advice to cut down on food budget?

ceb1995

we've been spending £200 a month on food for two adults and a cat and each month i try to cut down and am never successful, we switched to aldi two weeks ago and one was newly built but not seeing much benefit yet.
I'm teetotal and DH barely drinks and I meal plan so not much waste, we have one meat free dinner a week, is the only solution to cut more meat out? would be grateful for any advice?

Chop-D

Our monthly shop is about the same with one extra pet so I don’t think you are doing too bad!
What kind of meals do you usually eat?
Things like pasta are super cheap and keep you full.
Could you look at if you can get any discounts/coupons on your shop? Do your work have a benefits scheme, eg I can buy an Asda gift card through work with a 3% discount.
Are any things you usually buy cheaper to get in bulk? You could bulk cook with them and freeze meals if you don’t have room to store

ceb1995

Chop-D wrote: »

Our monthly shop is about the same with one extra pet so I don’t think you are doing too bad!
What kind of meals do you usually eat?
Things like pasta are super cheap and keep you full.
Could you look at if you can get any discounts/coupons on your shop? Do your work have a benefits scheme, eg I can buy an Asda gift card through work with a 3% discount.
Are any things you usually buy cheaper to get in bulk? You could bulk cook with them and freeze meals if you don’t have room to store

thank you for your reply
I get the biggest bag of mixed veg, peppers and onions and pre chop and freeze them and I get the 3kg pasta from asda every few months and i try to go for the biggest pack of meat. i used to try cashback apps but didn't tend to like what they had on offer but could try that again, my work benefits have everything but food discounts really, the asda and aldi are walking distance from there so it's easy to pop in.

this what's planned for this week and it tends to be similar most weeks in that we have one vegetarian meal and one junk meal like pizza, burgers or something. the roast dinner is a once a month thing.
saturday: enchilladas
Sunday: roast dinner
Monday: chicken and noodles
Tuesday: fish and chips
Wednesday: spag bol
Thursday: jacket potatoes with beans and a bit of cheese
(we're away on friday night)
lunches i make either veggie pasta for me or something like chicken and brocoli or have a mug pasta type thing with a pack of crisps. DH doesn't like carbs for lunch so we don't always have the same and he has fruit and cereal at work so uses their milk sometimes. so the only places i can think of to cut down is meat and snacks and drinks perhaps, snacks is about £3/4 a week including the fruit.

MovingForwards

How about giving us a rundown of a weekly or monthly shop so we can see what you are buying and whether something's can be swapped out for cheaper alternatives?

What pet food brand do you buy your cat? Tins / pouches / kibble, fussy eater? Or plate polisher?

MovingForwards

ceb1995 wrote: »

thank you for your reply
I get the biggest bag of mixed veg, peppers and onions and pre chop and freeze them and I get the 3kg pasta from asda every few months and i try to go for the biggest pack of meat. i used to try cashback apps but didn't tend to like what they had on offer but could try that again, my work benefits have everything but food discounts really, the asda and aldi are walking distance from there so it's easy to pop in.

this what's planned for this week and it tends to be similar most weeks in that we have one vegetarian meal and one junk meal like pizza **, burgers ** or something. the roast dinner is a once a month thing.
saturday: enchilladas **
Sunday: roast dinner **
Monday: chicken and noodles
Tuesday: fish** and chips **
Wednesday: spag bol
Thursday: jacket potatoes with beans and a bit of cheese**
(we're away on friday night)
lunches i make either veggie pasta for me or something like chicken and brocoli or have a mug pasta type thing with a pack of crisps. DH doesn't like carbs for lunch so we don't always have the same and he has fruit and cereal at work so uses their milk sometimes. so the only places i can think of to cut down is meat and snacks and drinks perhaps, snacks is about £3/4 a week including the fruit.

I've put ** as straight away I can see where your money is going!

ceb1995

MovingForwards wrote: »

I've put ** as straight away I can see where your money is going!

thank you for your reply.

cat's fussy she refuses to eat any wet food that has jelly in it but will eat aldi brand gravy based food (they just don't have a great stock of it so we have to go to asda at times) and aldi treats and litter.

the roast dinner is rare because of how expensive it is to make, any suggestions for cheap meals to switch to? the junk meal is for the night i m on a late shift so i know there's something in the freezer i can chuck in to make sure i don't get tempted to order a takeaway, DH has an autoimmune condition so have to be careful with what processed food he eats. i didn't actually used to like cheese so i can do without it, DH might take some convincing though.

