How much does a regular evening meal cost you?

[shylatte]

This year money is tighter and I need to cut back. We are fairly frugal, but good quality food is very important to us - our shop (for 5 of us) is approx £200 per week. I cook everything from scratch, buy value products where I can. Our main problem is that the two eldest are really into sport/fitness and protein is a big thing for them. Heavy carb meals don't satisfy them at all, and dc1 wants chicken breasts and cooked salmon fillets as snacks.
On a Thursday we have fish, usually salmon or cod, which costs about £12 for the meal (this is from Lidl, not a gourmet fishmonger). That is before veg and a carb side. As part of my 'cutting back' I bought 750g of prawns on offer for £5. We've just finished a stir fry, to which all of the dc have declared is more like a snack rather than a meal On Sundays the dc like a lamb leg roast, and that alone is nearly £20.
My question is, is this normal? What would be the average price of a meal and what size is your family? DH thinks this is fine but I feel it is too much, but don't know how we can cut back.

£200 a week seems A lot but then a high protein diet is more money than rice and pasta etc..

Pork is also much more economical than beef & casseroles really well.

I think portion size is probably making it more expensive, sounds like you have big portions. With no carbs you’re maybe not filling up as much snd some carbs is important.
This is what we had this week 2 adults, 3 teens, 1 preteen. Was just over £90 for total shop
Roast beef, all fresh veg (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, suede, parsnip), roast potatoes, Yorkshire.
Salmon filet, brown rice, fresh broccoli and green beans
Chicken salad (sweet corn, chicken breast, lettuce, avocado, onion, tomato, dressing)
Homemade burgers made with turkey mince, potato wedges and salad
Fish pie with mashed cauliflower topping instead of potato.
Marinated chicken breast skewers, peppers, onions, avocado dip, whole meal wraps, cheese and lettuce
Prawn and chorizo stir fry with fresh chillies, whole meal noodles, peppers, onions and beans.
The 90 also included things like bread for lunch, eggs etc. So sandwiches with leftover beef, chicken etc and frozen fruit, almond milk, yoghurt for smoothies, nuts and regular things like milk, butter etc.
No idea how you’re spending 200 unless your portions are double maybe.

That's an insane amount of meat and fish you're buying. I take it your teens are not interested in sustainable eating? It must be a bit shameful amongst their peers to eat like that?

But eggs are quite good value as a protein source. We get the 15 mixed free range eggs for £2 so the huge 6 egg omelette will cost less than a pound.

Agree that they need to be eating more non meat protein and also more grains, pulses and veg. Plus cheaper cuts of meat like shoulder, brisket, chicken thighs and cheaper fish. Or they get jobs and buy their own?

Are the kids overweight? Sounds excessive to be eating a six egg omelette as a snack? Might be a sign of diabetes

Carbs can be filling.

Try a chicken and veg pasta bake, made with cheese and cream sauce.

@41sunnydays

We are also a family of 5 with two adults who do exercise and a 15 year old.

We easily spend £200 on food a week and I just don't find carbs filling.

We have a lot of chicken based meals or minced meat, spag Bol or chilli, we also go to Morrisons for offers on meat as they often have rump steak £10k or pork on offer

We also exercise but eat a balanced diet (without animal products in my case) and spend half as much per person as you do. It’s really not necessary to spend lots or eat lots of meat to be fit.

Thanks again for the replies. I just wanted to see if this is normal, which it seems isn't. To those who asked where the rest of the money goes - the snack food is good quality protein bars, no additive nut butters and we spend a fair amount on fruit and berries too. The dc are all very healthy BMIs/weights as they are very active.

I really need to rethink my own habits and slowly make changes to introduce a new normal. As someone said they will be in for a shock when they have to be independent.

Eggs
Cottage cheese
Lentils
Peanut butter
Hummus
Tuna
Greek yogurt
^

All high protein but not meat.

As someone who has had to use feed banks to feed my kids before I can tell you that your dcs ARE spoiled. My kids eat what they are given and are geateful for it. Read the room.

We don't go to restaurants because I can't justify the cost - portions are absolutely crap and I can do it better and cheaper at home.

If you think restaurant portions are crap then you have definitely given your family false ideas about what size a potion should be.

Most frozen veg is absolutely fine, but, as a pp said, if you are snobby about it, then you can buy fresh veg and fresh fruit that is in season, rather than eating berries now.

Re mince, the flavour is all down to what you cook it with, and if you want a softer texture, then put it in the slow cooker and cook it longer / more slowly.

Obviously, if you have plenty of money and are happy with what you are doing, then crack on, but you started this thread saying you needed to cut down, yet everything that people suggest it seems you aren't willing to move to. There are so many ways you can gradually bring your food bill down, but it seems you don't want to consider any of them.

Is “natural peanut butter” just peanut butter made from 100% peanuts? If so Aldi’s is £4/kg. How long does it take you to get through a kg of peanut butter?
I agree mince is down to the cooking, especially in a lasagne when you have all those other ingredients and it’s slow cooked for hours anyway.
Instead of snacking on salmon fillets and protein bars, they could make a big dish of dahl that can be heated up (with chapattis if they can bear the carbs) but tbh I don’t understand how there is so much snacking on what is essentially extra meals when the official meals are ginormous.

