Desperately need tips to reduce almost £800 per mth food bill.

[Mumof3almost4]

I am stressing about mat leave pay and how low it is.
Just going through my income/outgoings and my main drain is on food. We are a family of 5, two adults, DC 18, 15, 13.
I am spending between £700-£800 a month on food. Is this ridiculous?!
I do cook mostly from scratch but will use a few pasta jars etc. I shop at local market for fruit and veg and the butchers for meat. We all like a big evening meal usually with meat or chicken and I always make sure there's salad or veg on the plate. I shop at home bargains and Asda for cupboard stuff, mainly use the freezer for left overs and don't like to waste anything.
I do try and plan meals but I think I've got in a habit of not doing this properly and then money gets frittered nipping to the shop. I then spend £30 easily feather than just getting what I need.

Reading this back I know I need to get much much better organised but really need your tips on how??
How do you plan meals without getting bored of it being repetitive?
We all eat well, no fussy eaters apart from a dislike of cheese and eggs.
Any advice for me to save a massive chunk of money please??

Also I hate Aldi. I'd never get a full shop in there

In this as many other things you can have two out of Cheap/Quick/Good. But not all three. If you want decent food on a budget you have to invest some time prepping and shopping around. That's just life

This is soo true. Jointing chickens and soaking pulses take time. Pan frying salmon steaks, not so much. Putting oven chips and chicken nuggets in, well you wouldn't to serve that too often.

Last night I made a sag aloo with spinach from the garden, a dhal HM naan and served with 400g of rice. Delicious (if I say so myself), nutitious and cheap. I had the day off and started cooking at 5 to eat at 6:30. No way could I do that after work/ commute. OTOH tonight I will throw salmon steaks, cherry toms, olives, anchovies and green beans in the oven for 20 mins while I pour hotwater on couscous. Costs about 3X as much as last night.

We don’t have an Aldi round here, we do have a Lidl a couple of miles away though but I don’t drive so it’s a no-go.

If Aldi/Lidl went online I think they would do incredibly well...

Are you saying you eat a meat main dish most evenings? In that case, I'd say cutting down on meat is the obvious thing to do (also good for health and planet). Beans are the obvious alternative. Good served with baked potato, as others have noted, but poke around the internet and you'll find loads of ideas.

We spend similar but that includes all the cleaning type stuff - which is where the savings can be most easily made, imo. e.g. we have different sprays for different parts of the house but, at a pinch, washing up liquid will do a good job of lots of cleaning tasks and is cheaper than purpose made sprays. Washing powder and dishwasher tabs can be economised if needed. Cheaper bleach. white vinegar. etc.

In this as many other things you can have two out of Cheap/Quick/Good. But not all three. If you want decent food on a budget you have to invest some time prepping and shopping around. That's just life

Think this needs to be a sticky on food budgeting threads. Very true now I've thought about it

Get your teens cooking, give them an amount of money to shop with and let them keep the change. Either have them do it solo or as a group - you know how they get on with each other. If you watch any of the masterchef series allow them a 'basic pantry' of things like salt and pepper, milk etc. If you don't then make the teens watch the US masterchef junior.

Have one meat free day. Until the 1980s I remember the phrase, "They eat meat everyday" meaning a family was quite well off.

Do you buy things like pizza? Easy to make at home for much less.

Also people who buy from the butchers, the butcher is more expensive than the supermarket

I find mine costs about the same but the quality is so much better. The shop is in the middle of a council estate and is always busy. He opens at 7am for businesses to buy so maybe that helps him stay competitive. He often knocks off the extra few pennies and if you go in for, say, 6 sausages and he has 8 left you will get the extra 2 for free. He also gives away 1kg bags of trimmings from the cooked meat - great for the cat.

Can you grow some veg? I have a pear tree that just sits in the garden and produces pears, I think it cost me £10.

I grow spring onions on the window sill. Basically get a bunch from the supermarket, cut off the 'bulb' bit at the bottom and stick in a jar / glass of water - they just regrow.

Don't just plan meals, but plan for the leftovers eg I do chicken in the slow cooker with creme fraiche and a tin of mushroom soup. I might add leeks and mushrooms to it.

I'm on my own so it is always too much but following day I put the leftovers in pie tins and top with pastry and freeze.

If I get a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket the following day the carcass is stripped of the meat for a curry (or frozen) and the carcass put in the slow cooker to make a stock which is then used to make French onion soup.

I'll echo what AlternativePerspective said about brands and home brands, supermarkets don't manufacture and often the same tin / packet / bag is sold with different labels. Eg Foxes used to (probably still do) make M and S biscuits.

Check out local, for want of a better word, 'ethnic' shops, I'm in Wolverhampton the many Indian and Pakistani shops have large bags of spices for 1/4 of what the supermarket charge. Coriander by the bunch and some amazing snacks.

Putting oven chips and chicken nuggets in, well you wouldn't to serve that too often.

I make my own oven chips, using the Eat Well For Less recipe in Book One, although I only do them once a fortnight, but as I never use more than one tbsp of olive oil in anything for all of us, they seem reasonably healthy to me - and I have given up peeling potatoes! We never eat chicken nuggets though, but I’d make my own from some healthy recipe book, if I did!

Well making your own chips starts to move into good but not the quick, as does make healthy chicken nuggets.

Prices have definitely gone up.

DH has been going to Sainsburys in lockdown, we will definitely be going back to Aldi. The problem is DH is gluten free and I cant get that stuff in Aldi. Usually just get DH to pick up his gf bits and milk as needed after work.

