Fussy family fed up of over £100 a week food shop

[Tattooedmama]

Please please give me your tips on food shopping, if like me you have fussy members of the house.

I have a 14 year old who will live on southern fried chicken and chicken kievs
Have always had varied meals, but lately he will eat hardly anything we cook (need to be more firm)

My partner is so so fussy on alot of things which is highly irritating because as an adult he needs to start trying new things to save our finances, we cant afford over £100 a week.
He hates most veg except peas, carrots, sweetcorn.
Wont have stuff like casserole, lasagne, veggie curries etc which i want to try as the cost of chicken for 6 of us.

Whats everyone elses food budget and how do you keep it low?
Am i being harsh? Im fed up, because i will eat most things and sick of boring food or cooking different for everyone.

Theres 2 adults, 2 teens, an 8 and 2 year old.

[Discustard]

100 pound on food a week for 6 people is 18.50 each. Hard for most people I would think?

[GertrudeCB]

Teenagers cost a lot to feed - when we were 2 adults and 2 teens we were spending around £125 per, no pets then.

[katy1213]

That's a very tight budget for effectively four adults plus children. Why not let your partner cook if he's so fussy?

[44PumpLane]

For 6 people, including two teens, that sounds like a very reasonable shop

[QuixoticQuokka]

Sounds reasonable for the number of people. Does that include lunches? We are spending £30-£40 for an adult and a teen, including lunch for school and household products though.

[Tattooedmama]

We are on quite a tight budget, really hoping to bring it down to £80 ish.
Its meat that makes our shop so expensive, i would quite happily have meat free days, just need to get everyone else to try it

[melissasummerfield]

I spend around that for 5 people and don't but anything particularly extravagant, think you will struggle to get it down much more!

[Tattooedmama]

It does include all meals, then top ups still needed in the week

[Elbeagle]

We spend around £120 for 5 of us (2 adults and 3 young children, 6, 4 and 1). I think £80 a week for 6, including 2 adults and 2 teens, would be pretty tough to be honest.
Where do you shop?

[FATEdestiny]

I have similar aged children (Mine are 15 14 10 and 5) and we are low income, but I spend usually £120-£150 per week in total - that's with from scratch cooking with at least 5 veg portions per day each.

My food shop usually involved a weekly £80-£90 ish Aldi shop. Then every other day for salad/veg/fruit/milk etc - usually 4 mini shops per week of around £10-£30 each.

[ThinkIveFoundYourMarbles]

Where do you shop, OP?

[Passthecake30]

I'd struggle keeping my food budget that low, I spend £550ish a month and it's on 2adults and 2 preteens (who eat as much as me).

We are relatively fussy in this house, so I tend to use the same ingredients but tweak it if need be. So on Monday I made sausage casserole with mash, fussy one had sausage, mash, frozen veg.
Friday we have fajitas, kids have wraps, meat, the veg that they individually like, no sauces.

When I cook a chicken I also cook large potatoes for jacket spuds, and freeze for mid week meals.

Things I have done when things were tighter - so 5 days meals , each week were

• jacket potato and toppings
  

-egg/omelette and wedges

• pasta (where meat is just a small part - such as a few rashers of bacon, passata, frozen veg)
  
• roast
  
• left over roast meat in a pie/ wraps/ pasta

[Tattooedmama]

I shop in aldi the top ups in Tesco.
I would be happy to get the aldi shop down to 80 then top ups so it would be £100 tops each week

[RippleEffects]

We use farmfoods meat for curries etc. They do 5 x 1kg bags of skinless and boneless chicken breasts for £15. I like their bags of frozen veg too I think it's 5 for £4. Milk is 2 x 2l for £1.50 and they always seam to have spend £25 get £2.50 off coupons floating around, so if you plan your shop carefully you can get a lot of food for £22.50.

[RoomR0613]

Wont have stuff like casserole, lasagne, veggie curries etc

They are family basics. What will he eat?

