250 pound weekly shopping/food

[Whome91]

Please try not to judge. We are a family of 5 two adults 7 4 and 7 months kids. Some of that is takeaways that me and dh have at night. I have a Diet Coke habit (20 for cans) I cook meat for the kids most nights. It’s including nappies for two kids in full term and baby milk. Help please

@Noti23 I think you are absolutely incredible spending £120 a month for a family of three.

I truly doth my cap to you.

I would definitely give Gousto a go OP. New customers get 50% off the first box - gousto.co.uk

There are loads of recipes to choose from and you get all the ingredients you need (except normal oil and s&p). The recipes are easy enough. I would say prep everything first, so onions and veg are chopped and ready, etc. Get some good knives and decent non stick pans if you don’t have those. I’ve never had a duff Gousto recipe.

Well we have one of those chalkboards with the days of the week on. I sit down and plan what we're going to have each day and make a huge shopping list and then get it delivered (cuts out any impulse purchases). There's 4 of us with 2 extra adults at the weekend. Normal shop about £120 per week plus about £40 at the butchers. Some weeks it's a little higher depending on laundry liquids etc. Definitely worth planning ahead IMO. Also making extra portions of chilli and spag bol for the freezer is well worth doing.

Wow, I'm a total spendthrift but I reckon we'd be lucky to exceed £120 on groceries. Mind you, we're not in the house for lunch.

I think that trying to cook twice is going to be too much for you as it'll just get boring. Are you able to make enough for you and dh and leftovers for the children's early dinner next day? Frozen peas and sweetcorn are ideal to quickly heat for fresh veg for them.

I would also be inclined to batch cook so you have something you can just heat up when you are too tired rather than takeaway.

I had to teach myself to cook, my mum and nan are absolutely terrible cooks but I love food so I had to! I watched quite a lot of cookery programmes initially. One I really remember being good was a Gary Rhodes one as it was very specific 'put your egg into rolling boiling water and cook for exactly 7 minutes' type instructions which when you don't know what your doing really helps! May well be able to find them on you tube?

I think Bolognese is best for batch, make tonnes and you can tray up a lasagne, add some chilli powder and kidney beans and it's a chilli con carne.

I also used a website called the resourceful cook when I was a student which gives you meal plans and an exact shopping list so your aren't wasting. I am now pretty good at working out exactly how much I need as it got me thinking about using half of something for one dinner and the other half for another etc.

It'll probably be hard going making an instant change so maybe dropping one takeaway a week? Making one batch meal etc? Might find it easier to slowly reduce the spend rather than finding it all too much at once.

I spend £70 on average on 2 adults, 19 month old and 4 month old. That includes toiletries, cleaning products, treats, nappies and baby milk. Also includes the mid week top up for bread and milk. I shop asda home delivery. We have a take away sometimes which can add up to £25.

That's far too much. We spend £200 max (if we eat out) and there are 6 of us. Usually we spend £150 a week all in.

If you spend £150 odd on the extras £100 isn't an unreasonable weekly spend. I just did a Tesco online for 5 of us and it was £82, including loo rolls, free range meat, organic dairy but no alcohol etc. Realistically we may spend another tenner in the week on bits.

That covers all meals including Sunday roast and packed lunches for 3 kids.

If you don't (won't) do online shopping then could you do a big shop each weekend and get a taxi home?

If you don't like the idea of getting meat/veg/fresh stuff with an online supermarket shop, you could try Amazon Pantry for the store cupboard stuff.

For your health, you should really try to cut back on the Diet Coke, takeaways and wine.

With a slow cooker or an electric pressure cooker it's really easy to cook for a family eating at different times. Easy meals we often have from that for the whole family are a whole ham- served sliced with baked potatoes and a fried egg one day then leftovers in a risotto or fry with leeks and a dollop of Philadelphia. Also make a lot of chilli con carne and bolognese sauce- we've started using TVP mince for it sometimes as it's cheaper and healthier. Sausage casserole with tinned tomatoes, onions, herbs, a splash of wine and a drained tin of butterbeans

If you've done a kid's dinner and want something for the grown ups you can always do a tray bake- boneless chicken thighs are great for that, or fish wrapped in foil. You can always prepare it in the day and then pop it in the oven later on.