Good quality fresh meat and fish that you can cook quickly with little effort is expensive, yes. There isn't really a way around that.

We have frozen fish portions/chicken portions cooked in a nice (from scratch!) sauce eg a curry or a stew or traybake sort of thing, which is a good way to eat fish and meat cheaply, but in all honesty that type of food doesn't work for the kind of dishes you do. If that's how you want to cook and eat then yes as you're finding it does cost. That's fine if it's a choice you've made: maybe you just need to own that choice, if changing it wouldn't suit you?

Is “natural peanut butter” just peanut butter made from 100% peanuts?

^

Yup. With nowt added

If you have 3 teens I feel like that’s totally reasonable. I played water polo when I was a teenager, 3+ hour practices every afternoon. I was eating & burning between 4-5000 calories a day. I’m 5’4” and 8.5 stone so a big athletic male teenager is easily going to need that.

Agree with the PPs about reducing meat/using cheaper cuts of meat/adding pulses and veg to bulk stuff out. Use meat to flavour (rather than as a meal in its own right) as well - you can make a big pot of baked beans with a ham hock, for example and that's quite filling because you get a decent amount of meat too. Or a split pea soup.

I make my own bone broth in my instant pot (Chicken carcasses mainly) and that has a lot of protein in it. Then I use that in soups, risotto etc and it also adds a meaty flavour and protein.

I don't agree about downgrading the overall quality of your meat - I've been eating clean for so long due to allergies, that some of the supermarket meat gives me a bad stomach - so I choose to buy high welfare/quality meat - but sticking to the budget cuts of that (and eating it less often).

Also peanut butter is the easiest thing to make. Roasted peanuts plus a bit of oil to blend - job done in about 1 min and no additives.

@Happyhappyday

If you have 3 teens I feel like that’s totally reasonable. I played water polo when I was a teenager, 3+ hour practices every afternoon. I was eating & burning between 4-5000 calories a day. I’m 5’4” and 8.5 stone so a big athletic male teenager is easily going to need that.

Playing water polo, as an amateur? Are you sure?

A professional endurance runner only requires an additional 10-15% of their daily calorific intake, so that strikes me as unlikely.

Oh, and OP, tell your 'sporty teens' that Venus Williams is vegan.

Presumably if a top athlete can build muscle on a plant-based diet, then amateur kids can, too.

If your sons are really into sport/fitness and protein is a big thing for them, have you considered having a conversation with them about balanced nutrition? For example adequate carbs are crucial if training heavily, eating too few can inhibit performance. Also if they are eating chicken breast as snacks that is getting to the stage where it is worth considering protein shakes as a more economical source of protein.

@Bookworm20

I think portion size is probably making it more expensive, sounds like you have big portions. With no carbs you’re maybe not filling up as much snd some carbs is important. This is what we had this week 2 adults, 3 teens, 1 preteen. Was just over £90 for total shop Roast beef, all fresh veg (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, suede, parsnip), roast potatoes, Yorkshire. Salmon filet, brown rice, fresh broccoli and green beans Chicken salad (sweet corn, chicken breast, lettuce, avocado, onion, tomato, dressing) Homemade burgers made with turkey mince, potato wedges and salad Fish pie with mashed cauliflower topping instead of potato. Marinated chicken breast skewers, peppers, onions, avocado dip, whole meal wraps, cheese and lettuce Prawn and chorizo stir fry with fresh chillies, whole meal noodles, peppers, onions and beans. The 90 also included things like bread for lunch, eggs etc. So sandwiches with leftover beef, chicken etc and frozen fruit, almond milk, yoghurt for smoothies, nuts and regular things like milk, butter etc. No idea how you’re spending 200 unless your portions are double maybe.

Please could I ask where you shop? It seems amazing you could get all that food for 6 of you for £90?! (Unless I am reading it wrongly, or you had a lot of it in the house already).

Protein is a big thing for me too - I like meat, fish or eggs with each meal so I understand your children wanting it, especially as they're into sport and fitness.

However they're getting enough at mealtimes, there is absolutely no need for you to be providing chicken and salmon as snacks! They can have toast, even cheese on toast, like other growing teens.

Homemade peanut butter

Take peanuts, put in nutribullet. Blend until the natural oils release and the peanut butter is at the texture you like

No need to get conned into buying ‘natural’ peanut butter. It should just be peanuts.

This thread is shocking. Not only are they incredibly spoiled, what about the climate? Surely everyone knows that meat / fish need to be reduced to a couple of times per week! The entitlement of demanding salmon fillets as ‘snacks’!

There is some work to be done here to put their own lives / choices into perspective.

We sometimes get large joints of meat from a cash & carry / food wholesaler. Better value for money and can go a long way.
The only thing is sometimes when my DH sees the huge amount of meat, he over ways as it's there when I've already planned to get another 4 meals from the joint! But we usually have a roast from it on Sunday then add it to meals during the week.