(Sorry another 'weekly food shop post'....)
I just don't think it is! I struggle to get our weekly food shop below £140pw. That's for me, DH, ds9, dd7 and dd1 (and soon to be newborn ds). We all love our food, though I tear my hair out every week planning meals everyone will enjoy rather than refuse and sulk about tolerate, and cook from scratch (just things like spag Bol, curry, carbonara, puff pastry 'pizza', roasts...) but I often think blimey if I could just chuck a few ready meals in the trolley and loads of bits from the frozen section (burgers, nuggets, kievs!!) we'd be quids in! But then we wouldn't be eating so healthily and I wouldn't know exactly what we're all putting in our mouths.
Weekly food shop includes packed lunches, loads of fruit for snacks, cat food, household bits, nappies.... but not alcohol, that comes out of DH's 'own' pocket rather than our joint account even if it's wine for me. We never have leftovers so can't stretch a meal over 2 days (DCs have growing appetites).
I am green with envy when I see people saying they can feed a family of four for £50 a week! Just....how?!
And ok, before you ask, I have been shopping at ocado lately but I haven't seen a huge price diff than when I used sainsburys.
Please help me see where I'm going wrong!
AIBU?
AIBU to be confused when people say it's cheaper to cook from scratch?
Blueskiesandcherrypies · 23/03/2014 19:16
I hope you achieve everything you set out to truffle but please don't get too enmeshed in a saving money and scrimping mentality. My MIL did that (she and FIL having come from very poor backgrounds indeed) and all her children remember being hungry and having second hand and walking rather than taking the bus in the rain to save their mum the money when it was so tight. When FIL died (and they were living in a house that hadn't been decorated for 40 years) it was discovered they had more than a million pounds in the bank. Their children just remember a fairly grim childhood. I'm not saying you would be that awful but it's a cautionary tale I think and one of the reasons why my DH likes a full fridge and never hesitates to write a cheque for a school trip, etc
Sorry a bit of message there.
But Bretgirl the milk. At our peak it was 21 pints. The DC are older teenagers now and we get through two 
We go thru 8 pints brett, and we are 2 adults and 1 toddler - who doesn't drink milk. 
I could also start a thread asking how many loo rolls you go thru a day? Yes, you read right, A DAY!
We go thru 1 a day on average. More when dh was working from home 
. The thing is I hardly use any.
I wouldn't want your bogroll bill . I do put pulses into cooking already because I like them.
Glad to hear that there are others who rival our milk habit but seriously that's a good dent in a 50 quid per week shopping bill . I feel 
pushing the trolley though it looks like I'm running a canteen.
Yes bret i am incredulous whenever i go into the lavvy. It's not just the bill tho. It's not having anywhere to store more than a 4 pack (tiny flat) and having to carry those expensive smaller packs from the shop every few days (don't drive). Also unblocking the constantly blocked bog 
DP drink gallons of milk in his tea and coffee. There's just the two of us and I would say we have 12-16 pints of milk a week. I know it's him, because he works away quite a bit and when its just me, I use about a pint or two a week, unless I am baking or making cheese sauce.
We also use about 2 dozen eggs a week as we both have 2 a day for breakfast most days.
I don't think truffle's grocery bill is that tight. Its simply the case that if you cook from scratch and don't waste anything, you can eat really well for very little.
I'm always a little when people talk about having 'meat free mondays' or 'going veggie one or two days per week', as to me, it is all just food.
I eat meat, but not just every meal. I can think of a hundred meals that I eat that have little or no meat in them. It's not deliberate and I don't think that a meal has to have meat in it or that a meal without meat is any less.
Things like:
Courgette or mushroom risotto
Scrambled eggs on toast
omelettes
cous cous with cheese and roast veg
Chillis or bolognaises with
Pasta bake with one tin of tuna between about 4 portions
People say that soup is not a meal, but I make one with loads of veg, beans and a small pack of bacon lardons and it is very filling - more a stew really. Lentil or chick pea dhals are filling. I also make a noodle soup with noodles, finely chopped veg and small amounts of chicken or prawns. You could use the leftover chicken trimmings, but apparently that's akin to a starvation diet on here.
I stumbled across this list of budget meals on the BBC food website this lunchtime whilst looking for a specific recipe. Might be of interest to anyone looking to cook to a budget.
The other thing I have to add is that somewhere upthread there was a discussion about the cost of cooking dried pulses. I minimise this by batch cooking: I'll make 2-4 times as much of a main dish as we need and freeze the rest. Barely costs more in power than cooking what we need that day and heats up fast when I need a lazy meal to which I just add rice/pasta/microwave jacket potato especially if I remember to get it out of the freezer in the morning
MrsK I think you need to put your DH in charge of loo roll shopping. That's just daft. Maybe a selection of face/cleaning cloths for christmas?
Daddy
how many pizzas though?
not so bad on your own - it's the 8 of us here....
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I think I know what you mean 
Well, I have on the whole always bought meat on the cheaper end of the scale, 'good' meat ie expensive, is not unknown to me, so I do have some point of reference!
How meat is cooked/seasoned has more of a bearing on the taste outcome than price IMO/IME.
I am trying to think of a time where I have bought cheap meat that was disappointing and I can't really think of one. Actually, buying a basics beef mince, the fat content was higher than I like, but that kind can be ok if you are making a ragu.
All you can do is try.
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