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.

www.netflix.com/gb/title/81157840?s=i&trkid=13747225&vlang=en&clip=81195224

If watching this with your children doesn’t change your mindset nothing will! I watched it two years ago and went vegan for a few months afterwards. Now I eat meat once or twice a week and have done ever since. Before I ate meat a couple of times a day because I was convinced I needed to for the protein. As someone else pointed out not only is this terrible for the environment it’s actually really really bad for your health. Even lean meat shouldn’t be eaten in this quantity.

It’s not just your budget, meat and dairy production is about a fifth of our emissions in the UK. We consume way more than we need to or is even healthy for us.

Watch some documentaries with your kids that will appeal to them and try and make some changes together. It’s easier than you think and believe me reducing meat actually made me perform much better in the gym (although I did struggle with entirely vegan and found small amounts of meat and dairy is the right balance for me)

I don’t mean to sound sanctimonious because I used to eat loads of meat thinking it was good for me. It’s not.

Also carbs are not empty calories. Refined processed foods might be but all food contains carbohydrates to some degree. Humans are designed to burn carbohydrates for energy.

I think sometimes our upbringing can influence our food choices into adulthood. I was brought up to think meat = good, carbs = bad because my parents were always on some form of Atkins diet. It’s just not true.

There was an episode of eat well for less in the last series with a similar scenario and they came up with some cheaper, protein rich meals and snacks for the boys that they could easily make themselves. Maybe try and find that episode on BBC iPlayer and give it a watch with them. Sorry I can’t remember more of the details. I remember it was a single (widowed) dad with 2 teenage boys and a younger daughter. I think it was last series but it might have been this series as they spread each episode out so much.

We spend around d 100 a week, family of 4 but one of those if 1 so probably doesn't count. But have to admit there a couple of bottles of wine and cans in there! Going veggie mon- fri has helped us scale back a lot of food costs and we didn't even do it for that reason

@shylatte

Chippymunks that is similar to us then. If it was just the meals, it wouldn't be so bad, but they like 'good' snacks too. Things like a 6 egg omelette and natural peanut butter (which is expensive). Seeing this written down is actually embarrassing . I'm actually very worried about them leaving home and realuzing how much food costs! I should add that they are all really healthy weights/BMIs. They were much easier to feed when they were younger, it was only when they became teens that this started.

Oh I'm not looking forward to this stage. At the min I can get away with a pack of Pom bears haha

It sounds as if you and your dc have a healthy diet bar the amount of meat and appreciate good food. That’s not anything to be embarrassed about. You could try to cut down on your meat as pp have suggested but apart from that spending money on good quality food is investing in your health. Try to see buying fresh fruit and veg as a health insurance. Frozen veg doesn’t taste the same to me either and ruins a meal especially a roast. Your kids do need to come up with a few cheaper alternatives they are happy with a few days a week and lower their expectations a bit. Maybe they could meal plan and shop one week within a budget of £30-50 less than normal and go from there. They could have a lamb roast once a month but a cheaper cut like chicken or pork the other weeks.

Have all these people suggesting home made peanut butter taken account of the time taken to clean the blender?

To me, grinding your own peanuts sounds like a recipe for a sticky mess that's not worth what is likely to be a small saving when many supermarkets sell buckets of Whole Earth or Meridian peanut butter that works out much cheaper by weight than smaller jars if you eat a lot of it.

And I also agree that if, OP, you think that restaurant portions are 'absolutely crap' that you must be eating enormous portions because it's well recognised that, with the exception of fine dining, that most restaurant portion sizes are too big for most people.

OP, I know you asked how much others spend, but you only get a small snapshot on here, that is likely to include a disproportionate amount of higher earners who can afford to spend more than the national average, so it can often normalise the £200 pw family grocery spend.

A few PPs have mentioned Eat Well for Less. At the start of that, they always quote the average weekly spend for the size of family featured, and I think for a family of five it is around £120-130 pw.

Even taking into account recent price rises, £200 pw is well above average, and you also say you need to cut back. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it, so it has to be done, and it should absolutely not be the case that the household finances are stretched to indulge spoiled teens. They need to recognise that eating like this is a massive luxury and if they insist on it, they need to pay for some of it themselves, I think you say at least one of them is working and has savings?

