Clueless at budgeting for food, help please?

ALIBOBSY

missty25 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, Aldi is about 10 miles away, so would possibly only go once a fortnight.

Sorry it's £200 a month, I have a bit lee way and could push it up to £250 but then that means we are taking away from our very small budget of £100 for savings, personal spends and family fun things so would rather try to keep it at the £200. But then I think I'm kidding myself that I'll be able to do this. This is for all meals and snacks.

The cat will only eat whiskas, kit e kat and Felix, tried it with every other shops own brand and it just turns it's nose up at won't touch it. The dog is not fussy.

I have found with cats they are only fussy when really well fed, when they are hungry they, like any one of us will eat what they are given. TBH most domestic cats are over fed, they only require one meal a day and ours will eat what they are given. Although the Aldi brand cat food that we use smells really meaty and looks the closest to those main brands I have seen.


Our vet always comments what a good size our cats are unlike most he sees who are overweight.


Mind you I have to admit to them getting a few titbits over the day as there are 6 of us so the kids do tend to give them the odd treat lol.


I would try a home brand and if the cat turns up her nose, move the bowl away. Then when she crys again for food give the same bowl back. When hungry enough they will eat.


Ali x

mummygems

missty25 - I buy it all pre-frozen. I have tried (and failed) to buy the fresh stuff when its yellow stickered then blanch it then freeze it but find it easier to just buy it already frozen as sometimes I dont get round to blanching it and then it goes to waste anyway!

ostrichnomore_2

Does the 8 month old still really need formula? I know they've brought out all these follow-on milks now, but I can't help thinking that's just a marketing exercise by the milk powder companies. In the fairly recent past, babies were usually put on normal cow's milk from around 6 months if they were bottle fed and we all survived it. Could save quite a bit.

BitterAndTwisted

The reason why they have invented "follow-on" formula is that they are not allowed to market it as a substitute for breast-milk, so they've invented a new name for it. I've never had kids but I'm not fooled by their tripe. "Take it from us, you're doing great"? Eff off!


As to the OP's original question I would suggest the following things to consider:

KNOW what the normal average price is for things you normally buy. Some people keep a price-book for this. It's especially useful if you're accustomed to to browsing and chucking things in the trolley without a second glance. Then, you can recognise a true bargain or price-reduction in an instant.

Meal-plan and batch cook. If you have a meal-plan and shop for it once a week be prepared to amend your plan to take advantage of what offers you spot.

Reduce the meat-content of recipes and cut out meat completely once or twice a week.

Be prepared to snap up YS items and pop them in the freezer for future use. I grabbed four bags of prepared carrot and swede for ten pence each yesterday and lobbed them in the freezer. They are going to come in useful for soups later.

Buy fruit & veg in season as much as possible.

Reconsider how much you are spending on snacks, treats and soft drinks. These can be a huge part of some people's weekly budgets and are mostly just empty calories. There are lots you can make yourself for a fraction of the cost and are much better.

Consult the cheap-family-recipes site for a host of cheap, nutritious and delicious ideas.

HappyMJ

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

I have found with cats they are only fussy when really well fed, when they are hungry they, like any one of us will eat what they are given. TBH most domestic cats are over fed, they only require one meal a day and ours will eat what they are given. Although the Aldi brand cat food that we use smells really meaty and looks the closest to those main brands I have seen.


Our vet always comments what a good size our cats are unlike most he sees who are overweight.


Mind you I have to admit to them getting a few titbits over the day as there are 6 of us so the kids do tend to give them the odd treat lol.


I would try a home brand and if the cat turns up her nose, move the bowl away. Then when she crys again for food give the same bowl back. When hungry enough they will eat.


