How do I cut down on my weekly food bill - its ridiculous the amount Im spening

[hulahoopsilove]

there are 3 of us me, hubby and DS age 8. Im doing SW so Im eating alot of fresh veg, fruit, salad stuff plus my DS love vegs and cucumber (go through 2 cucumbers a week:))

Im spending average £80 in supermarket (Morisons, or Asda) then another £20 in local shops (sainsburys) in the week so over £100 a week on 3 of us!!! Crazy dont you think?

[dementedma]

Agree to meal planning. It makes a big difference and stops lot of waste. I take out the weekly budget in cash and keep it in an envelope along with the receipts from any spend, so I can see where it has gone.Topping up with the debit card is fatal!
Aldi is great for cheap household and cleaning products. They also do the best Greek yoghurt, nice inexpensive wine, good cold meats, and nice brioche thingies.

[Littleredsquirrel]

Post a list of what you have in your cupboards and freezer Hula and we'll help you use it up effectively and also help you to get a good stock cupboard list set up so that can buy the things you need when they are on offer.

Special offers are your friend!

[CambridgeBlue]

Thanks funny I hadn't seen that - I love belly pork so I will believe it's good for me :)

[funnyossity]

I also shop at a local Tesco and I find it cheaper than Aldi when they have special offers on. So packs of apples are 2 for 1 this week and last week I stocked up when their baking supplies were 3 for 2. Those things are predictable too, the baking section does it every October for the christmas cake bakers I guess!

I've stopped getting much fruit and veg at Aldi as I ended up throwing some of it away, maybe that's just my local store. I do look over the weekly offers but am wary now. The fairtrade bananas have always been ok.

[KitWillDoodle]

Have friends that swear by meal planning, I have sat down to do it a couple of times and, quite frankly, couldn't be bothered! Couple of things I've done that have made a difference, frozen broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts. Also I try not to buy bags of lettuce leaves, the amount of half used bags I was throwing out was shameful! We have an egg and beans night every now and again and actually have a good old laugh about how very 70's it feels. Also veggie risottos I find are a great way to go without meat every now and again. Ooh, another winner, massive batch of 'hidden' vegetable pasta sauce, bang, portioned in the freezer, god send on a night when you can't think straight about cooking! But def think trying some frozen veg might be a start.

[Fluffycloudland77]

If you buy a the mirror today it has a £5 off £40 spend voucher, plus some half price vouchers.

Aldi is brilliant for veg, there's lots of stew type veggies on it at the moment. I cut & freeze veg when it's cheap. Even courgettes freeze really well.

[hulahoopsilove]

ok Im going to try the frozen veg route and see if anyone notices. I must go through the freezer tonight though, needs defrosting also so I think rest of this week and next week I will meal plan from it and the cupboards and use up everything then start a fresh by meal planning, shopping at Aldi and also doing a couple of meat free days and also making a little extra and freezing - I will report back in a month lol to say how much Ive saved each week :) quite looking forward to it actually!!!!!!!!!!

[Cat98]

We're the same op!
There's me, dh, a 5 year old with a big appetite and a cat.
Our weekly shop (one main shop, one top up) has just REDUCED to about £90 p/w after I made a few changes.

I meal plan, we eat veggie twice a week, I have cut down portion sizes of meat when I cook it as I too prefer to buy British/free range. We were spending more. I don't know how I could get it down any more really. Unless we compromised on meat quality.
That is also including most toiletries/cleaning products/cat litter and things though, not just food.

[SunnyL]

Go to Lidl. We spend £40 a week for 2.5 of us and eat lots of meat, fresh veg and the odd bottle of wine. Avoid brand name goods and go for the imitation stuff. It's just as good and very tasty.

[souperb]

With the yogurts in packed lunches - are you buying individual portion-sized pots? The larger pots of plain yogurt are often better value. Decant some into a small lock and lock-style container and add apple puree/banana/honey/cinnamon/raisins/smarties etc. to make it a bit more exciting. Anything wrapped up in individual portions is bound to be more expensive than a big box/tub of it, and not only are you being cheap and miserly but you are also saving the whales, man.