Chop-D

thank you for your reply
I get the biggest bag of mixed veg, peppers and onions and pre chop and freeze them and I get the 3kg pasta from asda every few months and i try to go for the biggest pack of meat. i used to try cashback apps but didn't tend to like what they had on offer but could try that again, my work benefits have everything but food discounts really, the asda and aldi are walking distance from there so it's easy to pop in.

this what's planned for this week and it tends to be similar most weeks in that we have one vegetarian meal and one junk meal like pizza, burgers or something. the roast dinner is a once a month thing.
saturday: enchilladas
Sunday: roast dinner
Monday: chicken and noodles
Tuesday: fish and chips
Wednesday: spag bol
Thursday: jacket potatoes with beans and a bit of cheese
(we're away on friday night)
lunches i make either veggie pasta for me or something like chicken and brocoli or have a mug pasta type thing with a pack of crisps. DH doesn't like carbs for lunch so we don't always have the same and he has fruit and cereal at work so uses their milk sometimes. so the only places i can think of to cut down is meat and snacks and drinks perhaps, snacks is about £3/4 a week including the fruit.

Sounds like you are doing some of those things already, ace:)
When you have spag bol do you make your own sauce from chopped tomatoes or buy the pre-made ones? Might be able to save a little bit and it all adds up!
In the discount section at our local supermarket there is always Looadds of fish! Would that be any cheaper to make your fish and chips from if you buy pre-made fish at all? Making you own chips from spuds too?
I’m not sure I would cut out the fruit part of your snacks too much unless you are really struggling to afford things, important to look after yourself as well as your money

ceb1995

Chop-D wrote: »

Sounds like you are doing some of those things already, ace:)
When you have spag bol do you make your own sauce from chopped tomatoes or buy the pre-made ones? Might be able to save a little bit and it all adds up!
In the discount section at our local supermarket there is always Looadds of fish! Would that be any cheaper to make your fish and chips from if you buy pre-made fish at all? Making you own chips from spuds too?
I’m not sure I would cut out the fruit part of your snacks too much unless you are really struggling to afford things, important to look after yourself as well as your money

i make the spag bol sauce myself with the aldi own brand chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and a bunch of herbs, curry sauce is the one thing i don't make myself because coconut milk always seems to be more expensive. The fish is prepared but we usually have one fillet each out of a four pack so can spend £3 for two meals and the chips are the 99p bag.
it's dh that eats the fruit, i just eat veg really.

Just trying to cut down on food so we can chip away at our 16k debts that we have from buying a car and our fixer upper house works spiraled a bit and me being on minimum wage for nearly 3 years (i worked in a pharmacy and thought i'd finish my apprenticeship and i'd get paid more which became clear after a bit or a year that wasn't going to happen:P), i've now got a better paying job so won't to cut where i can and food seemed like the easy place to do it but hasn't worked out so far.

MovingForwards

I buy frozen pizzas when they are on special offer (under £3 for 2), I also keep pies (under £3 for pack of 4), wedges (£1) etc in for my junk food days.

As you are buying peppers and slicing them how does the cost compare to a bag or 3 of frozen ones (£1 each)

I buy a joint of meat or whole chicken, as well as two other packs of meat for £10; leftover joint or chicken is used a day or two after, turned into something else and bulked out with veg.

My fresh fruit and veg purchases are based on what special offers in the shop on the day I do my shopping.

Coconut milk is occasionally on offer, make sure you check the 'world foods' section in Asda.

For anything going into a liquid base eg spag bol, curry, stew, soup etc buy the value brands.

Do you look at the reduced sections in Asda? You can fill your freezer with meat/fish and save money.

What tea / coffee / biscuits and other treats do you buy?

(I just spent under £28 in Morrison's after work, on a week of meat / veg / fruit and bags of chocolate - they were on special offer and without them I would have spent £23)

redfox

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trailingspouse

We talk a lot on here about meal planning, spending diaries and so on - but I think a waste diary might be a good idea for you. How much do you throw out? If you are regularly buying something and not finishing it before it goes off, stop buying it.


Also - portion control. Could you just be making too much food?


I do a roast chicken dinner every week (I live on my own) - then I use up the rest of the chicken during the week. I find it extremely economical.