[Tattooedmama]

Looks like maybe im not over spending as much as i thought

Maybe im noticing because we used to get our meat from a meat van, so i didnt have to get it weekly and that would bring the shop down in price (used to spend £100 on meat and last months)

[aprilanne]

It's not really a high budget for 6 people .80 pounds is only about 13'50 ish each a week that's to little to spend of food

[AMomHasNoName]

Theres 2 adults 4 kids here too and I aim for 100 a week on shopping. Sometimes I go over as we also have 2 cats and 2 kids in nappies. I meal plan everything and also do a weekly trip to our local butchers that do a lot of reduced meat that goes off in a day or 2 .I put it in the freezer. :)

[Tattooedmama]

@RoomR0613 his diet is pretty crap really.
For example when we have spag bol he dont have the sauce, he has an oxo cube in the mince with then sprinked with cheese and tomato sauce
So anything with a tomato based sauce is a no go

[Finfintytint]

It’s doable but you need to have a low meat diet. If you want to have the chicken meals then buy bone on / skin on thighs for about £3 and de-skin and de - bone yourself instead of paying £6.
You can still have the casseroles and curries using the veg they like.
If there’s no food intolerances or allergies then they need to give it a go or otherwise pay for and prepare it themselves. I wouldn’t be tolerating fussiness if budget is so important. You can have really tasty meals on a budget.
Make the basics more interesting with herbs and spices.
Stop catering for the individuals!

[RippleEffects]

DH used to say there were various foods he wouldnt eat. Turns out he didnt actually know what some of them were. So instead of calling something a casserole it might be meat and veg cooked in gravy. My personal favourite, one when DS decided he hated lasagne, is we eat cheese topped pasta pie.

What's the difference between many pie fillings and a casserole - pastry. So steak and kidney without the crust or even casserole with mash on top in a pie dish and suddenly it's a pie not a casserole.

How fussy are we talking?

[forkfun]

I find a couple of really cheap meals a week can really keep the overall spend down. So jacket potatoes and beans one night (chopped up Aldi offer veg as starter, with hummus, fruit or yoghurt as pudding). And pasta e ceci another. And then maybe a lentil soup with crusty bread or a Dal with rice and naan. Def not meat every day.

[Mrschainsawuk]

I spend 150 a month for everything
£25 on 5 kg chicken breast
£20 full pork loin
12 2 sacks of potatoes
Reduced bread 5p a loaf
Reduced yoghurts 12p
Reduced veg 1kg Carrots 6p a bag
If you are willing to shop cheap you can do it I just spent 2 hours in morrisons and got 4 big bags of food for 9.94 oh and 4 adults and 1 child we also lactose free I make big batches of broth and stew that last a while

[Passthecake30]

Batch cooking or freezing leftovers is your friend with fussy people, As you can whip something out to reheat for the fussy one and concentrate cooking something fresh for other people.

[FATEdestiny]

In terms of changing your family's diet, you can do it but you have to make it non negotiable and you'll need your DH on-site.

2 years ago I completely changed our family's diet because I wanted to lose weight and eat better meals. DH also wanted to lose weight. Since we all ate the same meal together at the table, the children's diet changed with ours.

I simply stopped buying crap food. It wasn't there so was not an option. No more white bread, wholemeal only. No sweetened cerial - whole grain only. No crisps, biscuits, cakes, ice cream etc etc. No processed food in the freezer at all. You get the idea.

I cook around 3-4 joints of meat a week. So half our meals are the joint (for example whole roast chicken, slow cooked brisket, pulled pork, gammon joint, lamb when it's cheap, or could be poached fish) with 3 or 4 vegetables and no potatoes (we only have potatoes with Sunday Dinner).

The other meals might use what's left of the joint often in a sauce (curry, bolognese, casserole, pasta sauce etc). There's usually a mince meal in there and usually fajitas with chicken breasts because the teens love them.

But the bottom line is - just change their diet and be firm. Make it not optional - if there's only healthy stuff in the house then they can only eat healthy stuff! Don't but any alternate.

I'm not sure it'll he cheaper tho, if I'm honest.