the pom bear crisps off for DD as she has plenty of rice cakes, fruit etc. for snacking. I usually buy raisins and apricots etc. as well but they seem so expensive!

arbroath_lass

You don't "need" baby wipes although I appreciate they are convenient. Could you use muslin cloths in the house and save the wipes for when you are out? Might bump up the washing costs though.

Value veg is fine although the bigger packs may bump up the price the first week. Veg like carrots, onions etc will keep longer than a week.

Would custard powder be cheaper than ready made? You could make it up using long life milk which is chepaer.

You're not far off your target - don't lose hope.

hereigoagain22

Kittenkirst wrote: »

Have you tried the Tesco value range products for things like pasta? 39p for 500g so 78p for 1kg instead of £1 for the tratoria verde. Its only 21p, but thats just on one product.

If you were happy to try those it might reduce it further?

Just trying to help :0)

Eeek. I have tried before and didn't like it but was possible a bit prejudiced and convinced myself I didn't like it. I'll try again - one week can't hurt right!!

I have also tried value chopped tomatoes but I found them bitter and DD wouldn't eat any sauces made with them!

Thanks