It's also worth bearing in mind that recommended portion sizes of meat are around 100-150 g and that not every meal needs to include meat for good nutrition. Have you actually checked how much meat you are serving per meal. 100-150 g is far more than most people think, eg half a chicken breast, or a very small steak. Or a bolognese, chilli etc made for all of you with one 500 g pack of mince. It sounds like you are using 2-3 times that amount.

Sorry, 100-150 g is far less than most people think. Restaurant steaks are often 8-10 ounces for example, which is 225 to 300 g, so at least two portions of red meat right there.

Blimey. I don’t buy into this men won’t consider veggie food real food kind of thing - my husband is 6,2 and weighs 200lbs and we eat vegetarian prob four or five nights out of seven. That’s partially because we get a large fruit and veg box a week and it has to be used up, and partially because he recognises meat is expensive.

We use the green roasting tin cookbook a lot. There are dishes in there like roasted veg, with chickpeas halloumi or feta and lemon cous cous etc. That’s got protein in it!

Can you explain to your sons that you can’t keep spending on food like this and you want to experiment a certain number of nights a week with vegetarian. A leg of lamb is normally an Easter treat!

@jelliedeells

It sounds as if you and your dc have a healthy diet bar the amount of meat and appreciate good food. That’s not anything to be embarrassed about. You could try to cut down on your meat as pp have suggested but apart from that spending money on good quality food is investing in your health. Try to see buying fresh fruit and veg as a health insurance. Frozen veg doesn’t taste the same to me either and ruins a meal especially a roast. Your kids do need to come up with a few cheaper alternatives they are happy with a few days a week and lower their expectations a bit. Maybe they could meal plan and shop one week within a budget of £30-50 less than normal and go from there. They could have a lamb roast once a month but a cheaper cut like chicken or pork the other weeks.

Absolutely agree with all of this. You have prioritised food over other things and can afford it. There's absolutely nothing for you to feel embarrassed about. Let's face it there's not many people that would choose to eat lentils, beans and frozen veg over frest meat, fish & vegetables if they could afford it. If you want to cut back look at snacks - chicken drumsticks for instance instead of chicken breast and getting them to meal plan within a budget for a couple of days is a really good idea. Have you got a Costco near you? They have trays of salmon and chicken thighs/breasts that are very reasonable and good quality.

Salmon and lamb are very expensive. If they want a chicken breast as a snack (seems exceeding but 🤷🏼‍♀️) get a bag of frozen breasts and cook from frozen. It works out a lot cheaper. Pork is a quite cheap meat too.

We are a family of four, me, DH, 12yo and 17yo. (And usually 17yo girlfriend Friday to Monday).

We shop at Lidl and generally spend around £140 on a fortnightly shop with an extra £10-15 of local fruit and veg delivered each week.

Protein rich food is expensive if you're eating meat and fish a lot. Fish isn't particularly filling for teenagers either. I'd bulk out meals with pasta. What my Mum used to do was bulk out mince based meals with 50% quorn 50% minced beef

We spend about £150 a week for 3 of us, but that covers everything for the house, toilet rolls, dish washer tabs, cleaning, alcohol, and the odd takeaway.

Meals probably cost a few quid.

Me, DP & 2 kids under 6. I do my shopping in Lidl and Aldi every week and (just manage) to feed us all for around £75 p/w. This doesn't include some toiletries as they eat into our money quite a bit so they have to be saved and budgeted for. Meals get a bit samey but it's the only way I can do it. We still buy fruit but can't buy fresh meat, so we tend to get cooked frozen chicken and do some meat free meals. I wish we could afford to spend more, but we are so up against it.

@WeBuiltCisCityOnSexistRoles
All from Asda. Only things I had in already was the brown rice, a few spices, and dressing for the salad.
Fish for fish pie was frozen and was 2 bags for £6. Salmon was fresh in their 3 for £10 offer (2 salmon fillets per pack). All fresh veg except a few frozen peas in the fish pie.
Turkey burgers were from 500g mince turkey
Even the sweet corn in the salad was from fresh corn cobs.

