Food Spending is ridiculous and I can't seem to reduce this.

[spababe]

Ok so I cut back last month and had to have a big shop on 1st Oct but so far this month I have spent £400 on groceries and have £30 to last me until the end of the month. I also have spent £80 on school lunches.
I vary my shops between Lidl and Tesco online (where I can track what I spend as I order)
I have 2 teenage sons and DH so 4 of us but the milk bill alone is £30 a month as they get through 4 pints a day.
We do not eat meat or much processed food. We live rurally so no takeaways.
I do meal plan.
I do have quite a bit in the freezer to get us through the next week but then we will have to survive on the last £30 through half term - tricky.
It's ridiculous really but I have no idea how to reduce this.

Do you have costco near you and if so can you get membership? I buy loo rolls, kitchen rolls, meat, pasta, in bulk from there and it is sooo much cheaper! I buy their own brand washing powder, a huge box costs around £10. I have had it for more than 3 months, and it's still half full (I wash every day), so well worth it!
Also I have hugely reduced the number of cleaning products I use. I have bought e cloths and a steam mop and I just use multi purpose cleaning spray when needed. Saves quite a bit too.
Once a month I buy minced meat on offer and aim to use it for the whole week with meals like shepherd pie, spag Bol, lasagne, chilli etc... I can see the difference in my overall shopping bill when I do that.

teenage boys need around 3500 calories a day, I think.

It is quite a project feeding them, I imagine.

Mine are only 10 and 12 and I have seen our food bill really go up over the years. The sheer quantities they eat!

I think if you replace the quorn, reduce the milk intake (can they not have water/tea?) and do some "end of the month "meals, for me that was always pasta with tomato sauce (fry a bit of garlic/onion, add tinned toms, salt and pepper and a bit of sugar, and leave to simmer for 20 minutes) and a bit of grated cheese, or lentil soup and bread, or baked potatoes with beans, that sort of thing?

Teens need 1300mg of calcium a day and milk is one of the cheapest sources of that, so no don't cut back on that.
I rate tescos value massive bags grated cheese, value oats, value bread, value pasta, value spread etc. I just put in everyday value in the search box and buy everything off that. I would use pulses(3 tins for £1) over quorn or dried tvp is cheap. Cheapest value veg meals we have are curry with chickpeas, frozen spinach, tinned potatoes (15p a tin). Pasta with cheese sauce and veg. Frittata with tinned pots in it. Also find making and freezing scones with 50p value flour is cheapest snack.

Oh yes value beans and jacket potatoes is nice and cheap even with with added value cheese. I second toast for filling them up. Moderately active teen boys need 2800 calories a day.

Have you tried looking on frugal blogs for ideas? If you google 'frugal' there are loads of results, and agirlcalledjack.com/ is amazing.

Costco is 90 miles away lol
I do not buy ready meals but cook it all from scratch
I make my own bread, cakes etc as well as DS has an allergy which means a lot of shop bought stuff is not possible. Anyway it is cheaper and tastes nicer.
One likes a couple of bagels when he gets home from school but I buy those on offer and freeze them.
7pm visits to supermarket are a thought - would it be worth a 10 mile round trip of petrol though?

Teenagers are bottomless pits.

Cheap loaf from lidl and some jam if they're hungry :)

Cheap noodles and some veggies in a stir fry. Loads of noodles per veggie. If you see what I mean.

I used to make this actually - no chicken just more veggies : www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1848/barneys-monday-night-rice haven't made it in ages and it's well tasty. And filling.

10 miles in petrol isnt that much really, two of our local supermarkets start markdowns at 3ish.

A good general tip is to try buying a cheaper brand than you would normally for perhaps a quarter to a third of your shop.
There will be some things you decide you don't like and then revert to your original brand., but for others you will find the cheaper version is just fine and you can stick with the cheaper brand. In general, do t tell people they are eating a cheaper version and just see if they notice.
Over the next few months try it with most of your shop. After this, you will be buying cheaper versions of at least some of the stuff, saving money.

So, if you buy branded goods or Supermarket 'Best' range try the 'normal' own brand. If you use the normal own brand, try to value own brand.

