Fussy family fed up of over £100 a week food shop

[Tattooedmama]

Please please give me your tips on food shopping, if like me you have fussy members of the house.

I have a 14 year old who will live on southern fried chicken and chicken kievs
Have always had varied meals, but lately he will eat hardly anything we cook (need to be more firm)

My partner is so so fussy on alot of things which is highly irritating because as an adult he needs to start trying new things to save our finances, we cant afford over £100 a week.
He hates most veg except peas, carrots, sweetcorn.
Wont have stuff like casserole, lasagne, veggie curries etc which i want to try as the cost of chicken for 6 of us.

Whats everyone elses food budget and how do you keep it low?
Am i being harsh? Im fed up, because i will eat most things and sick of boring food or cooking different for everyone.

Theres 2 adults, 2 teens, an 8 and 2 year old.

I grew up with a fussy father and a mother that pandered to him.

It was frustrating to have a father who behaved like a 3 year old when it came to food and I didn;t think much of my mother for pandering to him on that front.
His likes were always paramount, and the range of family food was restricted to a huge degree.
I didn't even taste things like curry- or even pasta until my late teens.
I tasted white pepper for the first time when I was 12 at a friends house. Anything "foreign", salads, and most veg were off the menu.

I vowed never to pander to a fussy man like my mother did.

2 adults, 3 teenagers. This week so far -

Sunday - roasted two large chickens, used one for Sunday dinner.
Monday - Half of other chicken mixed with a jar of pasta sauce, served with pasta and salad
Tues - remaining chicken used in egg fried rice and stir fried veg
Weds - veg chilli and jacket spuds
Thu - omelets, potato salad, salad
Fri - veg curry, daal and lamb curry
Sat - homemade pizzas

Wraps and/or soup (use up chicken carcasses) for lunches all week
Cereal and toast for breakfasts

Was less than £60.

I would get some pies and canned veg, tell him to heat those for himself while you cook the lasagne, fe, and if/when he complains point out that you are cooking X and only have 2 hands, so if he wants Y he can prepare that.

Re your DS, chicken Kiev for everyone once a week/month depending if you like to eat it.

When you do pasta, dish up a plate of that for DH and he can add add cheese/veg while you are sharing out the pasta and Bolognese/other sauce.

As suggested by ChocolateCake if they won’t eat what’s been cooked they do themselves toast.

My weekly food bill for 4 of us (when Ex was with us) was around £40-£50....however, I don’t buy meat (or alcohol), or much in the way of snacks etc. Nowadays, it’s more around £35-40 (this month I was skint, so have spent £48 so far and got creative with what I have in the cupboards and freezer!). This includes what we use for my son’s packed lunches (and what I take to work for my own packed lunch).

Cheap meals that I do:
-Soups (I make up a veggie soup from all the veg that need using up in my fridge/larder, blend it and that makes enough to last us a couple of meals, plus I take some into work with me each day).
-pasta dishes.
-curries and things of that ilk.
-risotto (I make it in my instant pot - easy, quick and minimal faffing about).
-wraps.
-egg based dishes.
-“ploughman” style picky meals (big salad, with baguette/bread roll and then either cheese or hard boiled egg).

I buy frozen veg, lots of pulses etc and I shop at Lidl or Aldi :) I buy stuff like bog roll and laundry detergent in bulk (otherwise I’m sure the grocery bill would be way more!).

My son will eat anything (except meat - Handy as I don’t buy it), my daughter is bloody fussy (but will eat the soups and Curries etc I make, as long as she doesn’t see the veg!). You have my sympathies re: having fussy eaters. It’s not easy!

I feed the 6 of us (2 adults, 2 teenagers and 2 primary school age kids) for about £120 a week, including packed lunches for the 2 younger children. But when we need to, we can cut it down to about £80.

If your kids will eat homemade pizza, it can save a lot of money. Even using fancy 00 flour, it costs us about £1.50 to make four large pizzas. If your husband doesn't like pizza he can have a cheese sandwich. You can make something like southern fried chicken yourself- you can buy the coating powder on Amazon or eBay and use cheaper joints of chicken which are just coated and cooked in the oven (if whole chickens are on offer, I cut them up, otherwise just whatever is cheapest. Cheaper cuts of meat like ox cheeks can make really lovely stews if cooked properly, and it's easy to chuck a pastry top onto a dish of stew to give some variety (I always make a huge vat of stew and the leftovers go into a pie). If you have a roast chicken, you can make soup with the carcass and add dumplings to make it more substantial.

I found that my (bottomless pit!) teenagers were much less fussy when I involved them in the cooking. Today one of them made ham and lentil soup which is super easy, using a small ham joint which will be sliced tomorrow and served with vegetables. If you can get the kids on board then your husband can suit himself, so long as he isn't spending loads just on himself. He is an adult and as long as he can be made to understand the need to save money, it isn't up to you to spoonfeed him.