OP what do you for example serve salmon with?

@RIPIgglePiggle

Also carbs are not empty calories. Refined processed foods might be but all food contains carbohydrates to some degree. Humans are designed to burn carbohydrates for energy.

I think sometimes our upbringing can influence our food choices into adulthood. I was brought up to think meat = good, carbs = bad because my parents were always on some form of Atkins diet. It’s just not true.

I agree and think (though may be wrong) that people should not just think about protein, but also about fibre - which can be found in many carbs. I do wonder whether the OPs family can really be getting enough with the diet prescribed. I know I would be very bunged up if I ate like that.

There are so many cheaper protein options than what you are buying. If they want chicken, buy legs, they are so much cheaper. Salmon and lamb are ridiculously expensive. Turkey is great if you flavour it up and don't discount offal. Lots of cheaper fish cuts available and they are right, a prawn stir-fry isn't filling at all. Eggs are the best protein source and cheap, along with beans and pulses. If you want more filling carbs, make yogurt flatbreads, get fresh egg noodles and pasta if your budget allows (get the pasta when it's on offer as it usually has a long use by on it).

DS15 likes a lot of protein as he does weights, in between meals he has protein shakes which might be a cheaper ( if perhaps not as fundamentally nutritious) way of doing it.

rookiemere I also thought about shakes.
Jason Vale has some great recipes using Spirulina and also for making your own delicious energy balls.

Chippy I do it with broccoli, asparagus (not everyone eats broccoli) and wholemeal pasta, usually in pesto.

It's not just the men who feel no meat is no meal, it's all of us Some of the veggie suggestions just simply wouldn't satisfy me, or maybe I just think they wouldn't? Quorn is not an option, I've tried that before and we all hated it.

Re portions in restaurants. I don't know if it's just the ones we have gone to (they are definitely not fine dining though!) but the amount of meat is tiny, and the majority of the plate is salad/veg. I'd rather actually go to a kebab takeaway and get a tandoori chicken kebab because the portion of chicken is decent. I will point out that the restaurant portions are probably what the normal amount of meat/chicken is, but we eat more, so don't think it is worth it. I'm not sure how much we do eat, a pp pointed out that we eat approx 200g per meal and then the dc would have more in between. When ds1 is training for a competition he weighs out all of his food to hit targets, but can't remember specific amounts.

I definitely have a lot of anxiety around food, not sure why because I've always had enough, but (as wanky as this sounds) food gives me so much pleasure so the thought of 'lessening' that experience by cutting back is quite upsetting. I really don't want to set up my dc to be disappointed in life. I used to regularly cook (from home) for a soup kitchen so have always tried to drum into the dc that there are many, many people who cannot afford to eat, let alone eat well and we need to remember how lucky we are. I really want them to recognized their privilege in this respect. But in honesty I find the thought of it difficult.

Loads of suggestions here, but I'm getting the feeling you don't seem to want to take any of it onboard or make any of the changes suggested.

Another thought though if you think cutting down on main course dinners isn't going to fill everyone up. Why not try adding a starter to each meal. I know a friend who does this with every meal so as to reduce the size of the main, more expensive meal and serves a soup before every dinner. usually a homemade vegetable soup which is very cheap and nutritious to make if you stick to seasonal veg or things like carrots, potatos, root veg, cabbage etc or sometimes she'll put leftovers from the previous days dinner together and soup that.

Re cleaning blender after peanut butter, I used to just used nutribullet. Make. Pot on dishwasher. Clean

I say ‘used’, after I perfected peanut butter, Ds was born and is highly allergic to nuts! So it’s no more

Op - meals that are just fish with pasta and broccoli aren’t going to be filling, hence you need more fish.

1 piece salmon with wholewheat pasta, chickpeas, broad beans and pesto, with green veg extra will be far more filling

Bookworm some great suggestions that I will definitely go for such as using chicken thighs for cooking and drumsticks to keep in the fridge. In honesty I can't see us going mostly veggie, but I am taking on board how to pad out the meat and therefore use less of it.