We could easily spend another £100 on takeaways if it is a few times a week, and booze is pricey.

You'd benefit most from learning to cook a few basics to increase your confidence, and eating together/the same meal the majority of the time.

And start online shopping. I use Tesco because we don't have ocado here, and now I have used the app once or twice it stores everything o have bought, all our details etc so doing the weekly shop is very easy.

I tend to do a basic meal plan one night, sticking to a basic formula (something light on a Tues, pasta based thurs, fake takeaway on Friday, pizza Saturday, roast Sunday) and then do the shop for delivery on a Thursday normally so we are well stocked for the weekend. I used to do a small shop a couple of times a week, I pay delivery of £6 per month for unlimited deliveries worth over £40.

10 cans a day 😱 I feel guilty just having 1 a week! And I find diet coke is actually worse than normal coke!
You already know you have to cut down on the fizzy drinks, and anything sugary. So small steps now on cutting them out. Good idea buying squash too! Will help you with drinking more water.

If you have spare time, going to the cooking class will be a great start to help !
The other thing I like doing when I need new recipes is watching YouTube videos on how to cook some meals, watching someone do it step by step can be helpful. Start with simple recipes, once you can do the basic you'll start finding it easier to try new things!
I believe anyone can cook once you put an effort into it.

On Woman's hour last week there was a woman on who said she feeds her family for £20 a week. I only half listened but I think there was a lot of bulk buying, freezing etc. You can listen to it on BBC Sounds. Obviously you'd have to do an online shop and delivery though. Good luck with the coke addiction, seems like you're making a good start. Btw, there are some good slow cookers sites on Facebook.

Two of us and twin 9 year old boys who eat like a horse/s.

For years we have planned our meals for the week and then buy what you need. we do this so not to waste food, by throwing away rotten stuff.

We have milk delivered, all hand made grub. Vegetarian a few days a week and then really high quality meat the others. Lots a nice fruit inc berries etc.

Take-away once every three months'ish, drink water and tea. Coke goes past its sell by date in our house :-) Not kidding, every now and then. Same as booze.

£100 a week from Tesco/Sainsbury's

Try drinking water if you’re thirsty, rather than reaching for the coke but give yourself permission to have the come for pleasure afterwards if you feel like it. That way, it doesn’t feel like deprivation (which only intensified the cravings) and quenching you’re thirst with water will automatically cut back on the coke consumption.

It takes a while to develop a taste for water but it’s worth cultivating.

Come for pleasure that’s my favourite typo of 2020 so far.

Family of 5 and we only spend between £60-£110 every 10 days. I buy bread and milk inbetween. At Tesco’s too. I recommend doing a delivery because you only buy exactly what you need. The shops are tempting.

Lmao @Barbararara 😂

I was genuinely shocked reading that suggestion. Great way to reward herself!

Surprised at how little bigger families spend.
I spend over £100 a week, easily, plus, with 2 teenagers who eat like a horse.

I batch cook a lot (spag Bol, chilli, curry) and shop at Aldi, Sainsbury's, Costco, Tesco and Iceland. I buy 24 chicken breasts and bag them up into portions. Or cook 84 meatballs then freeze them ready for spaghetti and meatballs. I buy toilet roll and kitchen roll and butter from Iceland when it's on special offer.

I need to read this thread for tips on how to cut down! I thought I knew most of them!

I'm struggling to understand some other people's shopping habits!!

All the objections to shop bought mash? Plus. Making mash is hard work. Peeling a bag of spuds. Using a ricer to get it smooth. Adding loads of butter, milk, salt and pepper, an egg.

