Reasonable amount for weekly food?

chirpychick

Definitely cook your chicken in the slow cooker (I pop mine in the oven for 30 minutes to crisp the skin a bit)

I have a son with allergies and lactose intolerance and a husband with allergies so I do understand the fussiness but trust me the sooner you start your toddler on eating what you eat the easier it will be in the long run. Sometimes my son will refuse to eat a dinner, we have a rule that he has to try it at least - he also has special needs so we do have to be a little flexible but if he's tried it and genuinely doesn't like it he will be offered toast or fruit. If he's hungry though he will eat.

I tend to do as others have said and use veg or meat from one meal towards another. If we have leftovers then my husband will take it to work.
If you are microwaving ready meals can you not microwave a baked potato for lunch? Take sandwiches or pasta meals are cheap. A huge chunk of your weekly spend must go on these lunches and personally that would definitely be the first place i would start at looking to change.

snacks and biscuits aimed at toddlers are ridiculously expensive, make some with your toddler on weekends for the week ahead they really don't take long and should definitely last the week.

Being time poor is tricky and exhausting i really sympathise, start small you will get there eventually.

maggiann

Just wondering why do you buy water?

Teacher2

I once had some advice from a money guru who said that no one ever needs to buy anything liquid from a shop. While this is a bit extreme I think there's some sense in it in that fizzy drinks can be entirely cut out in favour of tea and household cleaning liquids are very, very expensive. Often other products can be used instead of branded items like Viakall. Personally, I do buy the liquids I want but all the cleaning and bathroom products are only bought in bulk when they are on offer and I shop around too. Asda are very competitive for bathroom requisites and for household cleaning products.

PasturesNew

Teacher2 wrote: »

I once had some advice from a money guru who said that no one ever needs to buy anything liquid from a shop.

If you've room to keep a cow on the flat balcony, of course.

MallyGirl

amalis wrote: »

I am now thinking that the whole chicken would actually last me for a couple of days. This is the first thing I will change in my shopping :-)
It takes a bout 2 hour in the oven though, no? so that would be Sunday cooking only.

And once you have picked all the meat off the carcass you can pop the bones, a bit of veg, the onion that was in the cavity when it roasted if you do that, into the slow cooker for several hours to make fantastic stock. We always have risotto the day after a roasted chicken using the home made stock and any little bits of chicken left over.
Even if I don't want to roast I buy a whole chicken which will give me 2 decent sized breasts, 2 legs, 2 wings (the dogs get these) and then either the carcass goes in the freezer till I have a couple for stock or my raw fed dogs get a free meal. All for the price of 2 prepared breasts if you shop smart.

GwylimT

amalis wrote: »

Wow, I didn't even expect to get so many practical advices! really grateful.
Eat well for less is a revelation for me, will be exploring the web.
The problem with my toddler is that I never know what will he fancy eating. He is 2 and in the stubborn stage, so sometimes I spend lots of time cooking for him (children sized Bolognese or pies) and he will refuse it flatly. So I always keep things I know he will eat (like bisquits or Ellas' kitchen fruit purees, yoghurts, ready kids meals..). And sometimes he refuses even those, so it all goes to the bin...

Of course he refuses, he knows he'll get a nice sugary treat instead. He is two and a half, he can either eat it or go hungry, he needs to be eating the same as you.

GwylimT

Why are you buying water? Not only is the plastic very wasteful, but you have the luxury of having a tap at home that supplies drinking water.

Whole chickens are far cheaper if you want some breast meat, if not packs of thighs are the way to go.

You can cook jacket potatoes and freeze them, so if you remember to take them out the night before they can be quickly heated in the microwave.

Readymeals, these need ditching, they will be expensive, you will also be surprised if you look at how much salt and sugar these meals give you over the week.

Make evening meals bigger, so your spagboll for example, use tinned toms or pasatta and some mixed herbs instead of a jar of sauce. Apart from your mince and carrots you can add sweetcorn, courgette, mushrooms, peas etc, brown lentils are also good to add. By doing this you often find you have done enough to have the extra portions for lunch at work.

If you give a few favourite meals, it would be easier for us to help as we can give easy and cheaper ways to produce the same meal. Your chicken and noodles for example, just changing noodles for rice would make a big difference.

little_sweetie

I can understand you buying water if, like in our area, tap water is foul (smells and tastes strongly of chlorine) I buy the cheapest type in the supermarket, usually 18p a bottle and it's fine. We use tap water for tea and coffee as the chlorine smell seems to disappear when boiled in the kettle.
The best saving I have found is from buying value brands in preference to the big brands. I managed to shave 20% off my weekly shop just by doing that. In your shoes, working full time, I would be tempted to make bigger pans of soup and take some to work for lunches instead of buying ready meals. That should make a big difference.
Good luck, you are on the right track

TheGardener

I don't think I can add much to the other posters as far as food is concerned. I was taught buy a good piece of meat on Saturday - best you can afford and stretch it so for eg. 2.5K piece of Beef brisket or other economical cut:
Sunday Lunch: Braised brisket with traditional veggies
Monday: cold cut with wedges and bubble & squeak (made from a extra veg cooked for the purpose on Sundays)
Tuesday: Chilli and Rice
Wed: Meat and potato pie (this filling also makes good baby food)
Thursday: Bolognaise
Friday: Stir fry or curry
And I would normally get a few hot beef baps out of it for lunch as well!
I know some would say they would be bored of beef after a week but my family rarely noticed! There is so much variety available.

As for the 2 year old - mine were given the same as the rest of the family and it was a take it or leave it. If they didn't eat it, the only other option was bread and butter at supper time. The trick is them sitting at the table with everyone else and watching them eat and enjoy it.

newbiegirl

I used to live on ready meals and pre-made sauce and but now I never eat them (apart from jars of pesto sometimes and the occasional ready made fishcake), I find them gacky if i do. Our weekly spend for 2 hungry adults is now about £50 for everything (including all our household bits, quite a lot of organic stuff, a chicken to roast on sunday, etc - can do cheaper when we need to).
Though I am VERY lucky as my other half does a lot of the cooking and he had an italian mama - so he's taught me a lot!
My main tip would be to pad out any mince dishes by (about 10 mins from end) adding tinned beans/lentils of any kind (we like haricot, but i've had more success disguising it from kids, with lentils, they ate lentil-diluted spag bol without even noticing). make sure you rinse the gunky water off, or you could soak and cook dried. pulses are REALLY good for you.
We always add beans this and it makes it more likely we end up with leftovers for lunch/next evening - though i have to stop my hungry other half just eating more!
Also I'd say there's a lot of chicken in your meals, perhaps this wasn't a typical week, but you could mix it up with sausages which are cheaper even if you get the really posh nice ones (and sausages go brilliantly with beans to make various hotpots). Eggs are good too. And tinned sardines are brilliant. We eat a lot of cheap veg like onions potatoes and mushrooms.
Generally speaking I don't buy anything branded, try and buy seasonal veg as much as possible, ALWAYS look at price per kg before anything else, buy as much as possible is loose from the butchers counter / produce section in the supermarket, and keep a beady eye out for good meat / fish offers and yellow sticker reductions (that usually go in the freezer for another day).
Good luck!