3 meals a night for 3 different people!

swjf1q

Hi, 

wondering if anyone can help with cutting down my food costs? 

In my house there is me (vegan due to allergies) my husband and my son (11). 

My husband and I are trying to lose weight and we do so by watching what we eat and counting calories, portion control. - we don’t over eat. 

Our son on the other hand, needs to eat a lot- he cycle races and trains 4 days a week, always on the go and never stops eating. 

The main point is, when it come to meal time we all eat different things due to our different needs- meat/non meat and portion sizes. It makes cooking hard work. 

If I make a veggie risotto for example, I will make 4 portions for 3 of us. Hub and me have a normal portion, son has a large, leaving 1/2 a portion. Then.. hub will add meat and an egg to this, son will add an egg,  some crisps, apple, on the side! 

This is the best meal we have as a family, other ok ish meals are- bolognaise, pasta, veg hot pot. 

My weekly shop has now gone up to around £80 with snacks. 

Breakfasts is another tricky meal- everyone having different (cooked) things. 

I know £80might not seem that much but i do want to try and bring it down or at least have packed lunching in that cost as well (we eat lunch on the go) 

any advice? 

PLRFD

That’s a pretty hard one but I will throw in porridge oats and maybe making  some oaty cookies with some honey or something good luck I’m sure some people on here will come up with some better ideas.

MovingForwards

Look on the old style board, further down the forum, they're mastered good food on tight budgets and will gladly pass on hints, tips and recipes.

Mnoee

I am in a mixed vegetarian/omnivore household and fell in love with batch cooking. If I make a bolognese/chilli/curry/stew, I make about 6L of it, which means there's about 2 months of weekly meals sitting in the freezer after. I also make large amounts of burgers and pies that are frozen to be cooked later. 

It does require freezer space, organisation, and shopping quite differently (some weeks I'm buying 3kg of meat, other weeks none at all - the weekly amount spent is really variable), but it means that for slightly more effort on the initial cook, we have a lot of easy bung in the microwave dinners for later. Saves cooking costs and washing up too - I understand more than most that you probably have twice as many pots and pans to deal with every single day! 

Floss

I would suggest making bread to help fill your 11yo son - regular use of my breadmaker was the one thing that kept my budget on track with 2 sons from being 11 to 18!

YoungBlueEyes

There's a woman on here whose sig is something like - "I'm a lovely vegan woman, my husband is a lovely omni guy". I wish I could remember her name so I could tag her in this thread, as she'd probably have a squillion useful things to tell you.

OrkneyStar

What age is your son? If he is committed to training then perhaps he needs to also become committed to feeding himself in a way that supports his training, get him to do some research and get involved! Much as parents should support their kid's sporting ventures, part of being a sportsperson is preparing the correct meals which aid your training. Can the coaches offer any suggestions regarding diet, or any groups which are related to his sport? Good luck!

bouicca21

Batch cooking is one solution, but also think through vegan meals that the omnivores will eat.  Something like black bean burgers - the omnivores either eat as is or could add cheese/bacon to their portions.  

I remember when my brothers were teenagers and could eat for the olympics. Plates piled high with carbs!

newlywed

Veggie chilli with lentils and beans always went down ok with my meat hungry household, that was one meal that didn’t seem to notice they were missing the meat. 

Also used to put left overs in a wrap (added cheese is optional) chuck in some salad and there’s lunch or another dinner done. Can add more salad for those watching calories. 

YoungBlueEyes

YoungBlueEyes said:

There's a woman on here whose sig is something like - "I'm a lovely vegan woman, my husband is a lovely omni guy". I wish I could remember her name so I could tag her in this thread, as she'd probably have a squillion useful things to tell you.

Gotcha! Took me a while but… 🙂 @Doom_and_Gloom

DullGreyGuy

Not seeing the need for you to be eating fundamentally different meals, though appreciate the 11 year old may be a bit more tricky. 

The Mrs cycles through various phases of being veggi or vegan or pescetarian and whilst I'm a solid omnivore we just eat the same food when we are at home. Ok, occasionally if we are having a burger in vegan mode I may sneak some real cheese on top but thats about it. Obviously when we eat out all bets are off and its the largest steak cooked rare that I can find.