Cutting down food costs when you hate cooking

JCS1

as well as the suggestions above, it might be worth a head over to the old style forum.  Grocery challenges, and loads of advice on cheap meals and meal planning

Zeggybobleggy

For evening meals we have the same food every week when we have a right budget.

Sunday- roast
Monday - stir-fry with leftover meat from roast. If there's no leftover meat then chickpeas it is
Tuesday - chilli made in the slow cooker the night before 
Wednesday - satay Chickpea stir-fry fry
Thursday- jacket potato with a bag of salad
Friday - Chicken, chips and coleslaw 
Saturday - whatever we fancy.

All of the above are low effort (apart from the roast), quick to make, low prep with food that doesn't go off easily. No planning as it's the same every week. If you're having lots of people eating different things it's going to be expensive as food will end up being wasted. I'd be tempted to say you eat what's on the menu or you have toast. They are the options.

For lunches I always buy in stuff that I can just grab and go. So I slice up peppers etc. When they come in the shop and buy mini pots of Hummus then when I leave in the morning I'll grab a pot of Hummus, tupperwear with peppers in, fruit, bag of crisps etc. So it's all real quick. More expensive than making from scratch but definitely not £8 a day.

You've said you probably won't plan or batch cook and that having everyone eat the same thing isn't really on the cards, but also something's got to give? 

rach_k

You could try a different supermarket.  Waitrose can be quite expensive.

If you have three teens, instead of allowing them to cook what they want on different nights, you could try giving each one a night to cook what they choose for the whole family (and your younger child could work with you to have their own night too).  That's 3 or 4 nights covered.

If somebody doesn't like what's offered, have a small stock of simple meals they can make for themselves e.g. beans on toast, pasta with cheap tomato sauce, jacket potato etc but nothing expensive or 'big'.  Nobody will starve but they might be encouraged to try more things, or learn the grown-up skill of eating something they don't actually like much!

You could do similar with lunches.  Give each child a lunch to prepare for everybody.  They can do it at the weekend if they're clever - sandwiches and wraps freeze really well if you don't put in anything that'll go slimy like lettuce.  Nothing wrong with having a big stack of jam/ham/chicken/cheese/peanut butter sandwiches and wraps in the freezer ready to take out in the morning (and they stay cool till lunch).  

FluffyBabyPenguin

You could be spending half that amount, although it would probably take multiple approaches and a bit of effort and attitude change from everyone, which understandably you probably don't want to be doing in your first month of trying.

First, set a goal. Reducing your food bill by a quarter (say, £250) would be quite doable. Do you have debts, or are you spending on credit cards, or is money tight? Any of these factors are good motivation for making the effort to spend less on food. If you have debts, then you simply can't afford to be spending this much and the teens will have to get used to the idea that they can't just be eating whatever they want every single night. Or, set a savings goal or plan a reward for where all that saved money can go - it seems a shame just to spend it on ready meals. And even though ready meals have gotten healthier these days, I find there's just no soul in them, no love, no joy in eating them! A decent homemade meal that the whole family eats is a shared, joyful experience. 

Cooking isn't unpleasant if you fit it into your routine comfortably. Add up all the effort you are currently putting in to feeding your family; how many hours do you work for that £1100? How many hours do you spend walking around the shops, or in coffee-shop queues? I don't think it would be a terrible trade-off if some of those hours go into meal prep rather than work and shopping. 

Plan in advance at least 3-4 nights of the week that you will be having certain meals and how they are going to get made in order to be on the table not long after you get home. It doesn't have to involve slow-cookers and giant pans of mince. Consider trying a couple of the following approaches to start (it may be too much to try all of them together on the first month, just pick one or two to begin with). Some effort will be needed, but hopefully not too much so you can see changes without exhausting yourself.

Approach #1 - Quick meals (under 30 mins, hardly different from walking round the shops after work?)

Approach #2 - Pre-prepared homemade meals. If you or the teens can spare a couple of hours on the weekend to make things for the fridge or freezer, you can have these ready with little effort soon after you get in from work (or have one of the teens heat them up for you getting in!) Think stews, pies, lasagne, meatballs, curries, chillies etc which all get tastier a day or two after they are made.

Approach #3 - the teens each cook one night a week. It's great they can cook their own meals, but a worthy additional skill to be able to cook for the whole family and bear the responsibility of it for one night. Have them decide in advance what it will be so you can add the ingredients to your big shop, and give them a budget so this doesn't end up costing you more than it already does!

Approach #4 - limit the coffees and lunches. Not saying you have to cut them out altogether, but £8 a day is a great place to make savings maybe at least half the time. Some people find it easy just to put some of last night's dinner in a box and bring that to work. If you can't make your own coffee at work, bring some from home in a thermos. Make a list of ideas you are happy to try, and keep a record of the money you are saving on the days you bring your own.

Approach #5 - reorient the kids' expectations. Again, it's great they can feed themselves, but it is expensive if they all expect different meals every night or cook themselves a fivers worth of food just because they don't like what's on offer. Our family loves baked potatoes and I make sure there's some filling that everyone likes (tuna, bacon, cheese, beans, salad etc) so it doesn't feel like I'm making multiple dinners. One or two nights a week they can have what they like/cook for themselves, but it shouldn't be the daily standard. 

Approach #6: Limit your shopping trips. They are a drain on your time and money. One or two top-up shops may well be needed in addition to the big shop, but try to drop the habit of relying on them for the evening's dinner. Advance planning will help this. Have "no spend days". It's also great not to have to spend time every day thinking about what you need to buy later. 

I get inspiration from recipe blogs. I like RecipeTinEats, and the Woks of Life, I'm sure there's many more, hunt about and make lists/print recipes you want to try. No one gets excited by the idea of peeling spuds but you might enjoy making some delicious meals you've researched and many blogs have a "quick meals" category. 

