Help me reduce our food bill

~Chameleon~

meg72 wrote: »

Depends surely on the size of the chicken breast. I wouldnt think two was unreasonable between 3, especially if the OH was a big eater.

But the person I quoted was using two breasts for one person, unless I misread or misunderstood.

meg72

I note that you only have a little freezer so cant batch cook, this does save a lot, do you have space for a bigger one or even another one, you can often get these on freecycle for nothing or shop around, I got a lovely almost brand new chest freezer from a second shop for 50.00 delivered
and found it paid for itself within a month by buying YS and batch cooking.

Also come on over to the grocery challenge, great advice and help from people in the same boat, no-one judges and all help each other with the
challenge, good luck.

Pooky

I decant value baby bath into my own "handwash" bottles (I can't bear to have plastic bottles on show so have ones that blend in) and i use 3 parts soap liquid to one part water, it's a runnier squirt but still enough to wash your hands with and at 9p (it was when I brought it) a bottle it's good value. Lots of soaps dry my skin but this doesn't. I use coal tar soap in the shower/bath, cheap as anything and last for ages.

Tessie_Balloon_Juice

Hey Shoey!

Will your husband eat vegetable soup? If he does you could reduce your spend on lunchbox fillers by giving him a big portion of home made soup and you could have it for your home lunch too. I have a food flask with a spoon that I use to take soup to work but if he has access to a microwave at lunch time you wouldn't need to shell out for a flask.

I find that sandwich fillers like cooked sliced meat and tinned tuna push my shopping bill up quite a bit, but you can use the most sorry looking, bendy veg from the reduced section to make soup for a pittance.

Also, I like to make my mince dishes go further by doubling up the veg in the recipe. For instance, if the recipe calls for 500g mince, 2 carrots, 2 onions, 2 celery sticks and a tin of tomatoes I'd either use 250g of mince, or use 4 of each veg and 2 cans of tomatoes. The meat flavours the sauce anyway so it'll still be tasty but it goes much further. If that's too extreme for your husband maybe just try using 50% extra veg and see if you can make it stretch out a bit.

I have a cash and carry card and I sometimes go there for cleaning things. A few weeks ago I bought a 9kg box of bold 2 in1 for about £15. I think it'll take me at least a year to get through it!

Anyway, hope that helps. I'm going to have a look at your kitchen inventory and see what I'd do with it. I'll report back soon!

jackieblack

Tessie_Balloon_Juice wrote: »

Will your husband eat vegetable soup? If he does you could reduce your spend on lunchbox fillers by giving him a big portion of home made soup

I often make vegetable soup for my meat-loving husband to take to work, if I bung in a packet of beef casserole mix (bought when on BOGOF ) he doesn't even notice that there's no meat in it

good_advice

FREE FOOD BE QUICK!
over on HUKD I have just signed up for a packet of LUMI chicken curry. There is also a veggie & chickpea one.
Him indoors liked the first one I got, this is the second round. It comes in a sachet for one person and you add your own rice.

Will help keep the shopping bill down

Tessie_Balloon_Juice

Ok Shoey,

Based on your kitchen list I think you have more than enough to cover a week of breakfasts with all the cereal and the eggs.

For your lunches if you defrost the loaf and the ham in the freezer and use the cheese and some of the tuna you have in the cupboard I think you could feed the three of you with nothing more than a bag of salad added to the shopping list. you've got plenty there for ham, cheese and tuna sandwiches, tuna pasta salad, ham salad, cheese salad etc. You may well have leftovers from your evening meals that you could use up for lunches the next day too.

You seem to have plenty of fruit, yogurts, snack bars, graze boxes etc to pad out your lunch boxes and an after school snack for your little one. Could you use up some cereal for an afternoon snack?

If I had your supplies, my week of evening meals (assuming you don't cook separately for the nipper) would look like this:

1. Cottage pie (250g mince, shepherd's pie mix, carrots, celery, onions, peas, mashed potatoes to top it and maybe some green beans to accompany)

2. Fresh filled pasta/spaghetti with stir in sauce and salad

3. meatballs (using 250g mince, diced onion, your preferred herbs and spices, ikea meatball sauce, frozen chips and peas)

4. pork/prawn stir fry with noodles (using up your stir fry sauce from the cupboard)

5. chilli and rice (using half of the 500g pack of mince, onions, carrots, celery, baked beans, dried chillies, cumin, corriander, tinned toms)

6. Beef stew and dumplings (diced beef, onions, carrots, celery, melting gravy pot thingy, tinned toms)

7 Keema (sort of) and rice (using remaining half pack of mince, dried chillies and pretty much all the spices you listed! Maybe invest in a smart price curry powder to make it more curry-like but not essential)

So my shopping list would be:
carrots
celery
green beans
onions
peas
stir fry veg (all veg fresh or frozen, to
your liking)
salad
chopped tomatoes
milk
marg
cleaning supplies as you mentioned
maybe a cheap tub of curry powder
1 bottle orange squash

I'd ditch the orange juice. Its pricey, full of sugar and horribly acidic (but still yummy, nevertheless!). Maybe just get one for weekend breakfasts and have squash, water, tea coffee etc on other mornings.

I'd definitely do as others suggest and try a cheaper shop like aldi, lidl, or even home bargains for as much as you can.

Shoey1610

Ok, so today I have baked 12 rolls from the bread mix for DD and DH for the next week and shuffled around the freezer so that have space for some ready made rolls as suggested. DD (7) made some honey fairy cakes for her own packed lunches, so I've frozen some of those too. She was so pleased, did it all herself except putting in and taking out of the oven, and then I got a lecture about food waste as it is 'eco week' at school and I 'have a responsibility to make the world nice for when she is a grown up' So she is on board too.

I'm not sure I have enough room for a chest freezer, but I'll have a look around and consider it.

Baby Bath or Shampoo for handwash is a good one actually, now you mention it, I remember a few years ago when I had terrible dry skin on my hands (nursing at the time) and my GP recommend I try washing my hands with baby wash.

He won't take soup to work as he often eats out and about so its not too practical, although we do have soup at the weekend so vegetable/disguised vegetable soup might work then.

I got some free chicken curry, thank you!

Thank you for the ideas for meal plan (we do all eat the same)! I don't drink orange juice myself (are you seeing a trend here), but I'll knock a carton off the list and see if they notice.

I'm going to look at the grocery challenge now DH has gone off out to football.

Even looking at the lists and knowing I have enough food, I feel anxious about not buying a trolley full - like we are going to run out or something. Is that normal!?

~Chameleon~

Shoey1610 wrote: »

Even looking at the lists and knowing I have enough food, I feel anxious about not buying a trolley full - like we are going to run out or something. Is that normal!?

Yes!!

It's taken a long time for me to adjust to not having several cupboards plus two fridge freezers bursting at the seams, yet still buying a trolley full of food

I still buy some items in bulk to save money, including meat/poultry/dairy which I buy at wholesale cost and is excellent quality, far superior to supermarket meat and is also supplied to top restaurants and caterers.

It will take time to get used to but it's great you've got the family on board. I'm so pleased to see your daughter embracing the ethos :T

117pauline

Hi

Just a quick thought for later in the month -

The Daily Mirror usually has a £5 off £40 shop on the last Thursday of each month for Aldi.

I buy two papers and use one on the first Thursday or Friday and then the second on the following Thursday (they usually last until then)

The last couple of months I have also bought my papers from WH Smiths and then claimed the cashback of 20p via TopCashBack.

I menu plan for the whole month and make sure most of my shopping is done then.

HTH
Pauline