Need to reduce my food bill

[HarleyQuinnRocks]

Posting here for traffic.

I need to feed myself and 2 children.

What's the least amount you could spend in 1 month to feed all and what would you buy?

I'm struggling other than noodles and the really unhealthy basic cheap stuff.

I have no advice op, just wanted to say I think your doing great and your kids have an amazing mum

@Mlou32 - it's a surplus food distributor open to those working in that industry and nhs employees. They sell branded foods about 60% cheaper. It's all the big brands, Waitrose, M&S, Tesco etc. It's unbelievable. If you google it I'm sure they have a store locator.

We eat a lot of pasta and chicken barley soup goes down well in our house. We dont eat meat everyday.
I try when I cook a meal to double up. Saves fuel and gives me my lunch or dinner for a couple of days after. The kids have school meals and aldi cereal for breakfast which are less than a pound a box. They both take a banana or apple in for snack.
Bulk meals out with oats and lentils.
My.kids love my veg curry which is so basic its untrue. Its mixed frozen veg. Tinned mushrooms. Tinned tomatoes and green beans with curry powder and garlic powder. I make a big pan and freeze some for meals for me in work or a quick tea when we get in.
Look at the jack monroe and some vegan recipes online.
Buy strong cheddar as you need less to top up pasta bakes etc.
Stop buying juice and just have water.
Bake your own treats like brownies and the kids like joining in.

Don't forget beans on toast is a filling meal.

Cheese toastie for lunch.

Penne Arobatica

Stir fry veg.

Home made tomato and lentil soup.

Omelette and salad leaves.

OP

Are you anywhere near a Sikh temple? You can visit a Langar (the part of the temple that offers food) for a free meal, you could also get involved with the cooking as an activity for you and the children.

Sikhs see feeding people as part of their faith and welcome everyone, as long as you are not drunk and you cover your head and remove shoes.

Some Gurdwaras have outreach programmes for people who don't want to visit the Gurdwara.

For the cat, I think you could cut your bill. I buy 4.5 kg of biscuits online for £28 my cat has Royal Canin.

She has approx 65g per day, so these last about 5 months.

It works out cheaper as they are high in protein & she is full.

@HarleyQuinnRocks, may I ask who your DMP is with?

Check out the Old Style board on MSE and threads like Grocery Challenge.
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/old-style-moneysaving

Also the Debtfree Wannabe board and threads like the DMP support group
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe

Have a good mooch around he other boards to for some excellent tips.

Find your local Credit Union (google Credit Union and your town/county) and start saving a few pennies in there even if it's only £5 a month and then if you have an emergency they can help you with an affordable loan based on your savings, incomings and outgoings but what I like is while you are paying back a loan some of the money goes into your savings. They are all community run, non profit organisations. Depending on the size they will offer slightly different things. Here is an example of one.

www.bdcu.co.uk/

You said your kids might not eat chickpeas/lentils - lentils in particular are easy to hide as they tend to lose their shape after a while when simmered in spag bol, pies etc - I've had kids for dinner who profess to not like lentils, I've served chilli/spag bol or whatever with no mince in it and they've asked for seconds of "the meat".
Plus your 11 year old is old enough to understand the situation and eat what they're given (within reason).

Maybe I’m being dense but why is childcare for a school aged child costing 500 a month? You could buy a lot of food for that. Is there no alternative to this massively expensive childcare?

If you have a pets at home near you, you can buy a massive bag of wood cat litter that lasts absolutely ages! Even if I miss changing the litter for a day or two longer than normal, it doesn't get smelly. I think the last 15kg bag I bought was £6.99 about a month ago, and it's still a little over half full!

@makingmammaries childcare sounds normal to me. about 1 hour before school, 2-3 after school (already makes up 15-20 hours per week), and all the holidays as well (at least £40 a day, and that will be a cheap short day). It sums up quickly

If you’re on a low income UC will pay 85% of your childcare

I think you may need to look at all your outgoings, not just food. Martin Lewis has a budget planner which covers just about everything. I can recommend it. www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Budget-planning/

For things to do for the kids, have you thought about signing up towww.showfilmfirst.com/create_account.php? It does depend on where you live (bigger cities get more offers) but even here in deepest darkest Somerset we get offers for tickets to cinemas and occasionally the theatre.

Have a look atwww.moneysavingexpert.com/family/school-holiday-deals/ - and on the vouchers, yes, they're laborious and if you work out the hourly rate sometimes it's ludicrous but you can do them while you're watching TV or waiting for the bus or whatever, and several of them offer PayPal and other vouchers as well as Amazon. A couple I do semi-regularly are Qmee and PrizeRebel, others include Swagbucks and ipsos i-say. More tips at www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/make-money-surveys/

Have a look atforums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5606097/free-cinema-tickets-codes-only-no-chat as well.

And on the food thing, we pretty much always check mysupermarket.co.uk to see who's got offers etc, always make use of Iceland multi-buys and Co-op multibuys, check out end of lines in B&M and Pound stores and so on; I have also looked at Approved Food in the past but found it was better for "treat" food than everyday food so we ended up not using it. I very much miss living in a town with a proper undercover market like where I grew up where you could get bags of fruit or veg for £1, though some of the supermarkets do this now.

And I wouldn't be without our slow cooker and blender, I just wish we had more freezer space! Also, I've learned over the years to bulk out meals with soya mince, grated potato, breadcrumbs, grated veg, barley, noodles, pasta etc.

skintdad.co.uk/deals/ has some good ideas as well and for petrol, look at www.petrolprices.com/ for the cheapest petrol near you. You'll need to register but it's free and they don't send you marketing stuff every five minutes or anything.

Another fun activity that doesn't cost much (though it's not free) is to get a bus or local transport day pass and spend the day bus-hopping in your town/see how far you can travel in your county etc.

And as a single parent, there might also be some useful links relating to holidays atwww.familyholidayassociation.org.uk/apply-for-a-break/other-holiday-charities/

And have a look at your local libraries and museums and councils and universities to see if they're running any activities that might help you all get out and about. It sounds like you're doing so well, best wishes to all of you.

Also meant to add this - don't know what area of the UK you're in, but this is the first time I've seen this kind of thing advertised - mdem.org.uk/support-grants/development-programmes/engaging-children-young-people/become-a-mystery-shopper/#.XlQNhRP7Si4

Do you go to your local library ?

Some offer craft days, guest speakers, animal visits etc

Borrow books, toys, music & ideas for local days out

Don't buy the big bags of pasta. Tesco sell 500g bags of pasta for 20p. I've never yet seen the big bags on an offer that beats that

*29p

I used to be vegetarian and ate things like:
Jacket potato, beans and cheese,
Thick soup with bread and cheese
Omelette and chips
Macaroni cheese (using cheapest pasta, add sweetcorn and tomatoes to get some veg)
Pasta bake
Pasta and pesto

I don't think quorn is cheaper than chicken so I wouldn't necessarily recommend that but if you switched to eating vegetarian 2 or 3 times a week I think it would help. You could buy a big block of cheese and do sandwiches and a couple of the meals above.

Frozen fruit is expensive, I would ditch that and buy fresh instead because I think you can get twice as much fresh fruit for the money if you buy cheaply.

I can't see if this has been asked before but are you sure you're claiming everything you're entitled to (free school meals etc). And this isn't popular on Mumsnet but have you considered whether you might be better off working fewer hours and therefore paying less childcare and possibly qualifying for free school meals.

Haven't read the whole thread but could you try shopping at discout times? Our local ASDA does crazy prices around 6pm, if you have a freezer you can take advantage of a lot of stuff.

Otherwise I think you do pretty well on £200 a month.