Help me reduce our food bill

Funky_Bold_Ribena

First off - why not post your meal plan for this week including breakfasts and lunches...

And start keeping your receipts...

Allegra

What you need is the Holy Trinity of Frugal Feeding:

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/

http://agirlcalledjack.com/

Enjoy and good luck !

[Deleted User]

Rissoles/Beef Croquettes

2 cups of minced cooked beef
3 tablespoons of gravy
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley
1 cup of mashed potatoes
1 heaped tablespoon very finely chopped onion
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon horseradish sauce (optional)

1 beaten egg for coating
dry breadcrumbs for coating
Oil for frying

Mix the minced meat,gravy,parsley,mashed potatoes, fresh breadcrumbs, onion, melted butter, horseradish sauce if using and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl until completely mixed together. Form into flat cakes or croquette shapes, coat first in the beaten egg and then in the dry breadcrumbs. Put onto a lined baking tray (foil or greasedproof paper) and pop into the fridge for at least one hour to firm up. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry on both sides until golden brown and heated right through. Serve with gravy or tomato sauce.

Hope you like them, Cheers Lyn x.

E2006

Aldi is definitely the best place to shop if you are wanting to cut down on your food bill. We (2 adults, 6yr old and a baby) rarely spend more than £40 per week and that's for breakfasts, packed lunches dinners and toiletries.

Your best bet is to try to cut down on meat portions rather than cut it out of DH likes it. Its amazing how little you can get away with. For example rubber chicken - you could easily get 3 meals out of a large chicken (around £4 ish in aldi). Roast chicken freezes and defrosts well so you don't necessarily need to eat it 3 days in a row. Similarly, one pack of mince can be split into 2 portions easily if bulked out with veggies and red lentils. So for example, on those 2 meats alone you could have something that looks like this:-
1: Roast chicken dinner
2: Cold roast chicken, chips and mushy peas
(freeze 3rd portion)
3: Shepherds pie (mince bulked out with onions, mushrooms, grated carrot, frozen peas and red lentils (I also put a tin of baked beans in mine and its yummy!))
4: Chilli/Bolognese (from remaining mince - bulked out again)
5: Defrosted chicken made into a curry/pasta/stirfry

That only leaves 2 more nights to cover. Aldi do lovely pizzas for 99p each as an example.

For packed lunches, I would buy bread buns/loaves at aldi (or make your own) then fill with ham or grated cheese and freeze. All you then need to do is lift one out each morning. This means that the filling goes much further and stays fresh. I would serve this with a yogurt, filled bottle of juice, 2 pieces of fruit and a corn flake cake (cheap corn flakes and choc). Aldi do cheap bags of crisps that are exactly like skips, wotsits, monster munch etc as well as packs of mini chedders for around 89p.

We go through loads of fruit like you, but I only buy 3 types each week. Always a pack of bananas (68p for around 8 in aldi), apples and then something different each week for variety, like peaches/plums/pinapple/grapes etc.

Hope that helps and good luck.

P.S go shopping with a list!

honeythewitch

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

The OP didn't mention any of that...and it doesn't have to triple a bill. I didn't eat dairy for 10 years due to extreme allergy but it didn't treble my food bill.

No, but she mentioned that her husband eats limited foods and meat every day, which doesn't come cheap.

I do find it much more expensive to cater for vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free and various allergies, but of course it depends on the type of food you have and your budget.

honeythewitch

Shoey1610 wrote: »

Hi, we are a family of 3, two adults and one seven year old. I currently spend £100 a week on food, which I think is too much. It would be of huge benefit to us if we could get it down to £350 a month.

This needs to cover all our evening meals, two packed lunches and one home lunch for me, breakfast cereal for them and an egg for me in the morning and a piece of fruit for school and afterschool snack each day. It sometimes includes alcohol, although usually if we want something it is to be bought from our own little disposable income pot we get each month. It includes toiletries as and when.

