Help me reduce my astronomical food spends.

LameWolf

maman wrote: »

What I'd suggest to get you started:

• you don't say who the other adults are but they need to be on board with this if it's going to work. They'll have to accept what they're given for meals at home but if they want any extras (like snacks) then it must come from their own spending money not the grocery budget.
• Any chance the other adults could do something to help out? Other chores if not help with cooking?
• write a meal plan for the week based on what you've got in (sounds like loads) and only buy the absolute minimum on top of that. Try to tailor your meals to your working patterns. Have SC meals or easy stuff (jacket potatoes, pasta or HM ready meals) when you know you'll be late from work. Make your packed lunches the night before.
• Keep doing that as it'll be rare (if ever) that you've got nothing in at the start of the week. Only buy offers of things that will last/can be frozen.

Good Luck!

There's only the two of us in our house, but I get Mr LW to sit down with me at the weekend and we meal-plan together; he's got to eat what I make, so if I have his input, he's getting meals I know he'll like. Also, on the meal-plan, I note down what I'm going to need him to do regarding food preparation (I'm disabled, with very weak hands, and can't, for instance, chop root veggies, or grate cheese myself). So he knows in advance what I'm going to need done for the meal to appear in front of him.;) Today, for instance, he's left diced onion and tomato and grated cheese in dishes for me to make the pasta dish for tonight's dins.:A

I also have "built-in" ability to swap meals round - there'll be at least one, probably two, extremely easy meals per week, for if I'm having a bad day with my lupus, so I can quickly switch say Tuesday and Wednesday over if I feel very rough on Tuesday, iyswim.:o This principle could work for an able-bodied cook coming in from work later than planned.:o

HOWMUCH

If you must have packet mircowave rice, BM Stores always have John West Rice @ 49p. I get these for when our son wants a curry either out of the freezer or take away when we are not in, the indian takeaway charge £2 for rice.

meg72

katykicker wrote: »

Lots of great advice here, I have one thing to add....

Ham on the bone shouldn't be that expensive, even for 1 slice, as I pick it up for my Mum sometimes... If you still have it, could you weigh it and check they haven't accidentally overcharged you? £2.93 is a lot, this must equate to about 0.15kg looking on the Tesco website (if that is who you shopped with), which would indicate to me they've either weighed it with something on the scales or given you part of the bone it came on as well LOL

If you have been overcharged (or you're cheeky enough to say you have) you can just ring Tesco or whomever and they should refund as a gesture of goodwill.

This is really good advice, I was really shocked at the price and do think it must be a mistake, you have nothing to lose my phoning to query it.

meg72

HOWMUCH wrote: »

If you must have packet mircowave rice, BM Stores always have John West Rice @ 49p. I get these for when our son wants a curry either out of the freezer or take away when we are not in, the indian takeaway charge £2 for rice.

Bi difference in price. My DGS loves a Chinese take away but I always do own rice, prawn crackers and chips saves me about £7 on take a way prices.

maman

meg72 wrote: »

Bi difference in price. My DGS loves a Chinese take away but I always do own rice, prawn crackers and chips saves me about £7 on take a way prices.

I buy spring rolls too. Either party packs from Iceland or the big ones when YS (general Asda). Our favourite is Asda hot chilli sauce to go with them.

greenwoodlad

Hi, we have the same issues trying to keep the food bills down, There are 2 adults, 2 late teenage boys and 1 child in our family . The lads work and have hard physical jobs, often out 10 hours days - they take 2 pack outs a day ! My wife estimates their packouts cost £30.00 a week at least. My wife works for a major supermarket & gets discount so she does not bulk buy she tends to shop on a daily basis as we live in the middle of nowhere.
We spend approx £150-£175 a week that includes dog food toiletries etc
I have had valuable advice from people on the forum and i agree you can do some meals cheaply but my wife gives 2 examples of 2 of our meals last week

Roast leg of lamb - leg of lamb cost £11.77 - that was 1/2 price and with discount - so by the time we had the meal and a bottle of wine the meal came in at about £20 for 5 - there was a little left for pack out the next day

Fresh fish - we are good eaters(!) we had grilled fresh fish for 5 of us, mashed potatoes & peas.. the fish cost £23.00 for this 1 meal !!!!

When you like to eat good fresh food and eat well how do you feed a family of 5 for a fiver - my wife says a large fresh chicken is £6 - 7 !

HOWMUCH

Greenwoodlad if you have an Ald! near you, you can get a large chicken over 2kg for £4.99 that's cheaper even with your wife's 10% discount.
I also look for YS items

shoei

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

I know this is going back donkey's years but Mum used to have a pressure cooker and made delicious stews in it. I was terrified of the beast and the noises it made, I had to hide in the front room when it was on !

Coming back into this century now. OP do you throw out a lot of food or do you eat everything you buy ? Do you freeze left overs but don't use them up, and find them 3 years later so freezer-burned that you don't know what they are ?

We did used to throw away quite a bit but have cut down on stuff now. Salad and veg seems to be the thing that we waste the most.

shoei

katykicker wrote: »

Lots of great advice here, I have one thing to add....

Ham on the bone shouldn't be that expensive, even for 1 slice, as I pick it up for my Mum sometimes... If you still have it, could you weigh it and check they haven't accidentally overcharged you? £2.93 is a lot, this must equate to about 0.15kg looking on the Tesco website (if that is who you shopped with), which would indicate to me they've either weighed it with something on the scales or given you part of the bone it came on as well LOL

If you have been overcharged (or you're cheeky enough to say you have) you can just ring Tesco or whomever and they should refund as a gesture of goodwill.

Unfortunatly it is long gone although I now suspect they weighed an elephant with it!!!!

shoei

HOWMUCH wrote: »

If you must have packet mircowave rice, BM Stores always have John West Rice @ 49p. I get these for when our son wants a curry either out of the freezer or take away when we are not in, the indian takeaway charge £2 for rice.

That's brill thanks I will stock up next time I am in town.