Anyone want to join me on a cheap food month challenge?

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We are spending about £300 a month on groceries (including cleaning/toiletries etc). Want to keep it under £200 for the next 4 weeks if possible. Only 3 of us and I’ve just done a big bulk cook for DS (4) so mainly just me and DH. To cover all meals except we are invited to 2 BBQs in May so won’t need food for those.

I need to do this. I have spent £360 on food/household this month. It's ridiculous. I will start on 1st of May, hoping to get it £250 Or under. I'm following slimming world and am dairy free, can't eat many eggs which bumps it up a bit.

Meals we like that are cheap:
Savoury flapjack
Stir fry
Mushy peas curry
Chilli con carne
Loaded potatoes
Calzone pizza made with tortillas wraps.
Chicken casserole - frozen chicken breasts from Iceland in slow cooker with vegetables and chicken stock.

I also often buy a large chicken, do a roast then have lots for lunches during the week. Add mayo and sweet corn for on top if jacket potato or with sweet chilli sauce and a salad. Or today I made a Yorkshire pudding wrap with chicken and left over veg.

Fluffy crunchy risotto 😂

I know this may seem a bit extreme but I halved my food bill a while ago by not eating meat except for some chicken maybe at weekends.

So mostly plant based - vegetables, salads esp tomatoes and tinned tomatoes, fruit, rice, pasta, tuna, some potatoes, chickpeas, lentils, spices, herbs, sardines, eggs.

Plus beans on toast :)

I have got mine down to £30 a week by meal planning.

M corned beef hash with baguettes

T spaghetti bol with garlic pizza
W lentil soup
T any left overs from above
F leek potato soup

Roast chicken at weekend.

Two meat free days, all frozen veg. Shopping at Lidl

I buy lots of frozen veg, I have a special drawer in the freezer for it all and just add it to one pan and some tinned tomatoes and herbs, make a big batch of sauce and freeze. Great for lasagne, pasta bakes, spag bol etc... I am fed up of fresh veg going off before I have chance to use it, apparently frozen can be better as more nutrients locked in too?? Saves some money for sure.

Meal planning definitely saves money. Stick to your list when shopping, if its not on there from your plan for the week, don't buy it!

Just doing my food audit now. Seeing what I’ve already got in. Not planning on trying to use it all in week 1 but definately see what meals I can already do and plan around them for the month.

Silver I've started using a lot of frozen veg too. Been buying onions and peppers a lot, mixed veg and it's cut down on my waste.

You can freeze baked beans, I can’t have them but Dh often only eats half a can so I freeze the rest in freezer bags.

I don’t like frozen cauli so I buy fresh, cut in half and freeze. I cook it like that and break it up when it’s cooked so it’s less prep.

My freezers are now rammed so I'll be pulling it all out again tomorrow and doing a food audit too.

Right, audit done so I’m not buying anything I don’t need, and using what I already have.

I’ve done a meal plan and shopping list for next week and I’ve just entered it all in to Tesco online and it comes to £51.80. I will actually shop in Lidl so it will be interesting to see what the total is in there. I’m almost certain it will be less and I hope so too! Ideally I think it would come in at £45 and so I’d have £5 available for any top ups I need during the week.

Primal unfortunately I don’t really have much in. I don’t really have much cupboard space and most of my food is fresh so fridge based. Freezer usually has a fair bit of batch cooked stuff but at the moment it’s quite bare! There is loads of bits for DS (little bolognaise’s, curries, Shepard’s pies etc) so he is sorted which will help keep May food costs down. Plus he is on a treat ban for being naughty so I’m not buying much junk this week at least!

Mine was bare too but I've tried to buy for two weeks and see how we get on.

Soup freezes really well. I've got an electric soup maker and I'm the only one that likes carrot and coriander soup, so I make a whole batch and freeze the rest in individual bags (Aldi freezer bags are fine).

I find if I try and buy for 2 weeks I just spend more and still do almost a full week’s shop the second week. Think I’m going to stick to weekly for May and then might switch to fortnightly big shop and small top up shops between for June. Need to give that one a bit more thought though...

Can I join?

I work practically full time so need to meal plan otherwise everything goes Pete Tong

May is going to be my concerted effort month, audit cupboards and freezer, check where every is for the week, confirm if anyone has food tech, meal plan then write shopping list. We shop at Aldi so I may as well meal plan round their super six...best get googling!

I'm really not happy about Monday still being in April though, for the purposes of my plan I'll pretend it's in May.

Me too nicky

Spent £13 now since 26th but its our big shop today! Lots of cheapie options I think!

Hello, I need to join! I have a 7 week old ds though so not much cooking is getting done by me!

Cheap slow cooker ideas aside from soups most welcome!

Also, do people think it's worth a trek to Morrisons specifically for the wonky veg box? We usually shop at Aldi.

You can freeze sandwiches. Nothing with salad or mayo but meat/cheese combos with mustards or pickles will freeze really well.

I’ve done a top up shop but forgot cat food 😡 but it was still £14 for chicken breasts, bacon, eggs, lacto free milk, sugar, soya cream, basics chocolate and onions.

Our local morrisons has run out of a lot of the wonky veg. It must be really popular.

Tonight we’re having chicken tikka masala made from home made tikka paste and sauce with home made onion bhajis & egg fried rice.

I will join too. Really need to watch my money in May. Will start a meal plan later .

I'm psyching myself up to get dressed and go to Aldi. Ive I formed dh that as well as continuing to save money, we both need to change our eating habits go on a fat busting diet so no sneaking any quiches in when my back is turned. He pulled these faces at me 😱😳😲🙄

i was thinking about this last night so seeing your post must have been fate! i worked out we spending £500 a month on shopping for a family of 4 + cat! its just insane, i'm feeling a bit ashamed its so much...

my plan is to keep a total of what we spend each month and and save the remain money in a different account so i can see how much we are saving.

i'm getting the slow cooker out.... Good luck everyone.

I've taken £100 out of the atm and I am going to use that for shopping this week rather than just swiping my card. This way when it's gone - no more shopping! If I have money left over it means next week I can reduce my budget. Spent £37 in aldi yesterday. Let's see how it goes!! It's too easy to pop in the shop for little stuff, swipe card and the cost adds up.

Using cash only can work very well. I was reduced to £20 a week one year for me and two DC (when they were little and ExH had buggered off) and I just put it in a jar, learned where the bargains were, walked everywhere to find/buy them on my days off, and eked it out like that.

The kids are young adults now but they remember it - 'The Fishcake and Soup Years'!