I meal plan/buy 3 weeks worth of food (batch cook), doing recipes with stuff that goes off quick in week 1. Going less often will reduce how much you spend - get your meat/veg deliveries to prolong your next trip to the supermarket.

Bulk out mince with oats/grated carrot, if recipe says 4 chicken breasts just use 3 etc in a pasta bake.

Get a student cook book? - Joy May has some great cheap eats in her books and I still use my old student one.

@Mumof3almost4
I'm in a similar situation. My DP and I have 3 teens and a preteen and one more on the way.
I'm looking forward to them being back in school and seeing how much difference that makes. Also got the eldest off to uni next week, not that she eats much.
We easily spend £175 per week plus occasional takeaways (or meals out when allowed) I feel like it's out of control. Surely there has to be a cheaper way?
I'm on a real mission to spend as little as possible, my New Years resolution was to be more sustainable and that just went out the window with lockdown. I've been getting the Morrison's too good to go boxes over the last few weeks and for £3 they are such good value, they don't really work with meal planning as you don't know what you're getting and it's stuff that needs to be used ASAP. I got 45 eggs a couple of weeks ago in a box!! I signed up to Olio too so I can share anything from the box I won't use. Downside is they're hard to get hold of and my local Morrison's is a drive away. It has made me look for other reduced products now though and I go to the supermarket around 3pm and check out the reduced sections first. Meat is great for freezing as are reduced ready meals the kids can have for a 'snack' 🙄 or a quick tea between activities etc.
You have to have a lot of time on your hands and be quite creative to successfully do the reduced food thing but the savings are there to be made. I'd like to get my spend down to £80 a week through using cheaper products/supermarkets and reduced items. It takes up a lot of headspace though not sure I'll have the time for it when this baby comes along.

We should start a weekly meal planning/shopping thread.

Not only for those who want to budget more, but for those who want some inspiration for different things to cook. So those who live more expensively through choice can still put their ideas up there for those who are happy to afford and seeking inspiration.

@AlternativePerspective

We should start a weekly meal planning/shopping thread.

Not only for those who want to budget more, but for those who want some inspiration for different things to cook. So those who live more expensively through choice can still put their ideas up there for those who are happy to afford and seeking inspiration.

Yes, definitely, I'm always looking for inspiration

@AlternativePerspective love this idea!

Been lurking on this thread for some new recipe ideas before DH went shopping and look what he bought back from Aldi this page has lots of ideas!

IMHO snacks, yogurts, biscuits add up very quickly. Try to see how much goes on those and see if you can swap for cheaper brands or economize othervise. With 3 teenagers at home I bet they eat a lot of them.

What is the figure you have in mind you want to reduce to? Perhaps like someone said above - try to achieve £150/week by economizing on extras. Also - does £200 pw count for every single meal 5 people eat? if yes - then is different from that + extra money for lunches and snacks everyone buys.

I feed 2 adults and 2 infants on £50 per week. Mostly homecooked and not much rubbish.
I don't buy chocolate, biscuits, crisps etc.

We eat vegetarian a lot. Home made pizza for example is cheap. Omelette, pasta bake with veg and a few chunks of chorizo if you're really craving meat. We often have lentil daal too.

Breakfast is weetabix or muesli. Lunch is leftovers or sandwiches. Kids get yoghurt and we have plenty of fruit, mainly bananas, apples and pears.

@AlternativePerspective I'd love to join a weekly meal planning/shipping thread. Can you pay the link on here? I am coming away from Gusto and Hello Fresh. I used them to get some tips and tricks on quick and easy meals to create plus access to the meal cards. Now the deals are done, I'm on Oddbox for fruit and veg. Now I'm assuming to declutter my feezer from lockdown prep and focus on getting premade mince dishes in there for quick midweek defrosting using large Costco packs of mince.
Just unpacking thoughts here 😁

Damnit, aiming not assuming 🤦‍♀️

wrt yoghurt - we buy the huge big pots and decant into portions.
also for packed lunches.
you have to look out for the best price though, some supermarkets make it really difficult to compare.

Meal planning thread here for anyone who is interested.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/4012620-September-meal-planning-thread-For-those-either-wanting-to-budget-or-just-in-need-of-inspiration

I don’t like Aldi either but it saves about 30% over the other supermarkets.
Maybe reduce the size of the full meal and swap for cheaper more filling meals.
How much food do you throw away?

Meat is expensive, period. Try to eat more vegan/veggie food. Rice & dahl, chickpeas in casserole instead of meat, quorn instead of mince in bolognese, red kidney beans instead of meat in wraps (like Wahaca does - delicious). I do eat and cook meat but find that it's cheaper and healthier to avoid it most days. No one goes hungry in our family of 4. Oh and good luck with baby number 4!

You say the reason you don't like Aldi is because you can't get a full shop in there.

If this is the only reason I urge you to try again, I could never do a full shop there, it was about 60/40 when I first started shopping there.

They have brought out so many new lines that the only thing I can't get there now is decent oat milk.

I was spending a fortune in Sainsburys! Now make a list (definitely helps stick to what you need), invested in a bigger freezer. Now shop in Lidl (they now have a loyalty App) and stop at Sainsburys on the way home for anything I can’t get at Lidl. Saving about £50 a week doing this so from £200 to £150. Asking kids to give ideas & making them cook once a week each has also helped.

Also rediscovered Iceland for cheaper frozen food.