Please help us eat well for less!

fivemoreminutes

I'm planning to sign up for the March Grocery Challenge with a monthly budget of £200 but could really do with some help in making this work!

Some info:

I need to cover all breakfast, lunch, dinners and snacks for me, DH, a toddler and 10 month old (eats same as us), plus formula, wipes, toiletries and cleaning products. Baby will hopefully be in reusable nappies as I've just ordered some, but still need to include disposables for the toddler.

Really get stuck for lunch and snack ideas for me and the little ones. Currently spending a small fortune on fruit especially and would like a change from the usual ham/cream cheese sandwiches ...

We cook pretty much everything from scratch to avoid unnecessary salt and additives etc. I am really keen to provide a healthy diet with a wide range of foods, but am finding increasingly expensive
Toddler likes lentils, beans, rice etc (lucky me!) but isn't a great fan of potatoes or meat, apart from mince, and will rarely eat eggs unless hidden in something. He also gets a very upset stomach with too much milk so I try to limit cereal/porridge.

Any suggestions to help me plan our shopping and meals to last the month would be fantastic Also, not sure where is best to buy dried pulses, beans, rice etc cheaply in large enough quantities to see us through a month ...

Thanks so much!

dylan2011

Just saying Hi! I am in a very similar family as you with 2 adults, my 2 yr old and a 9 month old little piggy! I also have a budget of £200 a month and include nappies, wipes, formula etc. I havent tried the challenge for a few months as have been busy with setting up my new business, and have been spending about £250-£300 a month. Ive just re-signed up for this month and am excited to give it a go again.
One of the main things for me is Planning. Eg. plan shopping lists, plan meals etc. but be prepared as well to deviate slightly should the need arise (eg. if there are some good YS reductions or if you end up busy etc. ). Look forward to seeing you around on the GC. x

carlamarie_2

When it comes to lunches, I was sick of having sandwiches day in day out. So i made smaller portions of our tea time meals (i always plate up too much) nobody has noticed and I've been doing this months now.
Now me and ds2 who is two tend to eat what we have eaten the evening before. A quick warm through and it's set to go.
We have upped our veg intake by doing this and we maybe eat sandwiches twice a week which saves a lot on bread. It is not costing me any money to do this. Previously, any leftovers on the plates would go to the dogs or in the bin. By not plating up huge amounts I have very little waste and extra meals! Win win!

Also when my veg is looking a bit sad i make it all into soup, then we have a couple of days of soup and some for the freezer too.

I spend a fortune in fruit too, as all three of my kids and the hubby love it. But I also have things like rasiins in the cupboard, they are healthy and quite cheap and make a change from the fruit. Also have you tried cucumber and carrots chopped up as a snack? Could serve with a little dip for extra flavour. Could look at other Vegs too like peppers, celery etc

Yoghurts, I use to buy munch bunch for my kids. But I have swapped these for morrisons basics the fromage fraise (40oddp for six) godown very well with them and their chocolate mousses (27p for six) are a great treat at little cost.

I believe rice and things like that can be very cheaply sourced from ethnic supermarkets. I don't have any near me so can't confirm that myself.

Serenity

You can make porridge with water or a mix of water and milk. I had it this way since I was young as I preferred it. It is still creamy. Can also make it with water then have a little milk in bowl once served. For cereals you could of course try soy/almond etc milk. I do not like cow's milk at all but love almond milk on cereal. It is expensive though so no help with the budget. You could also try yoghurt on cereal. I read that often people with problems digesting milk are okay with yoghurt. Breakfasts are my hardest thing for myself to think of!

I don't have any ethnic supermarkets near me (sadly, I loved stocking up there when I did), but I find either lidl or the international sections in main supermarkets are cheapest for rice, pulses etc. The sections they market to certain communities, not the sections with ethnic style products marketed to western tastes. Oh and often they have pulses etc in these "whole food" sections in supermarkets but they seem marked up there so I would avoid that.

MrsE_2

There is a cook book released the end of this month, called a girl called jack.
Its £7 on amazon.
I think it would be right up your street.

newthrift

Meal planning is essential, but I know coming up with different idea's can be quite hard. Try making a big list with all the different things you could have, and keep adding if you think of others or see new ideas. I find this quite handy as when I am having a brain block meal planning I can have a quick look. Making meals that you could have two days in a row should be better so you can just warm up. Eggy bread is a good quick lunch - and your little one might not even notice there is egg.

You could try buying some frozen fruit and de-frosting night before to save a little there, although this is more berries. If you find any veg that goes off quicker buy that frozen too maybe. I have started buying my green beans frozen, 99p for a 1kg bag at Aldi which I thought was quite good!

Ladyluck1

Meal planning is great! Similar family size here and we spend £130 a month on food
My son doesn't like mince and that's great for bulk cooking so you're lucky there!
You could try a mild minced beef biryani an all the other usual mince based dishes.
I try and get my mince from coop reduced because it's better quality lean mince and is from the uk etc.
lunches are usually a sandwich (nursery days)or leftovers but can be boiled eggs/ omelette/pancakes etc
aldi is great for fruit and veg as is lidl. I got 1kg carrots this weekend for 39p! These go into mince dishes to bulk them out, used as dipping sticks for lunches and DS loves carrot so has them steamed with dinner a lot.
My freezer is my friend for batch cooking and picking up reduced bargains. Really that's the only way my budget is so low.
Good luck!
xx

armyknife

Ian Duncan-Smith suggests each week a different member of the family has their mouth sown-up for seven days. :-)

BitterAndTwisted

If you're stuck for meal or snack ideas you could do worse than browsing through the recipes on this site:

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

maman

newthrift wrote: »

Meal planning is essential, but I know coming up with different idea's can be quite hard. Try making a big list with all the different things you could have, and keep adding if you think of others or see new ideas. I find this quite handy as when I am having a brain block meal planning I can have a quick look.

Looking at menus in cafes, pubs and restaurants is good for ideas, many of them are on-line. So many places are trying to keep costs down that loads of cheap to produce meals are appearing like sausage and mash, liver and onions, fishcakes...

fivemoreminutes

Thanks very much everyone! Lots of really useful suggestions here that I'll definitely try on the March GC.

Hi Dylan! Good to know there's someone with similar circumstances to me here. I easily spend much more than you currently do on groceries, which we really can't afford, so will keep an eye out for you on the GC thread to see if I can pick up some more tips

So far I have been rubbish at meal planning. I can write a plan for a week but always deviate during the first day or two, either because I have forgotten to get the ingredients out of the freezer or prep them, or because we have got home late and run out of time to get the planned dinner on the table. Think I should do a plan of what we're likely to do each day (neither DC goes to nursery) alongside what we're going to eat!

LadyLuck1, wow, seriously impressed that you are able to feed your family for £130!! Can you tell me a bit more about the way you approach batch cooking - do you cook the extra portions at the same time as you're cooking a particular evening meal, or do you set aside a specific time to cook up lots of meal portions just for the freezer? I have never been successful at doing this so far, not good at judging portion sizes and run out of dishes big enough to cook things in

Having a quick look at old receipts, I can see that whilst I don't buy luxuries and deliberately go for the cheaper-priced items, there are a lot of individual items on my list - can easily be 60+ different items in one shop. So whilst they might be cheap on their own, the total obviously adds up. Hoping that buying things like rice, pasta, lentils, teabags in larger quantities will help here as they should be cheaper.

Will sign up for the March challenge now and see how I get on!

Thanks again.