Frozen veg is good value and you only use what you need. Or see if you have a good value market, grocer or ethnic supermarket nearby.

What are you buying in your top up shop? I am trying to lose the top up shop as it is my downfall every time - and DH is a thousand times worse. A breadmaker is helping and we don't use much milk as a family now. But fresh stuff doesn't always last and our online delivery often misses something and nearly always breaks eggs.

[Littleredsquirrel]

try a cheap main meal each week:

pasta bake (cheap as chips even with a handful of chicken thrown in)
risotto (yum - rice, stock handful of chicken and a little boursin cheese)
quiche (three eggs, some milk, a bit of pastry and whatever is leftover in your fridge)

all come in at a couple of quid and will feed all of you.

[funnyossity]

OP Just saw you like free-range chicken: we tried Aldi's last week and it was good and I'll get it again. (It was £5-odd and bigger than the last I bought elsewhere for over £7)

[Littleredsquirrel]

It sounds quite a lot to me. We spend less and we are a family of four. How are your stock cupboards? Once your pantry supplies are in order then shopping is generally cheaper because for example you're not buying a whole jar of cumin just to use one pinch in a recipe.

I have found that value pasta is fine, as are value tinned tomatoes, value fruit juice, value butter, value kidney beans, value chickpeas, cheapest milk. Buy expensive things like cheese when its on offer. Cheese keeps for ages and will also freeze. Shop the offers rather than going in with a set idea of what you must buy. I walk down the middle aisle first and pick up any offers, go straight to the bargain section to pick up anything reduced (sundays are great) and then adjust my meal plan around that.

Frozen veg is great since far less goes to waste and it has far more nutritional value since the nutrients and vitamins are sealed in.

Buy the cheap fruit, (bananas and apples NOT grapes and berries)

Freeze (and USE) EVERY leftover, from a handful of berries going squishy (fine in a crumble), a dry bit of cheese (good in risotto), a black banana (peel freeze and use in banana loaf) to a bit of leftover garlic bread (whizz in food mixer, bung in a bag and use as a topping on pasta bake).

Salad is expensive, can you grow your own leaves on the window sill?

[kawaii]

For three of us I struggle to keep it undo £120. That includes everything though.

Cleaning products, no meat except one organic chicken which is about £8 and lots of veg. Plus me and dd are gluten and dairy free so have to buy quite a bit of free from which is very expensive. I hardly buy any fruit as it costs so much now.

I've tried Aldi and don't think the vegetables are great and no free from stuff. But I think you could definitely save on things like nappies, crisps and washing products.

Possibly do a split shop, buy what you can in Aldi then pick up the rest in another supermarket. Of course then the petrol might off set the savings depending on location!

[MrsPnut]

Frozen veg is brilliant because you don't waste any of it. I usually have in peas, sweetcorn, brussel sprouts, chopped onions, sliced peppers, mixed veg, casserole veg, mashed potato and spinach, and butternut squash.

I also buy frozen garlic, chilli, ginger, parsley, mint and coriander - I can make so many meals with just these frozen ingredients.

[funnyossity]

Cambridge Blue did you read the reports this week that perhaps saturated fat isn't as bad as we have been led to believe?

So some cheaper cuts of meat such as belly pork could be a good meal choice, you would have to be careful on portion size but fat is satiating (is that the right word?!)

[bluebayou]

Start going to Aldi & Lidl , amazingly inexpensive . , AND good quality .

[Thatsinteresting]

Look at your portion control of expensive food. We vegetarian so for us a meat substitute sausage costs a lot (when on offer 6 for £1.50) compared to meat sausages. We're a family of 2 adults and 2 yound dc but 4 sausages will feed us. I cook them, cut into thirds making 12 pieces then put 2 pieces in 6 individual Yorkshire puggings. 2 for each adult, 1 for each child.

