Food budgets

~Chameleon~

valk_scot wrote: »

I have two sporty teenagers and an OH to feed as well as myself and spend about £80 a week on food. I shop around, I can cook pretty well, I use a lot of fresh ingredients, I do manage to get a few reduced items now and again but don't make a career out of it iyswim. I only buy coke, crisps, biscuits and such as the odd treat, not regularly. We eat a lot of fruit and veg.


Could I get it lower? Yes, I could probably trim another £10 easily without the meals looking much different, I'd have to put a bit more thought and work though. To get it down to £40? I think the portions would get smaller, the meals would get more boring and, most worryingly, the nutritional content might well start dipping into less than optimal levels. It's this last that worries me most when I see some folk's menus for a week, they may be cheap but they're not nutritionally sound over a long period of time. Some folk do this better than others though and it's true, committed clued up vegetarians do come out very well when it comes to good value nutritious meals. Making a chicken stretch to 15-20 adult "portions" though is worrying if that's the only source of protein in the diet. You have to start thinking of the chicken as a flavouring rather than the main ingredient in such cases.


Have to say though if you're splitting a 500g pack of mince between two adults and a toddler then your meat portions are too large, and in an unhealthy way at that when it comes to red meat. The portion size for an adult for red meat is 100-125g, so your pack of mince should make four reasonable adult portions plus a couple for the toddler. Two meals worth in other words. I dislike adding oats or lentils to bulk out meat, I'd rather just make a lentil curry another time! But for bolognaise sauce I'd use onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes, diced carrot and maybe sliced mushrooms and/or diced peppers if I had some to use up. 500g of mince + two tins of chopped tomatoes plus all the rest would easily feed us four for a meal, and my kids have hollow legs believe me.


I would suggest looking at your admittedly high meat bill first, to see how you can reduce it a little. Portion size is the obvious one, the adult portion size for red meat is 125g approx., for chicken it's 150g, for things like sausages it's two big sausages. You can Google for other meat items.
Secondly try Aldi or Lidl for meat, it's good quality and they have regular offers, last weekend Lidl were selling their packs of mince at 50% off, that's £1 for a 500g pack.
Thirdly, look at having one or two meatless meals per week, like a pasta meal or vegetarian curry. Eating meat every day is not ideal for health and this is even more so if you eat it at two meals a day. Egg, cheese or vegetable based recipes are cheaper in general. Also one or two fish meals per week though admittedly fish isn't any cheaper than meat most of the time! Fish portion size is 150g too btw.


The other thing to remember is if you can afford the higher bill then don't feel you HAVE to reduce it if it's going to make you miserable about eating things you don't want to, or if you'll get really stressed out about not having time to do any extra shopping or prep. Life is about balance and eating good healthy food that you enjoy is part of this, as is time to spend with your family. So don't feel too pressurised when you read of other families' £40 food bills, it may very well be they're on a really tight budget and having to economise and they'd love an extra £20 or even £40 a week to spend.

Great post :T :T

I've highlighted the bits I feel are most important when considering reducing a food budget.

Mummy_Moo

shaneshaneshane wrote: »

For meals like spag bol, is there any way to "bulk" it out with cheaper products as we tend to use a whole pack of mince (400/500g, whatever size it is) .. I am sure that there must be ways to half this while retaining a nice, meaty, hearty spag bol with other added extras?

When I'm cooking anything with mince in I bulk it out with tesco-value baked beans, or I blend up tesco-value mixed frozen veg and mix that in. It helps sneak extra veggies into meals as well as bulking meat out. The blended veg also works well in curries, stews etc.

UnderPressure

Also worth bearing in mind OP is there is a LOT of bullpoop spoken on this forum when it comes to food budgets, almost as though it is some kind of a competition as to who can be the tightest and eat the crappiest food fro a week!

Do whatever you feel happy doing and eating, I agree with everything Valk_Scot said and ignore the others who feed a family of 15, 5 times a week on 1 chicken leg, it is what it sounds like BULL!

p-pincher

valk_scot wrote: »

I have two sporty teenagers and an OH to feed as well as myself and spend about £80 a week on food. I shop around, I can cook pretty well, I use a lot of fresh ingredients, I do manage to get a few reduced items now and again but don't make a career out of it iyswim. I only buy coke, crisps, biscuits and such as the odd treat, not regularly. We eat a lot of fruit and veg.


Could I get it lower? Yes, I could probably trim another £10 easily without the meals looking much different, I'd have to put a bit more thought and work though. To get it down to £40? I think the portions would get smaller, the meals would get more boring and, most worryingly, the nutritional content might well start dipping into less than optimal levels. It's this last that worries me most when I see some folk's menus for a week, they may be cheap but they're not nutritionally sound over a long period of time. Some folk do this better than others though and it's true, committed clued up vegetarians do come out very well when it comes to good value nutritious meals. Making a chicken stretch to 15-20 adult "portions" though is worrying if that's the only source of protein in the diet. You have to start thinking of the chicken as a flavouring rather than the main ingredient in such cases.