Other top tips are to eat a bit less meat.
And whilst you need to eat lots of fruit and veg, go for the chePer options of bananas, apples, carrots, peas etc rather than the expensive berries, mange tout etc.

I have to be honest and say I don't know that it's always cheaper when you're filling hungry teens to cook completely from scratch.

For example. A jar of value curry sauce is 20p. Add some veggies and some rice and that's dinner for 2 teens. I don't know that I could make the curry sauce for 20p by the time I'd have spices, coconut milk, yoghurt, whatever. And also, for teens, it needs to be insta-food. It has to be ready in under 10 mins or else there is NOTHING TO EAT IN THE HOUSE EVER AND THEY'RE STARVING.

A lot depends on what your child's allergy is though.

For example, could you buy cheap value pizza and freeze and get them to top it more with whatever they want? That's what I do - as cheap as buying bases and all they have to do is add whatever they want and some extra cheese.

I do buy el rubbero cheese for melting/cooking and keep the good stuff for when it will be noticed too.

Value tinned toms, kidney beans, packets of lentils and soup mix. Big bags of rice. Bags of spuds from the wee man at the side of the road - but they aren't always great because sometimes now we don't eat them up quickly enough.

Also I rarely use kitchen towels. I use old nappies as cloths and do a hot wash of them once a week. I do use Ariel washing powder as nothing else gets grubby sports kit clean, and I splurge on a branded fabric conditioner when it's on offer.

WRT to bubble bath/shower gels - fancy ones for presents, the rest of the year it's cheapies from Lidl or the value ones from Tesco. You don't like it, go buy your own.

I don't know that it's cheaper to make bread for example. Value garlic bread is 30p or thereabouts. Cheap loaf Lidl fake of best of both is 59p. I don't think I could make a loaf for that. And with that I get sarnies for lunches and cheese toasties.

I think the trick to eating cheaply is to think of many meals that are use similar ingredients but are different from each other in origin or theme. For example, my economic veggie dinner meal plan might look some think like this:

Day 1: curry of some type. Perhaps alternate a lentil or other dhal one week with chickpea curry the next. Make big portions for snacks/lunch.
Day 2: egg of some type. (Omelette and home made potato wedges, frittata, fried eggs with beans and toast).
Day 3: pasta of some type (sauce made of tinned tomatoes and onions, pesto, etc)
Day 4: home made soup of some type (minestrone one week, a vegetarian scotch broth type soup the next, leek and potato, carrot and coriander). Use vegetables What you already have in the fridge and serve with homemade bread.

I'd repeat those four every week, then use the other days for more experimental meals trying to avoid ready meals as best as possible (homemade pizza, homemade veggie burgers, splurge on a moussaka but leave out the feta cheese etc). Try to cut back on snacks or make your own (flap jacks, banana bread, Un-iced carrot cake). Sugar can also be expensive so look for deals or see what you have in the back of your cupboard. Stock up on the cheap long lasting veg like potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage (always seems bigger once cut), swede, tinned tomatoes, dried or tinned pulses. Grains like barley or bulgar wheat are more expensive than pasta but I find portions are half the amount of pasta so also can reduce costs.

I wondered about reducing the lunch bill, £80 for 2 teens over 2.5 weeks is high, and even £5 less a week would be a help. I think my 2 teens cost about £8/week for school lunch, which includes £2.50 for snacks they buy on site.

Milk is a cheap way to get calories (very nutritionally complete, too), 6.25 pence per 100 kcal, if you're paying £1 for 4 pints. Only things like butter, oil, potatoes, cheap bread & rice can beat that. Can't believe folk hassled OP about the milk. If anything, I suggest OP spends even more on milk.

OP didn't answer question about food wastage, did they? Or cleaning supplies?

I appreciate how brave it is when people post their full shopping bills. Still, it amazes me how much people can spend on stuff we never buy like foil, plastic food bags or bin bags, etc. Sometimes can be creative about whether you can do without.

Oo interesting nosy, how do you go without binbags? Do you have to wash out your bins all the time? (And if so isn't the time/effort/water used pretty equal to buying binbags?)

At £80 for 2.5 weeks I'd reckon the school dinners per teen are around £3 a day? If it's one of those cafeteria things that DD's school do, that's about what her lunch would cost - and why I send her with a packed lunch.