The frozen mash is vile. Or all the ones I've ever bought have been.

When I come home from work, I'm knackered. Who wants to spend 2 hours making a meal, with the first hour spent making mash?

Mn cook from scratch always lot fascinate me. Who has the energy. Are you all SAHM's?

Who are all these people recommending The famous mn chicken. I laughed at the earlier post of grating it for 7 days. I can only make a chicken last one day. For two teenage boys who do boxing and football! And if I shred the meat off the carcas I can just about make enough to take a chicken sandwich to work the next day. That's it!!

I can't work out how you all cook nothing but fresh each day!!

When I buy a steak pie, for example, one is not enough, 2 is too much! I buy it, to go with a bag of new potatoes, a cauliflower, a broccoli, and 4 carrots, to all steam, one pie isn't enough for the 4 of us. I end up buying 2. Which only just gives me 5 portions. Ie enough for me to take it to work the next day.

I can't work out how you lot do so much which is so different to me, but so much cheaper.

My 2 boys are permanently starving and after a main dinner, with all the sports training they do, and then later, after dinner then eating proteins:chicken slices, beans on toast, scrambled eggs etc. To repair torn muscles.

My shopping bill is huge!

A lot of suggestions of how to eat cheaply are based on carbs. Potatoes. Rice, pasta.

Where's all the green veg suggestions. Healthy options?

Also: Adding fruit: bananas apples, satsumas, grapes?

blueberries and Raspberries ( to go with youghurt in the mornings occasionally instead of toast or cereal. ) are expensive. And the frozen fruit is vile tasting with no flavour.

Everyone recommends Aldi and Lidl to reduce your shopping costs? over the last year we've had an Aldi open near us so I shop there more than Sainsbury's now.

both my husband and both boys love the Aldi bread, which is really thick sliced - you only get about eight slices in a loaf !! so the Aldi malted bloomer only lasts a day and a half!!

No wonder I can't eat cheaper!

I'm sorry to pick out a particular poster, but OnTheRoses posted this earlier :

"Mon: stir fry with sirloin steak and noodlez
Tue: meat balls, ready made tom sauce, salad and garlic bread
Weds: Spanish chicken- 2 x £3.50 trays and there will be enough for lunch next day forntwonof us
Thurs: pasta bake made after roast chick last week and 2nd meal therefrom with salad
Fri: fishcake, dollop of leftover fish pie, peas and chips."

Now that's similar to what we eat. We have spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. Home made lasagne with garlic bread. Home made curry with rice. Pie with new potatoes and 3 steamed veg. Dh and I like a salad, with an Aldi crustless quiche.

All these are carb heavy. Stodgy. No greenery!!

How is this a balanced diet?

I dont find lidl cheaper than the other big supermarkets tbh I find aldi alot better for price . I also stick to buying 3 different types of fruit a week bananas, grapes and oranges normally as these are the cheapest, in the summer it'll be grapes strawberries and nectarines as there so delicious in season. Veg I stick to buying frozen you get more for your money and wont sit going off if you haven't used it in time. Doing this has help me reduced the cost of freash food as In the past I was easily spending 20/30 pound just onnfruut and veg

You are setting yourself up for serious health issues with all that coke, meat and takeaways. Do you eat much fruit and veg? This seems like a really unhealthy and expensive diet

@Oblomov20 you do need carbs in your diet. They're not unhealthy if you eat the correct size portions. I never get this idea that carbs = bad. We don't eat potatoes and rice to replace vegetables, we have them as well.

Blueberries and raspberries are expensive but they're not a necessity in your diet. Fruit isn't expensive, I buy a week's worth of fruit for me and DS for under a fiver - loose apples, bananas, satsumas are all cheaper than buying them ready packaged and grapes are £1 for a punnet.

Try fizzy water and squash or juice instead of coke, I find the fizz can be more refreshing than 'flat' water sometimes