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

I see what you mean about eating with your DH. Mine doesn’t get in til 615 most nights and I do like to eat with him a good 3 or 4 meals in the week. I cook the same dinner for us 4/5 nights in the week and just reheat ours once DD asleep. I occasionally do her fish fingers or pesto pasta if I’m doing us something spicy or something I know she won’t like. That’s been life changing for me, o was also cooking twice a day and it was breaking me.

I thought I had a Diet Coke habit but that's insane how have your teeth not dissolved?

I cannot believe you can possibly be eating and drinking this way and be healthy. We spend a lot less than you and I often shop at Waitrose and M&S. Their dine in deals can be lovely. Had the M&S Chinese deal this weekend and it was as nice as a takeaway and about half the cost.

How about things like jacket potatoes and different fillings or roasted veg with pasta? I don't have time to cook elaborate meals from scratch but chopping veg really doesn't take long.

I'm sorry but is the answer not obvious?

You spend a hundred and fifty quid a week on take aways, wine and cola.

So you're actually only spending a hundred quid a week on food and the other stuff, which for a family of five is not out rageous.

Why not have bottles of coke, you don't need to drink cans, reduce your take aways. Which by my reckoning is where you're money is going.

As if it's 40 on wine, and 20 on coke, then that means you spend ninety quid a week on takeaways. How you're doing this for two people twice a week, I've no idea, but you must be ordered a lot.

Wine, takeaways, cola. That’s the issue.

I bet you spend 100 on takeaways, it's easily done. Then the rest on shopping isn't that crazy. We spend up to 100 for five of us. Takeaways really are crap though, just stop those.

@willowmelangell ASDA own brand is far cheaper than Tesco or Sainsburys - you're looking at brands and some people don't buy brands.

Oh lovey. You really need to cut down on the Diet Coke for a start, that's doing you no good at all!

For food, you have had so much advice that it's probably overwhelming, but just focus on getting one day a week right. Then you can bring in a second.

For example, you all like mac and cheese - brilliant, that's Monday sorted. Make it for DC's tea and reheat for you and DH.

Tuesday - jacket potatoes is another brilliant call. Do them in the oven for DCs tea, and they can sit there on a lower temp until you and DH are ready to eat them. Toppings - beans and cheese is easy and filling.

Do that for a couple of weeks. Then think about Wednesday. How about a sausage casserole? Super, super easy, again you can make it for DCs then reheat for you and DP. Chop the sausages up and allow four for DP! Get good quality sausages, bulk it out with tinned tomatoes and chopped peppers and onions - you can buy them frozen and just tip into a pot.

Keep going like this and before you know it you'll have 7 recipes that work for you. Then you can start to vary things.

Agree an online shop would be a good idea, if only in terms of your time.

She said the take aways are just for her and her husband, but yes by my math she's spending nearly a hundred quid a week on takeaways.

So they either order big for the two of them, spending nearly fifty quid a time, or they are doing it more than twice a week.

And actually, fish fingers, chips and peas for DCs is not a bad meal - you and DH can have fish in breadcrumbs later! Keep it simple to start.

When I lived on my own I used to eat a lot of soup, scrambled eggs on toast, beans on toast, baked potato type dinners, and I had one chicken and pasta dish I could pull out of the bag if I had guests. When I met DP, I decided to learn to cook one meal each week - I used recipes from friends, online like BBC or blogs, and from magazines. By the time we moved in together I was a fairly accomplished cook, although there were a few cock ups along the way!

If you can be arsed, learning to cook basic meals can be pretty easy, and pps are right that it can save loads of money. We do a meal plan on a Sunday, and shop online. Usually at weekends we do have something more treat-y, a takeaway, or a “dine-in” type meal, but once you build up a “bank” of recipes/meals everyone likes it gets much easier. We split cooking 50/50, but both have our own recipes/meals we do.

Our meal plan this week is a bit unusual as I have a few days off, but it’s:

Veggie sausages, mash, peas
M&S Chinese takeaway meal deal
Chorizo and broccoli pasta bake
The pasta bake again
Out for lunch, so a snack-y tea - probably scrambled eggs on toast
Chicken fajitas
Lasagne with salad and garlic bread - this will do Monday too

10 cans of coke a day is horrendously bad for you.