I find people with unadventurous tastes really unsexy. I just think, what a sad little boring life experience you must have. I assume they're crap in bed as i think appetite and sexual appetite are linked.

You’re feeding a family of 6 for £100 a week? What on earth are you eating and where are you buying your food?

Agree with various posts. Dont make it negotiable. This is whats for dinner, everyone has to eat it. 1 meal per night.

Get everyone involved in the choosing and cooking of meals. If its "your" night when you've chosen the meal and cooked it, you'll eat it, and everyone will learn what a faff it is to meal plan and cook, and therefore be more gracious / less fussy.

Make the meat go further - get out of the mindset of e.g. 1 chicken breast per person. Cook maybe 3 instead of 6. Slice them thinly for pasta / fajitas etc, supplement with veggies and no-one will notice the difference.

Plan all meals, not just dinners. Plan lunches so you're not buying expensive sandwiches etc.

Bake / cook etc from scratch, its much cheaper.

Do you have fruit & veg market? Ours is great and cheaper than even Aldi - you also get to choose the quantity you want rather than having to buy standard sized packets, so much less waste.

I dont think the budget is excessive though, i spend more than that for 5 of us and really struggle.

Macaroni cheese?

Could your 14 year old become more involved with cooking and food prep to try and help with his fussiness?

Be firm with the kids OP, or they’ll copy your DP’s behaviour. Don’t ever be negative around food and tell him to keep it to himself what he won’t eat.
He sounds intolerable though as I can’t stand fussy eaters! Poor you OP!

Would he eat hunter chicken

Sorry don't have time to RTFT so don't know if anyone's mentioned Eat Well for Less on BBC iplayer, but last week (series 6 ep 6) featured a picky eater, worth a watch?

Don’t cook for him or include him in family meals

The only ideas I have to add are a tuna pasta bake would be pretty cheap and also that I cook one meal per week (5 working days) for DH who eats other things to us and portion it in the fridge. A different meal next week on a 8 week rotation. Not how I would like to eat but better than cooking him something different everyday.

Also there are lots of Facebook sites for cheap meals and frugal living that you could get ideas / current specials from.

Do you have a market? We have an indoor one and the butchers do excellent deals on bull buying I e 5kg chicken for £25, among other deals too. Maybe investigate that option to replace the meat van. It may also be cheaper for fruit and veg.

Way too tight. 80 pounds?? That’s a joke!

Have you tried musclefood for meat? I find them cheaper than the supermarket but we don’t have an Aldi. Then you can bulk buy

Don’t cook for him or include him in family meals

Great idea.

A grown man being fussy is pathetic. And deeply unnattractive.

Yeahnah are you joking?? Tell that to the thousands of people living in poverty across the UK!

I spend about £250 a month on food for 2 adults and 2 small but bottomless children. This includes my lactose free things (milk, yogurts and cheese at £6 a shop,) cat food/litter and my husbands coffee pods.

I buy frozen veg and mash as although the cost a wee bit more, I dont waste any.

I have a fussy "no sauce" child when it comes to pasta, so she often has plain pasta, tuna and sweetcorn. I've gotten around chilli con carne by calling it "Spicy Mince" and she'll eat it.

I often change the name of things so my eldest will eat them, chicken casserole is just chicken, mash and veg. Beef stew is slow cooked steak.

Agreed, with previous posters. He can start doing half of it if he's so fussy!

I'd also put your foot down on the chicken knives and strippers. Too much processed food is so bad for teenagers, he needs a firm hand and maybe to get involved with the cooking too.

You seem to be in charge of it all, so if you want a meat free day, make it a meat free day. They'll have to take it or leave it won't they?

KIEVS! Not knives

You go back to basics.

You cook a wholesome meal from scratch. You put it on the table.

When the whining starts, you say that you are not interested in people's views, they either eat it or go hungry.

Then you very calmly leave the room.

Worked brilliantly with my children and any visitors. Harness your Upper Class Nanny, OP! You are not a short order cook. And these people need to grow up.

The problem with not cooking for the DH and 14 YO is that they are likely to go out and buy junk food that the family cannot afford.

OP, £100 pw is a very tight budget for a family of 6, you might want to look at increasing the money available, rather than getting your priorities in the wrong order and paying other bills/debts at the expense of adequately feeding your family. Many people in unmanagable debt do this and it's not sustainable and a sign that you may need formal help with your financial situation.

Even if you aren't in this situation, and it's a genuine short term issue that a bit of belt tightening might solve, it might be a good idea to have a really good look at your budget to see where you can increase your income and cut your costs to free up more money for food.

Have a look at:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/