Need to get my shopping bill down, any ideas of cheap meals?

[elliejjtiny]

6 of us usually, do a roast dinner for 14 on Sunday. Shopping bill around £300. I normally do the same meals for dinner each week. Lasagne, spag bol, jacket potatoes with cheese/beans, frozen pizza, roast chicken, cottage pie, sausages and mash. Every dinner served with either salad or cooked veg. Dc go to breakfast club in term time, breakfast at home is usually toast and/or eggs. Pudding only on Friday. I am terrible at snacking in the evening so going to try and reduce that to save money.

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also this for dishwashing. Will save you a lot if you are using what you say.

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I have not read through all the messages but I assume that its family that are around on a Sunday. Ask them all to bring something (assuming you are doing more than one course). We started doing that at Christmas and it really helps and everyone is happy to help. For a family of 6 and 14 on Sunday, I think £300 isn't that bad.

You could tell the people who arrive on Sunday that they will need to buy and cook a chicken or even a few chickens and ask the other people to provide some vegetables and a pudding or tell them you will not be doing a roast every Sunday. You could do a big pan of chilli and rice or baked potatoes instead. If the people who you usually invite still want to meet up they are going to have to be prepared to help out with the cost far more. You can see from their offers of help if the meeting up is likely to happen. Personally I don't see why you should fund all those people eating a meal on Sunday. I certainly would not do that. If you look at Lorna's Feed your family facebook for feed your family for £20 a week there are lots of ideas for economical meals.

Miguel Barclays books are brilliant - would recommend for anyone wanting to cut food costs down

Look at Olio and too good to go. Too good to go can be a bit hit and miss but in my area the Morrison garage bags are fantastic and the Aldi bags are as well. Look for yellow stickers as well. The Morrison bakery bags are often very good too. The cafe at my local morrison is closed now but they used to do hot food boxes and they were excellent and cake and sandwich bags

Also look to see if there are any community tables near you - some have different rules, some prioritise people living below the line but others have surplus food that they encourage anyone to take

I've also just bought an air fryer and hopefully that will help me use up leftovers

I also have a slow cooker and that's good for making casseroles and home made soup

We are a family of 5 and kids slightly younger than yours. We spend half of that. We eat similar meals to you.

Do you have hollow-legged teens that are snacking a lot? Do they drink water at home or pop/juice?, Do you buy more expensive fruit? Branded cleaning products?
What about shampoo and toiletries? These are all areas I find add up on top of the weekly basics.

I find online shopping allows you to keep a tighter control on the totals and “putting things back” that you don’t really need.

Buy your cleaning products from a pound shop if you have one nearby or home bargains or B and M.

Also if you can - trade labels down. I buy lidls own brand rice crispies. Their own brand wheat bisks. Tesco stockwell baked beans are lovely and they are 28p. I also buy aldi diet cola or the lidl version of coke zero

I like astonish cleaning products and I also use smol washing pods and the cleaning drops that you put into a plastic spray bottle

300 pounds a week - there are surely ways to get that bill down

You could also look at sites like approved food - they sell food that's almost at its date or past it's best before date but still safe to eat. There's a shop in my home town that sells mostly crisps, noodles, pot noodles -, they sell everything less than half price because the food is short dated

Definitely look at cutting the meat consumption - your husband might not like lentils - but he could probably tolerate home made lentil soup

As other people have said - pasta meals without meat aren't expensive

ours is high too .We normally have a Roast, and mostly meat based meals during the week.Also cleaning products .Bloody Persil nearing £ 10.00! Cant use cheaper brands as it makes skin sore .I sometimes pad meat out by adding veg or Soya as well .Really high ATM

Mince is more expensive than steak now from Aldi!chicken thighs are more expensive than breast,frozen meat will be your best bet,our food bill is £220 a week!

All those losing their mind over cooking for 14 people, calm yourselves 😂🤷🏼‍♀️. I could cater for 14 for a roast and have it come in less than £25 including a pudding. It’s not the roast that is the majority of the bill. I can’t even imagine spending £275 a week on food even if you ignore the roast dinner.

cutting costs. get a cheap £4 gammon joint. Boil itc use half the meat and the stock to make pea and ham soup ( casserole veg, soaked marrowfat peas, yellow lentils/split peas) . Use the other half of the meat to make shredded ham and add it to mac and cheese . Mega cheap meals and very filling.

I think it's quite logical when people are struggling and eat lots of meat that they cut meat down even a couple of days a week. Aldi do a very decent veggie and vegan range. You can get two vegan pies for 1.79.

If you eat eggs you could make omelettes, fritattas. You could make pasta bakes, I really like pasta and ratatouille. Veg chilli is nice as well.

I make potato and leek fritters - from a Miguel Barclay recipe.

Arent eggs quite expensive weight for weight with meat though?

You can get 24 for just over four quid. And others more expensive. I don't actually eat eggs myself but if someone eats meat unless they have allergies they'll probably eat eggs

Calories for calories ( as opposed to on weight) eggs are half the price of mince at Sainsbury

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I think each egg is around 50g or so is it? So 1200g for £4?

6 eggs weigh around 300g and cost £2ish

250g of minced beef is around £2.80, so eggs are definitely cheaper weight for weight.

I dont know why I thought they were expensive then, thats good value

It l seems you are constantly cooking, doing the dishwasher or washing. £300 a week - really, how much do you all eat? 3 loads of washing a day? Do I you use a tumble dryer for all that, too? I'd suggest not just looking at your food bill but whether you are washing clothes unnecessarily. You can save a lot on laundry products, electricity and water costs if you reduce that. I'm not saying be dirty, but apart from underwear which should be clean daily, are you just washing things worn once? Or using small loads? Maybe your damp problem is worsened by drying/airing clothes indoors?

I use turkey mince and mushrooms in equal volume for bolognese. I add a tiny bit of gravy browning to colour the meat. That helps keep the price down. We can’t eat pulses, but I bulk out meals with veg as much as possible. Sometimes we have sausage roast on Sundays. I always make Yorkshire puddings and stuffing to extend the meal a bit further. I take advantage of ALL the free courgettes going in the summer.

French bread tuna pizzas always go down well. And toasted sandwiches.

I spend about £220 a week for 6 older teenagers and adults. I’d have said the roast was probably one of the cheaper meals in that list. I find lasagne an expensive option these days, even when eaten with garlic bread.

Re laundry. My mum used to smell my dirty washing when i was a teenager. Now I smell my daughters! And most of the jeans. Joggers and hoodies from the floor go back in the cupboard.
Regarding cooking using wholefood as much as possible does cut costs.
I boil chicken and lamb bones to use in stews and soups. Its free and makes the taste of beans much tastier imo.

It's because you "only" get 6 for £2.

So it looks less, I think it's just psychological

Yes although as someone says above, if you can get 24 for 4 quid, thats pretty phenomenal.