Feed me and dh for £30 a week

[Evianliveyoung1]

Advice please! Am really trying to cut down on spending. Me and dh spent roughly £70-£80 on weekly shops (hell of a lot I know, no judging here please)! We usually buy salmon, chicken fruit veg the usual bits and bobs to make meals but it’s getting ridiculous. Please could you give me some meal ideas or rough guides of your weekly shops around £30-£40 including healthy bits?

Not sure about the exact cost but I always find that protein is usually the expensive part. So I make meals with tinned tuna or eggs or tinned beans/pulses/lentils and always make double to have the rest for lunch the next day. Examples:

Bean chilli
Lentil ragu (with pasta)
Tuna mayo sweet corn jackets
Veg omelette
Veg curry (add tinned chick peas)
Pasta salad with chunks of mozzarella

BBC good food is great.

Batch cook and freeze
Buy in bulk
‘Brand swap’ so buy supermarket own instead of names if you can

Soups r good - Carrot and lentil soup, leek and potatoe etx. Huge batches for couple of quid.

I think if you google ‘£1 meals’ you should get more recipe inspiration too

Quorn mince for chilli's and bolo can be cheaper than meat.

I cut my shopping down by going to Aldi instead of Sainsbury’s/Tesco. What used to cost almost £100 now costs about £45. I have down a weekly food shop for under £30 before.

Sorry- another one - try food shopping online. I think ASDA’s ‘minimum basket price’ is lower than other supermarkets. You will spend maybe £2 on delivery but you won’t be tempted to put other stuff in your trolley! Also you can filter by best offers, see the price per kg to work out best value etc

Courgette fritters
Home made hummous
Buy seasonal fruit/veg
Swap meats for beans/pulses

We've been feeding DP, DS(6) and myself (all of us have big appetites) on £30 a week recently. Mostly Cheap cereal for breakfast (cheapest cornflakes you can find), Wraps with cheap fillings for lunch, squash carried around with us in resuable bottles for drinks throughout the day filled up with water when needed and Large lasagnes and chilli con carne for dinners which can be chilled and put in the fridge for the next day.
The best thing to do is to buy value or basic ranges where you can and bulk meat out with lentils/pulses/beans and veg

I spend a about £80 a week to feed 6 of us (2 adults, 3 teenage dd's and 9 year old ds). I shop in lidles. You can buy spaghetti for 20 pence , make a carbonara sauce and add some veggies.
Buy their mince and add lentils to bulk out a spag bol, I can make it last 2 nights for the 6 of us. (The second night I layer it with tortillas and cheese sauce and make a lasagna).
Shop wisely and buy the fruit and veg that are on offer, Kiwis were down to 10p each last week. Swap your regulars for cheaper alternatives.

£30 is very tight if you're including breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks.

If you cut your meat down to a couple of times a week it's probably doable.

Go to global food shops to buy spices, rice pickles, sauces and pulses. The packs are larger and cheaper than buying it from a supermarket.

Get a whole roast chicken and use it over a few days - roast dinner one night, then leftovers in anything that takes your fancy. Fried rice, stir fry, fajitas/wraps, curry, pasta... all can be done on the cheap and bulked out with cheap frozen veggies (added advantage of frozen veggies is there's no waste, just use what you need = money saved). Use the bones to make a soup too, homemade stock is always much nicer + that's lunch sorted for a couple of days.

Avoid anything preprepared if you can (fruit, veg, 'cook at home' type dishes) - it works out sooooo much cheaper (usually!) to prepare it yourself.

Try the supermarket budget range - there are many things where I honestly prefer the value range option over the equivalent big brand item.

Have a look at the Facebook group “feed yourself for £1 a day”

When things were tight for us, I stopped buying chicken breasts (we eat loads of chicken - most evenings) and bought thighs. I slow-cooked them when I was out then picked the meat off to use in various dishes, put some in fridge/freezer in portion sizes. It was a bit inconvenient but I cooked enough that I'd only have to do it once or twice per week.
Also, frozen veg from Aldi Lidl or Farmfoods is healthy but much cheaper.
Pad out mince dishes with lentils and grated carrot so that you only use half the meat.
Pasta with Homemade sauce (tomatoes, garlic, onions, basil) is super cheap. Add some veg on the side or mix through so it's not too carb heavy.
Soup - lentil and veg, scotch broth, chicken noodle. All really filling.

Start off by stopping buying chicken and salmon. About the most expensive ‘normal’ protein imo. Eggs, frozen mince, pulses etc are your friend. Porridge for breakfast too-cheap, nutritious and filling.

@HollyGoLoudly1 mum makes 3 meals from it.

1. Chicken breast with roasted veg
2. Roasted chicken thighs with something
3. Soup from remaining bones, juices and bits.

Yum

Thanks so much everyone for your suggestions! Will defiantly try them out DH is a rugby player and literally eats us out of house and Home lol, hopefully can save a few quid with your advice!

Thrifty lesley has lots of mealplans recipes and links to other sites.

Porridge for breakfast, ideal in winter.

Home made soups, waste not want not!

If possible shop in the evening when prices have been reduced on fresh items. Shop websites often have the time when reduced goods are brought out.

Meals like home made quiche, fritatta, pasta carbonara, pasta prima vera, are cheap tasty and filling. Bulk curries and stews out with lentils or beans.

Use cheap cuts of meat or offal, cut down on the number of meat meals you have.

Have a look on websites such as BBC food, Sainsburys recipes, for ideas for economy meals.

Make your own snacks.

Eat lots of pulses.

Cook from scratch.

Eat seasonal fruit and veg.

ALDI is amazing. A whole big trolley worth of food for a week is about £40 but I could definitely do it cheaper if necessary. Their dishwasher tablets and washing liquid are really good. We buy all the main food from there and then there are certain branded foods we like (Diet Coke, Heinz beans, Hellmans mayo for example) so we get those from Tescos. ALDI’s mince, sausages, bacon and chicken are all really nice and their vegetables are cheap. When trying to cut down we do meals that last two days so lasagne or shepherds pie and eat it two days running. Then a roast chicken followed by homemade chicken pie and mash etc etc. That way you’re using up things like a bag of potatoes in two consecutive meals so you waste less food.

As the weather cools down you can buy cheaper cuts of meat and slow cook. Eg slow cooked beef or lamb to make lovely curries.

Have salmon as a monthly treat.

You don’t need meat every day even as a rugby player.

More pulses eg chickpeas, lentils etc.

I know it's an expensive outlay but get yourself on of these thingies.. It is honestly the best ever kitchen gadget I have ever bought.

Soup Maker

You just chuck the ingredients in and you have amazing soup in 25 minutes. Enough for two portions straight away and two portions to take to work for lunch the next day.

I also do home baking. Make homemade flapjacks and shortbread or fairy cakes at the weekend to last us the week. These also get taken into work for break time snacks for us.

Just noticed what you've said about eating you out of house and home....
Try starting each meal with homemade soup and bread, and serve bread with main course also.
Make puddings like rice pudding, bread and butter pudding, to help fill him up cheaply.