What don’t you try Gusto/Hello Fresh for some east recipes, everything delivered and you can then repeat meals you’ve enjoyed.

You need to get into the habit of all eating the same as far as possible, cooking 2 different meals is madness.

Wow. Op...asda is vvv expensive. Might be worth doing a week shop in other shops...try morrisons or ldll first week to reduce budget. Sainsburys be more. Dont laugh waitrose might be less. Id plan your meals for the week. Good luck

I dont buy brands hence why asda vvv expensive for me

Yes that’s ridiculous

We spend around the same however there’s no takeaways, some bottled beers and 2 bottles of wine usually.
Half a bottle goes in the dinner quite often!
We are also a family of 5 (dh and i, 2 teens and an 8 yo dd) online shop comes to around £160-£180 a week and then we spend about £70 on weekend food - lots of fresh stuff goes off if before the end of the week so I prefer to split it like this, also dh doesn’t mind shopping for the weekend food and he also cooks it all.
We don’t buy fizzy drinks or gallons of milk either.
If you want to get it down, focus on reducing the takeaways and not cooking 2 different meals - such an easy save. There have been lots of helpful quick and easy meal ideas posted already.

We spent around £800/month for two adults and baby DC. We did Ocado deliveries. This was including (expensive) pet food because our cats are super picky and all toiletries and I'm GF so had to buy more expensive flour/pasta etc. We hardly ever ate out and got a takeaway maybe 2x month. I cook everything from scratch so no ready made anything or processed foods like crisps/biscuits etc included but we did buy nice cheese, nice ice cream (£50/month). I can easily see how you'd get to 250/week with eating a lot of premade food. Like other poster said, only a problem if you can't afford it. DH and I don't drink much or go out and buying nicer food is where we choose to spend our disposable income.

Online shopping is really good though if you're trying to cut down, and if you don't drive, it lets you see where your money is going and then remove items/replace with cheaper. I also found it much easier to price compare.

Oh, and a brilliant, tasty, easy tea is what I call Parmesan chicken. We buy frozen chicken breasts from Sainsbury’s - the problem is remembering to take it out of the freezer the night before.

Stick your chicken breasts on a baking tray.
Blob some olive oil on. Smush it in with a fork.
Blob a bit of garlic purée on each breast. Repeat with the fork.
Shake over a generous amount of grated Parmesan on each breast.

Bake them in the oven at gas mark 6 for 20/25 minutes depending on size. Serve with jacket potatoes (I do five minutes in the microwave, then stick them in the oven for half an hour) and frozen veg (I like the bags you can steam in the microwave.)

I found online shopping was the best way for us to cut down as I only buy what I need that way. I have cut my weekly bill down by quit a bit this way as I always had quite a bit of waste now I have minimal. We are also a family of 5 who eat meat daily. I also use my slow cooker as it’s so easy to cook heathy meals in it. The takeaways are expensive for 5 of us so we now only have one every 2/3 weeks.

Just saw the £150 on takeaway, wine and coke! Those are three of the most unhealthy things you can do and SO expensive! We bought expensive food at Ocado for less than that each week and regularly had big dinner parties with leg of lamb, nice joint of beef etc.

You know where it is going, now you just need to work on eating less takeaways and drinking less wine and coke. Maybe tackle one thing at a time?

Do you plan and buy for meals or just snacks/random items. It doesn’t seem too bad to me.... unless you are struggling financially. In which case I’d quit the coke & booze.

That's more than I earn in a week just on shopping! You pay me that £1000 a month and I will come to your house, shop, cook, and feed you all as long as I can keep the change!

Get yourself to the German supermarket that starts with A! It’ll be about £80 a week!!

Oh come on, in what world is Asda more expensive than Waitrose?

You'd have to shop very selectively for that to be the case.

You would probably benefit from following a few decent channels on YT that show basic techniques & specific meals. I know I have got loads of ideas & help from YT, not just for cooking, all sorts of stuff I struggle with.