To do a cheaper, crappier food shop some weeks?

[Greatexpectations77]

To afford other things?
Does anyone else do this/have to do this?
This upcoming week for example (I do the main food shop on a Monday for the week) we’re fairly low on weekly cash, it’s pouring down tomorrow where we are and we have a (very) active 3 year old to entertain. When the weather’s ok, we can get out for free activities-playground, beach, long dog walks, picnics etc.
We’re thinking of the cinema & lunch, therefore my plan is to buy *Less good food in the food shop-enough for two portions of fruit a day for Dd, basics like butter, bread, milk eggs etc, but simple, cheaper meals like pasta with veg, cheesy beans on toast and so on.
Last week I spent a fair bit more on *Better meals for the family-homemade pie & veg, fish, chicken dishes, lasagna etc -all still fairly basic, but more expensive.

Does anyone else do this? Cut back on food to enjoy/pay for other things? It does give me an element of guilt that I’m not feeding Dd properly

There's definitely cheaper meals that don't mean lesser quality. Anything vegetarian for one.

@PeacefulPrune I do find it hard…when I buy lots of the fruit & veg I ideally want, it adds on lots extra

I find jacket potatoes a good cheap meal. Also bolognese sauce but half the meat I normally do and add more veg.

Good soups are cheap and easy.
Jamie Oliver for example has lots of recipes.
Porridge for breakfast, homemade soup for lunch and eggs, beans, or baked potatoes for tea would be perfect.

I don’t think cheap food has to be crappy. E.g. you can make really nice hime made baked beans using some plain canned beans , passata and whatever else you want to add flavour. Delicious curry with cheap veg, etc. Fired rice with frozen peas, sweet corn and egg - you can add a bit of chicken. So many options.

My default is the cheaper shop then once every couple of months I do a fancy shop

I've been deliberately trying to add more (well, some full stop because I hate it) easy and cheap oven meals, like cheap dinosaur shaped nuggets, cheap frozen potato item, baked beans or frozen peas etc...

I have been buying three to four big meals worth of shopping per trip, ie enough freezer crap for one or two of the aforementioned cheap oven meals, with just enough meat/ Quorn and veg for the remaining couple of meals. Then if milk/ bread/ cereal etc runs out, I grab that from the local shop or it'll be time for the next few days worth of shopping to commence anyway.

I can't plan hugely in advance. Including with my money. Two months ago I decided there would be no more huge monthly shop where half the stuff ended up in the bin and we were perpetually broke.

Ok, we are still perpetually broke, but after we forced ourselves to eat our way through packets and jars etc of spice mixes and so on, there's been less wastage and more drive to actually eat what's in the fridge etc.

It's left me with a little more for using to do nicer things with.

I do simple meals some weeks if I'm working extra shifts. Things like omelette, beans on toast, fish fingers, beans and chips, pizza and salad sticks, Murshroom Bolognese - instead of mince we use Murshrooms we make the sauce the same way for a meat Bolognese. My son doesn't like eggs but you could do fried egg and chips mash potatoes boiled eggs toast and salad or fruit.

I also do a broccoli cheesy pasta sauce, where I put milk in a jug add grated or very chopped broccoli, microwave for 2 minutes then use it to make a cheese sauce over pasta. I have done it with frozen broccoli just cooked it first. My toddler loves it.

On the weeks you have a bigger budget could you batch cook a few meals and snacks like lasnage, sherpards pie, fish pie, banana muffins, vegetable muffins.

Sounds a good plan. You could have a vegetarian week - good quality veg from a market still cheaper than meat/fish

I don't think there is anything at all wrongg with well thought out basic meals in order to improve your quality of life. Eg omelette or pasta and sauce.

Why do it week by week, why not plan a food budget for the whole month with a mix of costly meals and thrifty meals and allow for a small amount of activity money. Also if you are near to a choice of supermarkets buy all your basics ( one tin of tomatoes is the same as another) in Aldi or Lidl then only buy a small no of specific items in a more expensive supermarket. Tinned fruit in juice not syrup can be a good option instead of always fresh fruit. Can you make savings by buying regularly used items in bulk? Some freezer shops have good deals on chicken pieces, frozen veg and frozen fruit as long as you avoid the worst of the ready meals you could buy well in those. Agree with reducing meat.