Keep track of your spending - use a diary, or maybe join the monthly grocery challenge on the OldStyle board? Knowing you are making savings (or that you are nearing your budget) will help keep you motivated. Making changes won't be easy at first but it will become easier and you will dread cooking less! If you are putting the money saved towards a family trip or treat, it will help also. 

Josie-Jo

There are some really good ideas here.

I would also get the teens to plan and prepare a meal for the whole family on a weekly basis but within a limited set budget. This is a good learning experience for the teens for later life but will also give them an appreciation of how much food costs. 

 They will soon realise that lamb and beef can be expensive!

I would also make friends with the slow cooker as all you need is 5-10 mins in the morning, put everything in the pot and put it on. It is then ready for when you walk through the door after a long day.

If you are going to be using the savings on a holiday, get the family on board with this as they are more likely to want to cut back if they realise that a holiday they have helped to choose is the end goal. Put a target grid in the kitchen so everyone can see how close or how much they have to go until the target is reached.  Always worked well in my house :-)

Good luck!

FluffyBabyPenguin

I also meant to mention frozen ingredients. If you have a decent sized freezer it can really save you time. Stir fry is a "fast" meal in theory but I totally get that many people do not want to stand around chopping everything for that after a day's work! Frozen chopped veg can save a lot of prep time, aren't bad value, and don't go off as quickly as pre-packed chilled versions (think onions, garlic, peppers, peas, sweetcorn, mixed veg packs, herbs). Frozen chicken pieces or beef or mince is also handy for quick stir fries, curries and pasta dishes. Frozen rice is good to have too but can work out expensive to use for the whole family on a regular basis.

[Deleted User]

I would highly recommend getting a Japanese-style rice cooker. They don't cost much and are only marginally more effort than operating a kettle (pour the rice in, pour some water in, press a button). Rice is cheap and if you make it the base for a lot of your meals you can save a fortune. We bought ours ages ago but there are some reviews here of the newer ones.

Once you jump down this rabbit hole you'll find a whole load of stuff you can do with it that requires zero effort. I regularly now have meals that are just essentially rice with whatever I find in the fridge/cupboards (sweetcorn, kimchi, cooked meats usually). You can put frozen veg in with the rice to make a kind of cheapo paella type thing. I also recommend buying what Japanese people call "furikake" but which is basically just seasoning you can sprinkle on top of cooked rice to make it taste nice (lots of places sell it online and it lasts quite a long time as you only need a small amount each time). It's basically cooking for lazy people.

Abbafan1972

I have the same problem - there are 4 of us in the house. 2 adults and 2 teens. Quite often different things will be cooked. We don’t have a roast every week though now. Hubby normally cooks a roast dinner as he’s better at it than me, but as he works long hours, doesn’t want to be slaving away in the kitchen for most of a Sunday (he does work some Sundays as well). 

Sigh*. 

LR1976

This might not be popular, but if you work 13 hours a day, have a busy family life, have to cook for them and buying lunch out brings you joy, I say just let it go. I spend a similar amount and lunch is my little treat from a demanding job. I just see it as a productivity ‘tax’. I am just not a make packed lunch or make coffee at home person. What I do try and do sometimes is go for the cheaper option. Greggs is way cheaper than Pret & just as good. McDonalds coffee gives me the hit I need. I’ll put the £3 I ‘save’ from my cheaper choice into a savings account. Pret are doing coffee subscriptions now, I don’t know if that’s an option. Tesco & Coop do those little Spanish omelettes for about £2 which can last for lunch for a few days with a side salad.

Re: family meals I’m also not a batch cooker (lots of meals languishing in my freezer uneaten) but I think if you see a batch as lasting a couple of days rather than freezing meals that might help. I often make Anna Jones vegetarian chilli, (think it’s on the guardian website) - it makes a massive quantity - and one day you can have it with rice, the next day with tacos. It’s very easy and cheap, you can’t go wrong. I also make her sweet potato dhal which is delicious and easy. I do chop and freeze the base ingredients so it’s super easy to make the next time.

I make that every week in winter and I think what would help is if you have some sort of plan, at least for a few nights a week and see if it’s achievable. For example, every Monday is stir fry night.

Other easy meals I can think of are:
- pasta with pesto, peas, feta, (could add bacon) and garlic bread 
- sausages, chopped up, add tinned tomatoes, some veg, cannellini beans for a stew kind of thing
- soup and toasted cheese sandwiches
- in summer I make an easy salad with cannellini beans, tuna, raw onions celery and whatever else I want, Dijon mustard, lemon and olive oil and add fresh ingredients if I want it to last a few days
- you could do some kind of antipasti or ‘rainbow bowl’ thing where everyone just takes what whey want. Get a focaccia and then just put out hummus, chopped up veg, and whatever else people might like, halloumi, olives etc
- jacket potatoes - think it’s fine for everyone to have different toppings if they look after themselves!

Good luck! I’d find this very challenging, can just about manage to cook for one but I think a list or a vague plan helps me. Stir frys have been my saviour recently, easy and healthy! 

enthusiasticsaver

I think it is difficult when you work long hours but your teens are old enough to cook and understand when you say I cannot afford £1100 on food every month. It won’t be popular but can you and the teens not take it in turns to prepare packed lunches and meals? I agree that having different meals for everyone is not helping and neither is shopping every day and presumably not meal planning. Move to online shopping, everyone chooses a meal they will cook for everyone and don’t buy the junk. The teens and you take it in turns to prepare wraps, sandwiches etc for packed lunch. You need it to be simpler. You are not a restaurant. They are fussy because they have got used to their whims being catered to. There is also nothing wrong in doing the same meals every week if that makes it easier. Not very interesting but at least it will sort the budget out.