I use bin bags in the kitchen bin but in the other bins there's no bag - I just wash them out every so often.

I rarely buy kitchen roll. I bought a plenty big tall roll back in May and it's not even half used. I know it was May because it was bought for a picnic with my brother for his birthday

Waste food - we compost peelings and have a 'slop bucket' which the council collect. It is about 30cm x30cm x20cm. We half to 3/4 fill it each week. Mainly due to the fussy child eg he wants pizza then leaves all the crusts

Cleaning stuff - I buy when it is on offer and store. i have quite a lot in the cupboard so not buying much there. I have had to buy a jumbo pack of 20 loo rolls this month and a 60 pack of dishwasher tablets - both Tesco

Toiletries are tricky due to DS allergies and I have to stick to one particular brand for most things. I try to buy on offer and stockpile. Poundland do the shampoo he needs which is great as it is £2.48 at Boots. He gets through one a week. No idea how this is possible as he has short hair and Ive talked to him about it but the consumption continues.

School - My DS have a late lunch 1:30pm so sometimes buy a snack at first break as well eg a slice of pizza or a cookie. They spend £12-15 a week each. The £80 is for 3 weeks. They take their own tap water so they don't buy drinks at school although they occasionally buy (you guessed it) a carton of milk!

I use the Tesco freebie bags the shopping is delivered in to line all the bins in the house.

Well I'd stop the school dinners for a start. They could have a flapjack or home made cookie or bought cookie (again, I think cookies are cheaper bought the cheap and cheerful brands than cooking my own ) at first break and sarnies and whatever at lunch. And they can "assemble" their own - as in, all the stuff is in the fridge, this is lunches for the week, eat it all and you'll have bread and jam once it runs out (yes I did this - only happened once!)

Could you try swapping quorn for tvp? Much cheaper (lived on it as a student). Also tescos frozen vegetarian meat free options are cheaper than quorn (maybe you already do that? Sorry).
Fish is also expensive, going to assume you already buy frozen to reduce the price.
Not many eggs going on? Really cheap if you buy the battery (gulp - needs must!) ones and really filling and high protein for growing boys
Microwave pots and then only put in oven to crisp skin.
It is horrible when you feel you can't reduce it any further...

I have noticed that our food bill has gone up tremendously. I have two teens 17 and 15.

They constantly have their heads in the fridge.

I wish mine would drink milk.

Honestly, and I hate to admit this because I am the queen of "cook from fresh no processed muck will cross the lips of my wonderful perfect child", when they're teens it's quick cheap filling stuff they need.

I'd do "tesco value" in the online search box and shop as much of that as you can first.

Also, have you sat them down and told them - when it's done it's done, this is the budget, you are eating me out of house and home, what can you guys suggest? Put the ball in their court, as it were.

And before anyone gets all worthy on me, it'll only be a few years til they are necking a kebab at 3am

I have sons 8 and 9 and we already get through 4 pints of milk a day....

OP the difference between a tesco shop and a lidl or Aldi shop is worth many miles of fuel. We have both near us and I find lidl suits our eating habits better, for example they sell bread flour (75p a bag btw) where the Aldi doesn't.

You mentioned Poundland so if you shop there have you looked at the cleaning products in there as well as all the toiletries?Also they sell lots of food stuffs now as well eg tinned stuffs and jars,snacks,some stock fresh produce now as well.

Are you ever near a Asda/Lidl/Iceland? even if you were visiting someone near one even only once every 3-4 weeks it would be worth stocking up on the items that would be cheaper there for you than they are at Tesco.

To work out if you'd save money even after the cost of petrol have a look on mysupermarket.com and compare your shopping,not only will they compare your shopping with other supermarkets it will also show you cheaper versions of the shopping you buy in Tesco

I do buy lots of eggs. Sorry but they HAVE to be free range. I also am given eggs by friends that keep hens.
I will look at more Tesco value stuff although I think the flavour is rank on some of it. I do buy tinned tomatoes, oats, pasta but that is probably all so far.
Can't stand TVP and I do think Quorn adds variety to the diet. Will look at Tesco veggie range tho.
More Lidl shops as well.
Is it worth the extra miles to Aldi I have a Lidl 3 miles away??