to asked for a break down of what you eat if only spending £40/£50 a week on shopping

[littlemissbossyshoes]

when on other posts I often see poster claim to feed a family of 4 or 5 sometimes with pets for less than £50 a week. I have often asked for a bit of a break down or what they have for their evening meals this has never ever been answered.
is it all lentil stews and make a chicken last five meals or can it really be done still having healthy tasty meals and not cutting back on fresh fruit?.

We've just had this for tea
Cheap as chips and absolutely delicious. Really good food needn't cost a fortune

That does look good Joni. Vegetarian curries (the recipe you linked to would be fine without the fish - you could add some chick peas to the curry sauce instead) are a great way to go for tasty food for tiny budgets.

Endless varieties of pulses and vegetables spiced up to avoid blandness, with rice or naan bread, which can be made in a frying pan for pence.

You just need to make sure you locate a good source of cheaper spices, such as specialist Asian shops. Alternatively, many supermarkets now have a world foods aisle where you can get bags of spices for half the price of the tiny Schwartz jars. There are often cheaper versions of things like coconut milk or block and tinned or dried pulses too.

There's only me and ds here, but I never spend more than £45 a week, including dog food, toiletries and cleaning products (although I did spend £52 in Aldi this week, but they had school uniform bits on offer, so that included 2 packs of polo shirts, 2 pairs of joggers and 2 packs of pants). It averages at about £30-£40 a week, but can do it a lot cheaper when I'm feeling a bit skint!

I go to Farmfoods for frozen veg - bags of chopped onions, sweetcorn, peas and peppers are £1 a bag and last ages. I do a trip to Home Bargains or Poundstretcher for shampoo, shower gel etc., cleaning stuff and tea bags as they are cheaper there. I use Aldi, Lidl, local farm shop and the local co-op just before they close, as there meat reductions are fab! Dog food is £40 a sack, but lasts my two for about 10 weeks.

I meal plan every week as well, as I find it easier to budget that way.

We generally eat Weetabix (Aldi version), porridge or toast, plus bananas and orange juice for breakfast, lunch is usually a sandwich (ham, cheese, tuna, mackerel etc with cucumber), piece of fruit and a yoghurt (ds takes packed lunches so also takes a carton of juice and a box of raisins). Sometimes have crackers, cheese, grapes etc., or bacon sandwiches at weekends.

Evening meals this week will be:
Sunday - roast chicken dinner, with 3 veg, mash and strawberries and ice cream for pudding.
Monday - leftover chicken stir fried with mushrooms, peppers, onions and grated carrot, with noodles and one of those little sauce sachets.
Tuesday - mini pizzas made from whole meal pitta breads, topped with passata, grated cheese, ham, mushrooms and pineapple, plus carrot and cucumber sticks on the side.
Wednesday - fish pie topped with carrot and swede mash, with peas and sweetcorn.
Thursday - sausages, oven chips, carrots and gravy.
Friday - pasta bolognaise, bulked out with loads of mushrooms and grated veg.
Saturday - cottage pie, or mince and tatties, not decided which yet, with veg and gravy.

I don't buy crisps, fizzy drinks, chocolate etc. I always buy a couple of packets of biscuits so we can have a sweet treat sometimes, but snacks are generally apples, yoghurts, raisins etc. We usually have fruit and jelly, or ice cream for puddings if we fancy one. I make a couple of big jellies at the start of each week, usually with tinned peaches or mandarin oranges in, plus it make my own flapjacks and scones. Drinks are milk, water, fruit juice or squash.

We've saved about £15 a week since giving up meat.
I thought we'd save a bit but I hadn't really though that being able to buy in bulk and store it in a cupboard means that I have a lot of free freezer space so can freeze more left overs and cut down on waste. Every 5 or 6 weeks we have a week where we just eat what's in the freezer so its completely free.

We eat things like veg curry with chickpeas, tacos with lentil and chickpea filling, lentil chilli, shepherd's pie made with lentils and tomato, vegetable pakora, veg biryani, stir fries, veggie burgers and sausages.

Haven't read all of the thread but often find that the meals suggested are fine for little ones but no way will do a teen or growing pre-teen, or several of them?
Omelette and salad for example would do me but 12 year old Ds would be hungry if only given that to eat. Same with sandwich for lunch.
He already stands at 5 foot 6 and takes a size 9 shoe and takes a lot of feeding!!!

This week from waitrose for £40
We tend to buy reduced stuff and work veggies around that. Only 2 of us. Husband takes sandwiches to work or reduced soups/innocent veg pots.

Milk

few apples, grapefruits and strawberries, clementines.

Tinned sardines
Jelly babies
Oats and more cereal (offer)
Lemon sole fillets

Cherry tomatoes (10p reduced) and salad leaves.

Courgettes, carrots, potatoes.3 for 2 offer

Cheese (reduced)

Fish cakes
Reduced rice noodles
Frozen salmon
Ginger flavour fish sauce

A few reduced things:
Passionfruit and banana cake
Salmon fish cake
Sausages
Soup

Almond croissant x2 only 5p on reduced!

Fabric conditioner
Lemon chicken saucex2

It absolutely meals on rotation otherwise why the batch cooking.
Also I agree about the teens and pre teens. They also have friends that rock up that you will have to feed ad hoc. not easy when there is only me and Ds 'meal planned' for. I cook fresh a lot but my £40 shop has to include some crap for the freezer that I can bung in the oven. It's cheap and always there. Yes I do fresh carbonara and chili but his friends are round every week.
The DS is away this week. I haven 't done a shop. I have made a £10 tapas meal deal from M&S last 3 days!

