Spending a lot on food - one adult, one child

[CostaLotta22]

I’m spending a fortune on food at the moment. I’ve got one teenager at home who loves their food.

We like different things much of the time eg I would eat salmon, potatoes and veg whereas dc wouldn’t have that, preferring something like pasta bake. They can be quite fussy and don’t like the same food two days running.

During the holidays I feel like we have spent a lot on lunches. I would be happy with a sandwich at home and a cup of tea. Dc likes a meal deal eg a wrap or ready made sushi. Not every day, but too often. It’s an expensive way to eat.

I do recognise I need to make more effort to plan what we have in advance. I’m not particularly keen on cooking which doesn’t help and sometimes I can’t be bothered or don’t have much inspiration. We also waste more than I would like as there is only the two of us.

I find the holidays hard as everything seems to be about food! How people with big families manage I don’t know. They must be constantly shopping and cooking.

When dc goes back to school in September I want to be more organised and obviously be spending less and wasting less.

Any tips or ideas welcome 🙂.

Make wraps or sushi at home (rice freezes so make a few portions. Make an evening menu plan and eat together

Find compromise on things you'll both eat, plans and batch cook ahead, and one of you (DC) might need to learn that 'likes' need to give way to 'needs' sometimes - if it's pasta bake 2 nights running to save money then it is what is it.

I would be tempted to bulk cook and freeze some of it to avoid repetition of meals. Have you got a slow cooker?
I live alone and earn enough for me but I am trying to cut back. Sometimes we cannot always have what we want. Sushi is something I would see as a treat. Have a budget, involve your daughter in this and the planning. You could even allocate part of the budget and responsibility to her for sime meals. If u are cooking salmon cook more than one piece then freeze- quick meal for next time but no gas. Win win.

Is there any middle ground where you could eat the same thing, or similar with a slight tweak because Cooking different meals is always going to be more expensive. If you want different bread products, wraps, pitas, rolls just freeze and take out what you need. Will he take a packed lunch to school?

Can you give some more examples of each other's likes and dislikes. Also, in a family there needs to be a bit of give and take, you're not always going to have your favourite.

Planning and batch cooking with a focus on lower-cost protein - e.g:

• macaroni cheese
• chilli and rice
• sausage casserole and baked potatoes or rice
• carbonara
• lentil dahl and rice
• shepherds pie

but I caveat this as someone who has a family with different requirements and likes so it can be tricky I know.

For weekend lunches I ensure we have in e.g. bacon, fish fingers, noodles so there's less temptation to buy in lunch.

You can make a meal deal at home, it’s literally a bag of crisps (24 bag own brand multipack) and a sandwich (homemade but even with part bake rolls you can make pret style sandwiches, and part bake are freezable)

when we had two adults and one child I remember spending £50 a week on food and we would eat tray bake things like shepherds pie and lasagne, pasta bakes like mac and cheese or chorizo, sausage casserole, loads with tinned tomatoes and a bit of cream.

Yes sometimes we would eat the same thing eg today we had quorn bolognaise and rice which she mostly cooked and we both enjoyed it. There’s tons left over though which I will eat tomorrow but she probably won’t want to.

I do agree that we can’t always have what we want on demand. If I make something she doesn’t like then I say she’ll have to have something on toast then.

I find if we shop together I spend far more as they love food and cooking so they are always suggesting what to buy. When they are back to school that will help as I will shop on my own.

Dc likes:
pasta, any
fresh soup and roll
macaroni cheese
spaghetti bolognaise
smoked salmon, avocado, rice and soy sauce
sushi
salad
cereal

I like:
baked salmon
new potatoes
fresh veg
quiche
fish fingers and beans type meal
shepherds pie
chilli and rice
curry and rice
sandwiches
something on toast

both like:
roast dinner
baked potato
sausage mash peas and gravy
homemade soup

Sometimes I'll make something like Quorn bolognaise and make too much because I thought there would be four of us and there were only two. I would put the leftovers in a glass dish big enough for one portion and freeze it. You could serve it up to your daughter with spaghetti when she's eating on her own. Or you could defrost it, top it with mash and have a shepherdess pie.