I do sort of meal plan, by writing down seven main meals for a week. I use my leftover roast meat for a meal on Monday. I think one of the problems is that my other half is a confirmed meat eater and quite fussy, he won't touch anything except carrots, potatoes, peas and lettuce whereas I would happily live on vegetables of all kinds and DD would eat what was around.

I have a little freezer, so I can't really batch cook, although I might freeze half of something if there is room.

I think the main money wasters are using jars for Korma and pasta sauces, snacky foods for packed lunches/daughter after school, meat for every day and that I always buy too much fruit.

I tried using the local greengrocers/market, but found it just as expensive and a lot more faff. I'm very open to using Aldi/Lidl as I usually go to Sainburys, but went to Aldi last week and found their fruit and veg to be much better quality for less price.

I'm at home full time at the moment (one of the reasons for wanting to save money) and so have time to spend on this.

All suggestions welcome, or is my hope to reduce the bill pie in the sky?

I think perhaps you could make savings without making drastic changes if you buy pretty much the same but use the basic brands and cheaper shops like Farm foods and Iceland.
Farm foods have a "three for ten pounds" offer on various meat etc ( tuna, whole large chicken, chicken breast, chump chops etc) and you can mix them. Iceland are pretty good for basic meat too.
It sounds as if you are doing very well already, and I am sure it will only need a few little changes.

http://www.farmfoods.co.uk/index.php?p=specialOffers

http://groceries.iceland.co.uk/

Alphamare

You are also probably eating too much meat. This is expensive and a waste. A serving if meat is 100grams. Most people eat double this! Look at the weight of the meat you buy and you will know instantly how many meals it will do your family

meritaten

go through your till receipts for last week and recreate where and how each item was used. is it still in the fridge/cupboard or in the bin? I did this and realised I was buying 'unnecessary' items! a lot of it was 'just in case'! I do shop mainly at Aldis and me and OH go round and meal plan 'off the cuff'. depending on what veg looks good or their meat prices...........we enjoy doing this - and find it saves money.

saterkey

I still buy a lunchbox biscuit for the kids, generally the cheapest multipack from Tesco 18 for 1.09 this is like a chocolate digestive bar, and bake something towards the end of the week. They have only water as that what the school only allows during the day unless they buy something themselves. go to different shops for cheaper I do farmfoods or HB for tuna fish and toilet rolls and kitchen rolls and packs of 4 soups as they are cheaper there, reduced meat on a sunday 12ish in tescos yellow sticked or three for a £10 items which aren't bad, so you can have a chicken one night, mince meal 2nd, and perhaps pork chops the 3rd, lasagne 4th, sausages or pizza 5th, we have a sandwich with crusty bread meal on a sunday night/afternoon so don't cook and a Saturday is something out of the freezer ie frozen fishes chips and beans. Also most weeks have an egg meal. I allow 75 each week to include all toiletries etc for 4 of us inc two teenagers, but could still cut that down. I use coupons, offers off and reduced when I can. I keep a stockpile of bits so don't run out often, and have changed to Tesco/sains cheaper tomato sauce about 27p when Heinz was getting on for £2 and me and kids have cheaper teabags, tescos though, sainsbugs not nice, partner likes his Yorkshire. so you can save on some bits, and get reduced on your meat perhaps or buy cheaper meat, stretch it to two meals, have one meat free each week, etc.

Shoey1610

I haven't been keeping my reciepts, but will do from now on in.

I'm going to work on a meal plan to take shopping on Friday which I will post up - I need to go through my cupboards/freezer first, but I know there is some bread flour and yeast in there so I will make some bread rolls tomorrow.

Love the idea of freezing the ready made rolls - sandwich meat is one of the things we often fail to use up.

I agree that we have probably been eating too much meat - I have sausages for tomorrow and usually I would cook all of them, but I've separated them and put a couple in the freezer in a bag to be added to until we have enough for another meal.

I've never shopped in Iceland, but there is a new one right next to our Aldi here - whats good to stock up in there?

Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions, I've got a few jobs to do tomorrow