how much should a family of 6 spend on groceries?

Apintplease

£25 a person per week is good going so dont beat yourself up over that. Your husband may be including those quick buys and takeaways in his total

Meal planing needs to be flexible, and imaginative to some extent.

For me its so its roast chicken on Sunday with all the trimmings lets say. So Ive a pile of left overs , doesn't mean I have to eat a roast chicken dinner the following day, it just means I have left overs to use up somehow in the next few days. So it might mean turning the chicken into curry or sweet and sour ( jars are fine ) the left over veg might be mashed up into a pile of mash and turned into bubble and squeak to be saved with eggs or cold meats

Mince can be anything, cottage pie or keema curry, or lasagne or chilli or bolognaise or if you cba mince and potatoes 

Sausages, with egg and chips, or with mash and onion gravy, or sausage casserole or toad in the hole. 

Stewing beef can be stew or pie or curry

For me its buying the main ingredient , having a plan for how Im serving it, and a back up plan in case it all goes tits up and time is off the essence or Im in too much pain or completely knackered. It means I keep to the food budget , which is tight and we aren't looking for takeaways or ready meals

Curry for instance, I prefer to make my own, from scratch, heating and grinding spices but thats not practical if Im not well so I do keep jars of sauces in the larder, they are a life saver

So thats my idea of meal planning, very fluid, always a back up plan, it works for us 

Pollycat

Apintplease said:

So it might mean turning the chicken into curry or sweet and sour ( jars are fine ) the left over veg might be mashed up into a pile of mash and turned into bubble and squeak to be saved with eggs or cold meats

Just to say I add cooked cabbage, cauliflower or leeks to mash for shepherds pie topping.

Or I cook and mash carrots, swede, parsnip to add to mash.

It's a way of sneaking extra veg into veg-hating kids.

Apintplease

Pollycat said:

Apintplease said:

So it might mean turning the chicken into curry or sweet and sour ( jars are fine ) the left over veg might be mashed up into a pile of mash and turned into bubble and squeak to be saved with eggs or cold meats

Just to say I add cooked cabbage, cauliflower or leeks to mash for shepherds pie topping.

Or I cook and mash carrots, swede, parsnip to add to mash.

It's a way of sneaking extra veg into veg-hating kids.

I love a layer of butter leeks between the mince and the mash on a shepherds pie

I totally agree, mash roots with mash for a side or a topping

We have a customer in work who once a week orders 60KG of peeled and topped tailed carrots and 120kg of peeled onions so I asked him today, what do they use them for ( most of our customers buy fully processed veg ) - it goes in the stuffing of the chickens and pork. They chuck the veg in with the bread and parsley and it gets so finely minced, no one tastes the carrots

balabooberlies

baggins..........brave post.

I echo everything you say for I too have suffered the same way.  Ditto on the fresh air/going for a walk.  It makes a difference.  Especially when you don't feel like it.  

Be kind to yourself OP.  Sometimes the hardest thing to do.

bala

Pollycat

Apintplease said:

I love a layer of butter leeks between the mince and the mash on a shepherds pie

I totally agree, mash roots with mash for a side or a topping

We have a customer in work who once a week orders 60KG of peeled and topped tailed carrots and 120kg of peeled onions so I asked him today, what do they use them for ( most of our customers buy fully processed veg ) - it goes in the stuffing of the chickens and pork. They chuck the veg in with the bread and parsley and it gets so finely minced, no one tastes the carrots

Of course...you have colcannon and champ.

Isn't the potato wonderful!

balabooberlies

Pollycat, when I was growing up and learning about different cultures I always felt sorry for those whose staple starch was rice.  And not potatoes !

Apintplease

Pollycat said:

Apintplease said:

I love a layer of butter leeks between the mince and the mash on a shepherds pie

I totally agree, mash roots with mash for a side or a topping

We have a customer in work who once a week orders 60KG of peeled and topped tailed carrots and 120kg of peeled onions so I asked him today, what do they use them for ( most of our customers buy fully processed veg ) - it goes in the stuffing of the chickens and pork. They chuck the veg in with the bread and parsley and it gets so finely minced, no one tastes the carrots

Of course...you have colcannon and champ.

Isn't the potato wonderful!

I actually don't like potatoes lololol

No, thats a lie, I do like them, just not mashed or boiled

As for colcannon and champ - worse nightmare - smash the lumps out of potatoes, make them creamy and then add lumps !!!!

I find a a zillion other ways of serving potatoes. I actually went through a stage of liking duchess potatoes but served them two weeks in a row - now I cant bear the thought of them

Its a nightmare in this house, 3 adults and we all like different starches. I adore pasta and rice and also like cous cous and quinoa . I love roast potatoes, chipped potatoes, dauphinois potatoes, pan fried, hash browns, rosti and croquette and a jacket with a crispy skin

He indoors, won't touch the cous cous or quinoa , loves his boiled and mash and roasties, chips are suffered, will eat rice and pasta till the coos come home, not fussed on spuds that are "messed with "

Her ladyship - boiled , mash or roasted  - no rice, pasta or any "of that bird seed " Oh and now the roasties are hit and miss - I apparently make them too crispy lol

Another reason why meal planning is fluid here. Me and he might be desperate for Spag Bol , her ladyship won't eat it because of the spaghetti so she gets hers served in a jacket spud. I make a stew, they want spuds, I make dumplings for me or take a crusty roll. I cant be doing with cooking separate meals so I just swap out what the item that we all disagree on, keeps the meal plan on track, saves the headaches 

joedenise

That sounds like hard work @Apintplease - the remembering who eats what rather than the actual doing, LOL!

Rosa_Damascena

baggins11 said:

I just wanted to say that if you are regularly too depressed to cook for your kids please get some help. I have suffered with depression for many years but have been depression free for the last 5 years. 

I have only once ever had my kids eat cereal as I couldn't cope with cooking and I know how low I was on that day. I still feel guilty although I know I shouldn't. So if you are really that low be kind to yourself and get help.

Just to add that there's no shame in the kids eating cereal for dinner once in a while, I did it all the time as a child as I wasn't keen on my mum's food. 40 years on, I'm still happy with a bowl of cereal in the evening. Cheap, filling and fortified.

baggins11

Indeed, it's far better than junk food.  I think it's something lots of people do as it's quick and filling.  I hope my comment wasn't taken the wrong way.  I was just worried about the OP struggling as I know how it feels.