Poor budgeting this month

[Gohenceforth]

It’s been a costly month already and so we are left with £400 till payday (22nd) . Still need to buy food out of this. I’m crap at meal planning but need some pocket friendly meal ideals please. 2 adults and one teen. Usually need enough left overs for adults to take lunches the next day.

Can’t really help with ideas, but as the 22nd is Easter Monday is there a chance you’ll be paid earlier on Thu 18th?

So less of a stretch

There's a very similar thread on here at the moment.

I'll try to find it

Pasta is easy and cheap plus good for next day lunch

There are loads of cheap and easy meals to make. Basically anything with Mince won't cost much so:-

Lasagne
Cottage Pie
Spaghetti Bolognese
Mince and Dumplings with Mash

Other than the Mince and Dumplings you can make these in bulk and freeze so you have 1 meal of each for 3 weeks.

A big pack of 6 chicken breasts divided up and use two between three of you chopped up in Curry, or Chicken Stew. Again can be made and frozen then defrosted.

Basically there are loads of easy and cheap meals that you can make and if you bulk buy and make a whole batch and freeze then you will save time each week too.

Packs of cooking bacon (50p for 500g) are your friend. Use it in a tomato pasta sauce or Bootstrap Jack has recipes for brie (value cheap stuff) and bacon Rissotto, brie and bacon carbonara and one with pasta courgette brie and bacon (omg dinner). Yum

£400 for three weeks of food for 3 people is not really that tight.
Veggie chilli
Fajitas
Spicy prawn pasta

What kind of things do you normal have/like?

Thanks for the tips. H is a carnivore.
Won’t eat fish/shell fish. Teen won’t eat anything in a sauce.i appreciate we are fortunate and that £400 to many not seem tight but it is to us.

£400 for three weeks worth of food for 3 people sounds like plenty. How much do you usually spend?

Could you perhaps try shopping in Waitrose, rather than Fortnum & Mason?

£400 for three weeks? How is this an issue?

I think you need to explain how it is ‘tight to you’ tbh. I spend about £80 a week for two adults and three kids and could shave it back. Not sure how £130 a week for three of you won’t work.

Why the nasty comments? I wasn’t nasty in my post and I thanked people for responding. Some of you need to wind your neck in.

Perhaps tell us what your normal shopping looks like, because I get the feeling your idea of pocket friendly (or being on a budget) is very different from most!

£400 seems quite a bit, can you reduce your spend by swapping out brands? How much do you normally spend - is it just a bit you need to save, or is it quite a large reduction you need to find?

Because it’s completely insensitive and a bit ridiculous?!

The £400 has to pay for anything h required until payday including food. What happens if I spend it all in F&M and then another thing pops up? I would have thought that was obvious. I usually spend about £100-110 a week. I obviously can’t do that so was looking for some cheap meal ideas as I don’t usually have to plan too much.

Is it just food you need to pay for out of this or other stuff too?

@Gohenceforth people are always jealous when you have more than they do. Ignore them.

Does 400 count for all expenses or just food expenses?

Everything - inc food. Ideally need to cut weekly shop to about £50-60 a week which is 1/2 what I normally spend.

Where do you usually shop? That’s my weekly bill for 3 at Aldi and their meat is great

Where do you shop?

An Aldi has opened recently near me and I'm a convert!

I was spending a stupid amount each week in Tesco for just me and DD. Swapped to Aldi and have cut my bill down by approx £80 each week

Would definitely recommend you give it a go if you have one nearby and not tried it.

We do have one but I usually shop in Tesco. Will go there and have a wander instead. H is a food snob so will probably moan but needs must!! Lol

Hi OP! Just to clarify when you say “nothing in a sauce”, is that absolutely no sauce at all (ie dry food only excluding pasta/curry sauce, but also gravy in stews and so on)?
Many cheaper meals are more sauce based for cheap flavour, so it may make things trickier.
Traybakes with relatively cheaper cuts of meat (chicken leg not breast) and plenty of roast vegetables could be a help. As could cheaper grains like couscous. Although your H is a carnivore, it’ll be padding with vegetables and grains that will save you the most.

Switch supermarket ie go to morrisons rather than sainsbury, or asda instead of morrisons.

Try Iceland - I was an utter snob and a knob, and would never shop there, but I popped into one when passing and I'm a convert, loads of branded products at literally half the price of sainsbury. The only thing to steer clear of is their own brand fish fingers. All their frozen meat and fish is excellent quality and fantastic value. I go once a month fill the freezer for £80, then top up with fresh for the supermarket. There's six of us to feed.

Sausages and mash, cottage pie, pork chops, chicken Kiev's - it's not a very tight budget, I won't spend more than that