I think it's variety that's important. Like you can buy apples and bananas or raspberries and blueberries, they're all fruit but some cheaper than others!
If I'm skint I tend to revert to the classic stuff so it's more carrots/onions/potatoes type than avocado and rocket
But then you can make cottage pie, pasta bake stuffed with veg.. there's nothing wrong with that

What are you doing normally?
Buying potatoes, in-season vegetables, pulses, no expensive fruit: (stick with apples, tangerines not punnets of berries.) There are ways of shopping and eating that are cheaper and healthy. It depends on your starting point.

Vegetables can be very cheap, bulk out meat with beans. Cheap can be healthy but avoid the imported exotic fruits etc

Do you have a market or fruit & veg wholesaler anywhere near you? I found I halved the cost compared to supermarket prices for fruit & veg when I use them instead. I didn't even know there was a wholesale place round the corner til a neighbour with a huge family to feed mentioned it. Might be worth a Google search.

I agree cheap doesn't have to be crap. Anything cooked from scratch is cheaper. As we are a bigger family its easier to make cheaper meals as I'm scaling up. Bolonase with 80g max of mince per serving tastes fine. We dont eat much meat per serving. Also if your not vegan carbonara is very cheap and tasty

Cheaper doesn't necessarily mean crappy and you don't have to spend a lot on fruit. Bananas are very cheap for example, or whatever's on offer or there's tinned fruit.

MN likes to think that, unless you spend tens of pounds a week on blueberries, you're living on rubbish, but that's really not true.

Do you have a freezer? If so how about doing a roast one day on an expensive week and freezing a few 3 year old size portions. You can do the same with lasagna etc. That way you’ve always got a couple of nice things in the freezer for her on a cheaper week.

I also agree with pp that cheaper isn’t always worse quality with food. Veggie, pulses, lots of local non imported stuff makes a huge difference

@gogohm

Vegetables can be very cheap, bulk out meat with beans. Cheap can be healthy but avoid the imported exotic fruits etc

Or use lentils in with the mince

If I were you I'd mix it up a bit so you have a couple of cheaper meals every week. We have eggs on toast once a week and my kids can't tell the difference between lentil Bolognese/bean chilli and the meat versions.

I do this all the time. Most of the week is cheap meals with weekends a bit more extravagant.
I look out for what’s on offer and add lots of veg. Curries and pasta dishes can be quite cheap and filling. If I make fish dishes, it’s normally something like sardine, tuna or salmon pasta or a coconut fish curry. That way you can make it stretch.
Lasagne and bolognese have lots of grated veg in it.
We never buy alcohol, soft drinks or sugary cereals. Those can be quite expensive.
It’s all about budgeting so we can afford to do other things and have the occasional take away.

Cheap doesn't necessarily mean dodgy dinosaur shaped nuggets. Cheap can mean baked potatoes, eggs, bulking things out with lentils and veg.

I'd do a few every week though not expensive weeks and cheap weeks.

Our diet is packed with fruit and veg, carrots, broccoli, apples, bananas, whatever is in the Aldi super 6. I can get a whole weeks worth for about a fiver, might not be exciting stuff but it is healthy.
So this week for example I got:
Carrots 40p
Red cabbage (to make coleslaw) 50p
Broccoli head x 2 - £1
Apples - 79p
Satsumas - 59p
Melon - £1
Peppers - 89p

We will eat every last bit so none gets chucked away.
Despite the rising prices you can still eat well fairly cheaply and YANBU to do this, but it doesn’t need to be nuggets etc (which are fine in moderation), it can be good whole foods as well. Eggs are the best cheap protein and jacket spud, beans and cheese is food of the gods! Homemade coleslaw with this is a great way to get some veg in.
Enjoy your day out tomorrow!

@DuckyNoMates

My default is the cheaper shop then once every couple of months I do a fancy shop

Same here

No judgement, we spend a fortune on fruit. I'm trying it cut back a bit so have switched a few meals a week to things like baked beans on toast or jacket potatoes and cheesy beans or tomato soup and do that every week so it balances out.

If you put the savings in a separate pot each week or month it feels less painful when expensive times come around. I also do this for expensive regular things like Christmas and car insurance. It's taken us a while to get used to!