Definitely meal plan for the week - we have a shared calendar with shifts, evenings out etc, so that I can plan, but there are always individual meals or the makings of them in the freezer.

I'm in exactly the same situation- just me and teen dd, and there's lots of things I like to eat that she doesn't. It's hard. However, with things like pasta sauce, chilli, spag bol, they'll keep in the fridge for more than one day, so often we'll have something like that, have something different the next day, then have the previous leftovers the day after, so we're not eating the same thing two days running but I'm not wasting food.

That’s a good idea with the quorn. I could do mashed potato and cheese on top for me and spaghetti for dc. Otherwise I will be eating it for three nights which I have done before. Also a good idea to alternate the leftovers and maybe she won’t notice.

If you have a sufficient amount of upfront cash, then I highly recommend visiting your local Chinese supermarket and buying a rice cooker (you can get a decent basic one for about £30), a 10kg bag of sushi rice, some sushi vinegar and a rolling mat.

Lots of fun and tonnes of money saved in the long run.

It's me and DH at home and we spend around £70 a week in food and household consumables.

I would never have a meal deal each days as that I consider a lazy treat usually when I run out of lunches or for a day our.

I regularly have the same thing two nights running. There is nothing wrong with this or it goes in a freezer box for a next week.

Sit down and plan together. Explain the rising costs and set a budget and work it out together. We have a few treats each week like a pack of Coke Zero cans.

I also plan for 5 or 6 night and the 7th is freezer / leftover tapas (basically what needs eating eating or a frozen meal)

I also plan two cheap/easy nights so Jacket pots or omlette and chips.

£35 a week is reasonable for an adult you could giver her this instead as a one off. If she buy 7 £3 Tesco meal deals there will be £14 left for breakfast and evening meals.

Our week is:
Saturday aldi mussels with french bread
Sunday Bbq
Monday bbq left overs
Tuesday curry and rice
Wednesday prawn fried rice (from extra rice)
Thursday chorizo pasta and garlic bread
Friday eating out

Sit down and plan a few weeks together so she can plan in when the frozen leftovers will be eaten- good after a day out or busy evening at an activity or club.

Wraps and sushi are easy to make at home. With the cost of living going up, I'd explain it's just not in the budget to have a meal deal most days. You could both compromise and make wraps at home, that way she gets her wraps and you get something similar to a sandwich.

If she likes a roast dinner, then will obviously eat veggies. Is there something else she can eat that easy to cook, if you have salmon, ie chicken fillet, pie, other fish, frozen veggie portion.

It's not easy to make a pasta portion for one, so I'd certainly go with making 3/4 portions at once and freezing the rest.

If you're careful with the cost of ingredients, making a pasta dish can be a lot cheaper than salmon with veggies - if you could have pasta a bit more often yourself, that'd help with the budget as well.

If she loves cooking, challenge her to come up with a meal plan for the week, which meets both of your needs and comes in on budget. When she realises how quickly meal deals and the like eat into the budget she may be able to come up with cheaper alternatives.

Sit your daughter down and tell her leftovers are part of life.

I had this with one DD and she ate plenty of sandwiches she made herself while the rest of us tucked in to yesterday's spag bol.

Refusing to eat leftovers is ridiculous.

Another way of tackling the leftovers challenge is by using the leftovers in a different format. So if you have fajitas one night, serve the next night as quaesidilla. Not hugely different but not exactly the same. Chilli and rice one night, next night use to top tortilla chips with cheese, salsa, guacamole etc as nachos.
Sausage and mash one night, left over sausages go into a pasta bake, leftover mash used to fish cakes or top cottage pie.
Roasted veg with halloumi and cous cous one night leftover roasted veg in a fritata the next and so on!

We do normally one meal for the whole family but I do take likes and dislikes into account. So if we have a curry and there are leftovers it goes in single portions in the freezer. Same with pasta sauces.

If DH and I then want fish, something DD absolutely hates, she makes herself pasta or reheats a curry.

We try and avoid ready meals or similar and I would see them as emergency solutions or when we come home really late from a day out.

If you're already buy in ready food every day then a meal box like Hello Fresh might work for you. It's more expensive than buying from scratch but cheaper than what you're currently doing and would give you the motivation to cook healthier and filling meals.