I make biscuit cookie dough and cut out the biscuits I freeze them raw on a flat tray and then box up in the freezer I take out as many as I need when I need so no trying to finish a packet or having none when visitors arrive

If I was tasked with providing snacks for hungry teens whether mine or someone elses on a small budget, I would offer them bananas, beans on toast or noodles (cheap ramen packets or plain with soy sauce if you'd rather avoid the additives), topped with an omelette. Flapjacks are probably also relatively cheap to make.

Jam on toast is also cheap, but I'd be concerned that the sugar rush would just make them even more hungry.

Agree about teens and their friends coming over and all needing food instantly. I buy big bags of pasta, jars of cheap sauce, fish fingers, and oven chips to keep handy for these situations.

Like reveal my DS went away for a week recently....didn't need to shop at all, the younger ones were fine with omelettes, baked potatoes, beans on toast, egg on toast etc. Saved lots that week!

Nothing productive to add but Londonrach at putting gravy grandsons on top of marrow
Almost as funny as Remington the apple core!!

Right, my meal plan this week will be-
Breakfasts: pain-au-chocolats with proper coffee/ granola or porridge and tea. (Already had croissants and coffee in.)

Lunches: bagels with goats cheese, chutney and salad leaves, quorn mini eggs, crisps/ cheesy beans on toast/ fried egg, waffles and quorn sausages. Followed by a banana. (Already had bagels and chutney in).

Dinner: spinach and cheese parcels with vegetable rice (already in freezer)/ vegetable lasagna with garlic bread/ jacket potato with coleslaw, mozzarella and salad/ frozen pizza/ fusilli pasta with pesto, avocado and hard boiled egg. Glass of fruit juice. Followed by a
pear and yogurt. (Already had frozen Mediterranean veg, garlic bread, fusilli, mozzarella and yogurt in.)

Also got toilet roll, kitchen roll, rubber gloves, scourers, shower gel, dry cat food, 12 pouches of wet cat food, cling film, tin foil, chocolate, Kettle crisps and a bottle of Pinot Grigio. I will only need milk and possibly salad between now and next Saturday.

£49.19, including delivery, from Tesco.

I have adult and large teen DC. DS3 is 6ft 3 at 17 a couple of days ago, DD is 5ft 6 and 14. Youngest is coming up on 12. I still manage on about £60 a week.

If instant snacks are required, they and friends and girlfriends, eat cheap noodles, fried egg sandwiches, toast and peanut butter or slice sausage in sandwiches. All very cheap and effortless.

What it's meant for us is that meals have to be a bit cheaper to keep within the amount of money I have available. So bean chilli instead of meat, lentil shepherd's pie instead of mince and that sort of thing. it'a all good, though, because I've been doing it for so long that no-one notices any more and pulses are one of the favourite foods in here.

How big are these families?

. Sometimes autocorrect is very funny.....

Great thread!

I'm in the process of trying to reduce our weekly bill. I was getting everything delivered from tesco (no car) but I'm thinking of going to the town market for fruit and veg.

In terms of meat/fish we pretty much only buy 3 lots of fresh a week if that - usually the 3 for £10 (or 2 for £7) and sometimes get more than one meal out of it. Even the smallest minced beef - 250g - is too much for one meal sometimes depending what we do with it. Other than that we like tinned tuna and we use chorizo too, it's fab as a tiny bit goes a long way.

I'm starting to try batch cooking, I just need to be organised! DCs (7 and nearly 5) are a bit picky especially the youngest so it's hard to try new things on them.

I have a formula:

Breakfast £1 per day
Lunch £2
Dinner £2
Fruit £1
Non-food groceries (toiletries, household) - £1 pd

This makes £49 per week. You have to stick to it pretty religiously but it works. Dinner is the trickiest to get under £2 pd but we have lots of cheap healthy meals like dal and rice with a vegetable; pasta with lentil bolognese; spuds with beans, cheese, frozen sweetcorn and lettuce; chili and rice; shepherdess pie and peas.

The trick is to buy cheap/seasonal fruit and veg. We use Sainsbury's Basics rice (45p/kilo) and bread (55p/loaf).

oh theres only TWO of you?
Well then me spending just over $100 pw on 5 almost adults isnt bad!

There are 6 of us at the moment, 8 if DS1 and his partner are visiting (which is less often now he is working away.) 7 is DS3's wee girlfriend is here (a few times a week). I have roughly £10 per person a week for food.

There is a way I feed 6, 2 adults and my 4 dc are under 7.

Porridge with jam for breakfast and toast with peanut butter

Secret to main meals is basing a all your dishes around a few basic ingredients.

Potatoes, rice, lentils a couple of varieties, chickpeas, kidney beans, dried sultanas, dried soya mince, pasata, coconut milk, fish sauce, beetroot, carrots, spinach, mushrooms, onions, garam masala, mixed herbs, tomato sauce, stock cubes, red wine, oil, paneer, cheddar, cocoa powder, sugar, icing sugar, flour, eggs, salt, pepper, butter, milk, bread, apples, bananas and clementines.

From this you can make rice and potato soup, beetroot bourginon, tac a tan, spinach paneer curry, chickpea curry, woolton pie, lentil soup, beetroot and spinach pilaf, fruity mince, lentil bake on jacket potatoes, faux meatloaf, cheese and onion spanish omelette, mushrooms and lentils on toast, carrot soup with bean dip on toast. Plus puddings, bread pudding, beetroot and banana cake, chickpea chocolate brownies, chocolate, coconut, peanut porridge squares, baked bananas with a peanut chocolate sauce, chocolate custard and clementines, baked apples, jam sponge, banana and sultana bread, flong flong, sultana biscuits, jam tarts and then there's fruit for snack.

Sure I get more out but I can't think of more. You just have to buy enough quantities of few ingredients. This would be cheaper if you had some store cupboard ingredients and fancier if you had a few extra pennies.