Have to say though if you're splitting a 500g pack of mince between two adults and a toddler then your meat portions are too large, and in an unhealthy way at that when it comes to red meat. The portion size for an adult for red meat is 100-125g, so your pack of mince should make four reasonable adult portions plus a couple for the toddler. Two meals worth in other words. I dislike adding oats or lentils to bulk out meat, I'd rather just make a lentil curry another time! But for bolognaise sauce I'd use onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes, diced carrot and maybe sliced mushrooms and/or diced peppers if I had some to use up. 500g of mince + two tins of chopped tomatoes plus all the rest would easily feed us four for a meal, and my kids have hollow legs believe me.


I would suggest looking at your admittedly high meat bill first, to see how you can reduce it a little. Portion size is the obvious one, the adult portion size for red meat is 125g approx., for chicken it's 150g, for things like sausages it's two big sausages. You can Google for other meat items.
Secondly try Aldi or Lidl for meat, it's good quality and they have regular offers, last weekend Lidl were selling their packs of mince at 50% off, that's £1 for a 500g pack.
Thirdly, look at having one or two meatless meals per week, like a pasta meal or vegetarian curry. Eating meat every day is not ideal for health and this is even more so if you eat it at two meals a day. Egg, cheese or vegetable based recipes are cheaper in general. Also one or two fish meals per week though admittedly fish isn't any cheaper than meat most of the time! Fish portion size is 150g too btw.


The other thing to remember is if you can afford the higher bill then don't feel you HAVE to reduce it if it's going to make you miserable about eating things you don't want to, or if you'll get really stressed out about not having time to do any extra shopping or prep. Life is about balance and eating good healthy food that you enjoy is part of this, as is time to spend with your family. So don't feel too pressurised when you read of other families' £40 food bills, it may very well be they're on a really tight budget and having to economise and they'd love an extra £20 or even £40 a week to spend.

This quite possibly the most intelligent post i've seen on MSE!

maman

UnderPressure wrote: »

Also worth bearing in mind OP is there is a LOT of bullpoop spoken on this forum when it comes to food budgets, almost as though it is some kind of a competition as to who can be the tightest and eat the crappiest food fro a week!

Do whatever you feel happy doing and eating, I agree with everything Valk_Scot said and ignore the others who feed a family of 15, 5 times a week on 1 chicken leg, it is what it sounds like BULL!

Ah but then they'd be able to feed the same family for over a month. If they add bull to the meat rations, with a generous dollop of oats and lentils it'll stretch even further!!!:rotfl:

valk_scot

p-pincher wrote: »

This quite possibly the most intelligent post i've seen on MSE!

Thank you, lol!

~Chameleon~

Nutrition is most important. Without it your body and health will suffer. I really can't understand why some people want to cut their budget to the bone. Even basic benefits will allow you to eat a healthy diet unless you're otherwise seriously in debt.

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

I totally agree with valk_scot. Our budget for 2 adults is £80 for the supermarket which includes cleaning stuff etc and then £20 a month is for the home grown meat I buy off my mum so £100 in total for the month. If we go over one month because I have stocked up on something that is on offer it is balanced out the next ad we do not need to spend as much. Examples of stocking up on non perishable things like washing powder and toilet paper when on offer. We bought a years worth of kitchen towel off groupon so it was a bigger outlay right now but saves money over the year.

I also buy mostly smart price/value labels as I do not see a major difference between vslue bag of ay a value bag of sugar and a branded bag. I an also a yellow sticker addict as I firstly cannot see how anyone can determine the exact day that a bag of apples are not fit for eating. Combined with the fact that it will go straight in the freezer just the same as if you pay full price. I will cook most meals fron scratch and the slow cooker is my best friend during winter and is great if you have veg that is not looking its best and then saves you throwing it away. If I have left overs that will not be eaten the next day I will put them in the freezer as a quick ready meal that I know is healthy as I know what I have put in. Which could be great if trying to cut down portion size.

Yes we have the odd fry up, pizza and chips etc but we eat a lot healthier than a lot of people I know.

pinkparrott

Hi , I think what others have said above is great advice. I've joined the grocery challenge on old style too, but were doing £500 a month for 2 adults , 2 kids aged 8 & 5 and 3 cats.
I've just got the " a girl called jack " cook book and there are some cheap healthy recepies in there. I made the kidney bean & carrot burgers for lunch and served them in Pitta's , the meal for 4 only cost about £1,50 . & were having a risotto for tea with value frozen peas, courgette and some streaky bacon , so another cheap meal.
But at others have said its not a competition and I tend to do a cheap meal a couple of times a week to balance out the more expensive meals, we eat red meat 1 a week - usually beef mince burritos or Sheppard's pie with lamb mince, the chicken 1 or 2 times a week and fish 1 or very occasionally 2 times a week , usually salmon & stir fry & noodles or fish pie, then cheaperveg based meals like pasta , risotto, omelette, baked potatoes ,and the odd quick tea of beans on toast every now and then. I've managed to reduce my budget by baking a loaf cake or batch of muffins each week , porridge or weetabix instead of suggary cereals and less junk.
Although I want to reduce our budget a bit more , we like to eat well and food should be enjoyable so I'd rather cut back else where - less clothes and beauty etcthan eat rubbish.

I recently bought chicken dippers and waffles as they were on offer but they just didn't fill the kids or us up, so I'd rather do risotto or pasta from scratch which is tastier and cheaper and no doubt healthier.
Good luck