£200 for grocery shopping- what would you buy?

dragonlily

Hi, I am looking for some inspiration. We moved house recently and I have made efforts to use up the majority of the food we have in the house. Still have condiments and tea, quite a bit of cereal. Because of meal planning around what we have I have spent a minimal amount on groceries and now I have £200 to spend to last until 19/11.

I really want to make the most of this budget and be able to make meals until pay day and ideally have some stuff to carry over it next pay day. We eat most things although I don't eat fish so often just buy fish fingers or tuna for my daughter (btw we are a family of 3 with one little girl).

I would like some ideas as am awful at meal planning in advance! What meals would you make that are good value, what things would you stock up on? We can shop at most supermarkets, we already use aldi a lot.

Thanks

pigpen

buy whatever you fancy.. you could probably manage a takeaway most nights with that budget!

tinned stuff will last.. beans, spaghetti, corned beef, tomatoes, tuna.

a huge bag of pasta or 2 ..

huge sack of potatoes (£6.50 here at the moment and a sack lasts me a good couple of weeks (11 of us here.. well.. 10 that eat food) and a sack of onions.. I chop and freeze in portions.

mince, sausages, chicken bits.. trawl the reduced sections you may find some bargains! Also for fresh stuff most will freeze nicely.. carrots, peppers, cauliflower etc..

Cheese, bacon, eggs,

I'd get cat food too otherwise they'd starve Might not be useful for you!

tessie_bear

hi...mince is good value and a packet could make some of these
a chilli
sheps pie
pasta bake
meat balls
burgers
you could buy a bag of red lentils to chuck in to make it go further

eggs are good value and could be used to make
omelette
frittata
quiche
egg and chips

a biggish bag of spuds even a sack might come in useful for you to make wedges/chips/jackets/roasties...i am liking the super 6 at aldi which is a fruit/veg mix for 69p/49p

do you make packed lunches ? as you will need to get in food for them
i would get a bit of paper (im old fashioned) and write out how many meals you need eg
sun 3rd nov
b/fast..
lunch...
tea...
snacks...

and they go through and fill it in.....once that is done write a shopping list and head to the shops

chicken made to last sexeral meals (rubber chicken) can be economical...such as roast then with mushrooms in a pie scraps with mayo in sarnies then boil the bones to make soup

hth good luck

Big_Graeme

Take a good part of it and stock up on the basics -

Bag of spuds
Big bags of pasta
Flour
Herbs
Tinned toms
Tinned veg like sweetcorn
Part baked bread
Bulk packs of meat, split and freeze.

dragonlily

Thanks writing out meals sounds like a good idea. So will start there. I have a chicken defrosting for tomorrow that I already had and also have potatoes, coleslaw, watercress, spinach and cherry tomatoes. So that will be dinner sorted. Could just buy some bread for sandwiches at lunchtime as still have some ham and goats cheese in the fridge and quarter jar of sun dried tomatoes.

Tessie, if we don't go made with the chicken then I could make something with the leftovers for tea Monday. Would like to try making stock with the carcass as have never done that. Can that be done in a slow cooker?

krlyr

I pop the chicken carcass in the slow cooker and leave it on low during the day to make chicken stock. Sometimes add various veggies (peas, carrots, etc.) for flavour.

thriftwizard

I'm another that buys spuds by the sack, but in your case I wouldn't unless you have somewhere cool & dark to store them; there are 5-9 adults eating here most nights & it takes us about 4 weeks to go through a sack so I reckon it'd last you at least 12 weeks! But a half-sack would be a good buy; either halve one with another family (spuds around £6-8 a sack currently down here) or some vendors will split a sack. One of our market greengrocers is currently offering half-sacks (12.5Kg) at £4 at the moment.

A big bag of pasta (3Kg around the £3 mark from T*sco) is easier to keep, if not quite as nutritious. And your local Asian grocers can probably find you a decent quantity of rice fairly inexpensively too. If you use sugar - I go through quite a bit preserving garden produce & cheap or foraged fruit - the 5Kg bags T*sco do for £3.96 offer the best value I've seen lately, cheaper even than Makro's 25Kg sack at about £23.

Oats are excellent value for money; porridge is much better for you, however you like to prepare it, than packet cereals; flapjack, Twink's Hobnobs & oatcakes are easy to make & fill you up for ages & you can easily mill it (in a little old plastic Spong mincer, available at just about any car boot sale) to make oatmeal bread or to bulk out soups & casseroles.

Butter is more expensive than spreads or lard, but you can use it for baking or just spreading; toast & or freshly-baked bread & butter is enough, on its own. 98p for 250g at LIDLs just now.

Eggs & cheese are good food value for money, better even than mince & less dubious. Onions, leeks & garlic add a lot of taste for not much money, and a pinch of Herbs de Provence or smoked paprika go a long way taste-wise. Decent bacon doesn't seem cheap, but a couple of slices chopped up are all the meat you need in a carbonara or Milanese sauce.

Yogurt's a goody - easy to make your own, or buy the big pots of plain or Greek, split them down & flavour as needed. Handy for cooking as well as by far the easiest pudding.

HTH!

SmlSave

Would like to try making stock with the carcass as have never done that. Can that be done in a slow cooker?

I make mine in the slow cooker just add water and let cook, cool and sieve. To make a strong stock you'll need to reduce it by boiling. I always cool my stock in the fridge and remove the fat layer too.

kittycat204

You have £200 to feed a family of 4 for 17 days. If you read this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4148389 I'm sure it will show you how far that money can go. If you want it to.
It depends on your priorities.

dragonlily

Thanks for the stock tips!

So, I have a plan for what I am going to buy tomorrow as a small start. I am going to lidl as it is just round the corner.

Daz 38 wash £4.99 (only have four or five washes left in current box)
Nescaf! gold blend coffee as totally out and the web says it is on offer.
Celery
Carrots
Milk
Bread
Toilet roll (nearly out of this too)

I am going to make stock in the slow cooker and then Monday I can make a chicken and goats cheese risotto with the hm stock as my mum gave me a packet of risotto rice a couple of weeks ago.

I make a simple tomato sauce in bulk quite often and we are out. I have four tins of tomatoes left in the cupboard and onions so can make a batch with the celery and carrots (will also use some of these for chicken stock).

dragonlily

Wow that thread is amazing. Def, feel in a very fortunate position now!

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