SW teaches good healthy eating habits so unless your dh does a very manual job don't let him snd your ds continue with your old eating patterns. Cut out the cridps and chocolate everyday. My dh has sandwiches, a yogurt and 3 pieces of fruit. Dd has 1 piece of fruit, some salad or corn on the cob (Buy frozen, cook that morning), a roll, yougurt and a tiny homemade treat. Chocolate brownies, jam tarts, gingerbread men, cookies and jellies. Just a couple of mouthfuls to round off her meal (I'd rather she didn't have this but I feel bad knowing she's sat with children having crisps and biscuits everyday).

Apples, oranges, bananas, pears, carrots, frozen veg are all cheap. Courgettes are middling and butternut squash is, comparatively, expensive. Give up a whole evening to doing some meal planning. It'll take ages but you'll get better at it and see the results of your bill coming down straight away.

[Babelange]

I think it sounds a lot if you are not including cleaning products, toiletries or alcohol. Goodness, your 8 year old sounds like he has an appetite! Do you given him lots of choice on his plate?

The only thing that helped me was making sure that stocks ran down completely before shopping; literally these days you can open the fridge the day before the shopping comes and find virtually nothing to eat (usually meaning pasta for supper), whereas come shopping day it will be stuffed to the gunnels!

I make one cake/bake/flapjack to last the week and buy the 'on offer' chocolate bars (eg. Rocky Road, Kit Kats) for pack-ups. I never buy 'ordinary' biscuits. Apples & bananas and the odd lemon are regular purchases - I then buy 1 other 'exotic' fruit for a weekend pudding eg. a pineapple, mango, depending on what's in season.

Also, barring a pint of milk or the missing magic ingredient for a certain dish (eg. sour cream, herbs), there should be absolutely no topping up - it's too tempting!

[Artandco]

Yogurt, crisps, choc bar in lunch... That's just snacks to me and not lunch. Sandwich, fruit/ veg, and yogurt should be fine.

We spend that so I don't think it's much especially if getting free range/ organic meat etc

[hulahoopsilove]

I always though frozen veg was expensive?

Thanks for advice though really helpful and thought provoking, I do think what I currently spend is alot for 3 of us. Def going to try 2 nights no meat...am thinking veg curry (gosh veges again Im obsessed!!) or omlette and jacket pot using leftover cheese etc... and maybe beans and eggs on toast or something

[CambridgeBlue]

I really sympathise with this - there are also 3 of us (but I've got an 11 year old DD) and I am loosely following WW so try to eat as healthily as possible. I budget about £70 a week (that's for a very basic shop with very few 'treats' and all household stuff) but nearly always go over - I know I could probably save if I shopped around but who has the time?!

It seems to me that to tick the magic boxes of cheap, nutritious/diet friendly and something that everyone will eat it is just about impossible! Stuff that's better for you e.g. lean mince is much pricier and the amount I spend on fruit and veg is ridiculous.

I'm always at a loss re lunch boxes too - I don't want to any of us to eat too much high fat/sugar stuff but I don't have time to bake that often and really run out of ideas. I don't think the occasional treat is a problem but I do tend to resort to yoghurts or crisps more often than I should.

[dreamingbohemian]

If you don't want to compromise on the quality of your meat, perhaps compromise on how often you eat it -- try switching to every other night for a week and see how it goes.

Also the BBC have a good seasonal food calculator so you can see exactly what should be cheapest:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/seasonal-calendar/all

[hulahoopsilove]

I am going to go to Aldi tomorrow I think as I dont have a lidl near me. Im going to go through the freezer today also and plan meals with what I have in there, also my cupboard which isnt alot midn you.

As my DS doesnt drink milk, eat cheese and isnt a great meat eater I always give him yogharts as a boost of calcium and protein

[ivykaty44]

watercress in with lettuce in a sandwich is a very good source of calcium and it doesn't have added sugar