Food shopping/food budget

dingdongsaving

£5 a meal sounds like loads...esp. to someone really concentrating on sticking to a small budget (which really isn't us). We often cook for far less than this & I'm sure others do too.

Last weeks examples...

*Meatball bolognese (sometimes hm form saus meat but this time found cheaply in A5da)...1/2 a bag of 27 cooked (75p) 1/2 a bag of pasta (25p), 1 jar of tom. based pasta sauce - not the cheapest as we don't like it (85p), a good squirt of tom puree (5p), broccoli - frozen this time (40p), grated cheese - we like lots (£1). Under £3.30 for all of us.

*Creamy meatball bake. Other 1/2 of the meatballs (75p), 1/2 a bag of pasta (25p), a good serving of A5da cheese sauce - from granules (10p), a pinch of herbs to taste (10p), 1 pitta garlic bread - double pack fromA5da (50p for 1), some grilled mushrooms & toms (80p), steamed spinach (free). £2.50 for all of us.

This week:
*Veg. soup with sliced smoked sausage (1/2 of a large one) & hm bread. Well under £3 for all of us & 2 portions frozen for a lunch.

* Gammon roast. 1/4 of a gammon roast (£1.25), mash with butter - we like lots (free, 30p for butter/splash of ranch), root veg (40p...some free), yorkies (50p), gravy (25p), stuffing (50p), cabbage (free). £3.20 for all of us.

* 1/4 of the gammon, eggs, chips. Meat £1.25, 4 eggs from one of the many garden chooks around here (66p), chips (free). £1.91 for all of us.

* Carbonara. 1/4 of the gammon (£1.25), carbonara sauce pod (£1), splash of milk (10p), splash of ranch (20p), pasta (25p), mushrooms (50p), garlic steamed broccoli (50p). £3.80 for all of us.

Ok...not so much detail now...wanting a cuppa!

*Red lentil/beef/frozen pepper spag. bol...<£4 for all of us inc. a bowl of salad each.

*Leftover bolognese & jackets or chips. free as bolognese costed on 1st day of cooking & spuds are in the ground!

Good luck with your budgeting! True respect to anyone sticking to a £100 a month budget on food! Even with our frugal days we mix in several more expensive days of our favourites (often Tex-Mex) & we spend well over £100 a month on groceries. Just thinking, & even if I take out our nappies/wipes, the milk for our little one, cleaning products, dog food & cat food we spend an average of £200 on food & drink. We like to make fruit smoothies with wheatgrass for with breakfast which we know has bumped up our morning costs but we don't mind as we all like them so much & it knocks us up 2 of our 7-a-day before we even get going.