Ali x

My personal experience....They don't....if they don't like the food they will not eat it no matter how hungry they are. They'll scream all night asking for food so I'll go and feed her the supermarket brand only for the nose to go up again and this can go on for several days with no food actually being eaten and mostly being binned. I can't sleep with a cat meowing at the top of it's lungs so I feed her what she likes.

missty25

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

The reason why they have invented "follow-on" formula is that they are not allowed to market it as a substitute for breast-milk, so they've invented a new name for it. I've never had kids but I'm not fooled by their tripe. "Take it from us, you're doing great"? Eff off!


As to the OP's original question I would suggest the following things to consider:

KNOW what the normal average price is for things you normally buy. Some people keep a price-book for this. It's especially useful if you're accustomed to to browsing and chucking things in the trolley without a second glance. Then, you can recognise a true bargain or price-reduction in an instant.

Meal-plan and batch cook. If you have a meal-plan and shop for it once a week be prepared to amend your plan to take advantage of what offers you spot.

Reduce the meat-content of recipes and cut out meat completely once or twice a week.

Be prepared to snap up YS items and pop them in the freezer for future use. I grabbed four bags of prepared carrot and swede for ten pence each yesterday and lobbed them in the freezer. They are going to come in useful for soups later.

Buy fruit & veg in season as much as possible.

Reconsider how much you are spending on snacks, treats and soft drinks. These can be a huge part of some people's weekly budgets and are mostly just empty calories. There are lots you can make yourself for a fraction of the cost and are much better.

Consult the cheap-family-recipes site for a host of cheap, nutritious and delicious ideas.

Definitely need to cut back on snack foods, although crisps are pretty much banned bar an odd occasion, no chocolate biscuits just plain biscuits and I'm going to start making scones and fairy cakes for treats. My daughter practically only snacks on cheese and grapes or oatcakes.

As for the cat issue, it would not eat for days when trying to feed it shops own cat food, plus its old so I'm not going to swap this about and make it stressed.

As far as I'm aware the NHS don't recommend cows milk as a drink before 12 months or have I got my wires crossed?

Seakay

another shop to consider is Iceland; Surprisingly few dodgy sounding additives to the ready meals and a very cheap way of buying ingredients if you cook from scratch; for instance, the cheapest I've found peppers recently is in a local greengrocer, 3 for £1 because they were old and wrinkly. 1kg bag of sliced peppers for £1 in Iceland. Fillets of white fish, chopped onions etc etc also v cheap.

If you have a freezer or a dehydrator then you can buy veg which doesn't seem to be going to last and prepare and freeze it as soon as you get home. It will loose moisture and flavour if you leave it in the freezer for months but for a few weeks will remain at the point of ripeness etc as when you bought it. Don't freeze raw potatoes though, they'll go black. Cooked potato freezes well.

Seakay

mummygems wrote: »

missty25 - I buy it all pre-frozen. I have tried (and failed) to buy the fresh stuff when its yellow stickered then blanch it then freeze it but find it easier to just buy it already frozen as sometimes I dont get round to blanching it and then it goes to waste anyway!

Don't bother blanching! Put it straight in the freezer, honestly it will be fine

narabanekeater

what milk for your little one are you buying?

pinkpig08

We've just had a big cut in our budget too and my husband is now paid monthly instead of weekly so a lot of adjusting!

I've started booking an online delivery for payday and ordering enough staple foods for the month - packet food, tins, frozen food, tea, coffee, nappies etc (we are a family of five). My first shop was £140, but wasn't enough really as I have still needed to go again and spent around £60 on top of the fresh bread/milk extras.
My next order is currently at £160, although includes a couple of extras as it's the last payday before Christmas.

I meal plan when I can (and when I remember!), but I buy the large packs of extra lean mince for a fiver and make double quantities of spag bol so I can freeze one. I buy a sack of potatoes from the local farm - £4.50 for 25kg. I've recently started buying value brand crisps - 66p for 12, they're actually nice!

It's trial and error and takes quite a bit of organisation and you need to stick to it. That's quite difficult here with a husband who must have Heinz beans and proper Weetabix! I just buy the own brand and put it in the weetabix box though........