Someone who spends £70-£100 per week on food, here is a thread of our Easter shop/ meals

[IncessantNameChanger]

6 people in out family. No pets. Three adults mum, dad 19 year old teen. 3 kids 15, 12 and 8

This could be eye opening as sometimes I do really spend £250 on food and sometimes maybe I'm a bit dillusional!

It's Easter do not a typical week but here goes.

Yesterday we had

Cereal milk, fruit loaf or egg and bacon sandwiches for breakfast.

Lunch was ham cheese and salad sandwiches ( 2 slices of bread, one slice of ham kind of thing
Roast dinner, Cauliflowercheese, Sweetcor, Yorkshire puds, stuffing, cheese cake for afters.

Today is the same but aubergine x3 and chicken 1kg frozen breasts, 2 jars of currey sauce and 6 harn breads with rice.

So far that's come from this list which hasn't been used up. I will add as I use up or buy more. From lidl so far

Snacks 12 from age frais 80p

6 apples 99p

10 mini pears 95p

6 bananas 1.26

Fruit loaf 99p

Milk 4 pints 1.65

Honey nut flakes 95p

Choco shells 95p

Back bacon 10 slices x2 packs 2.80

Bread thick toasties x 3 2.37

Buttery spread 500g 99p

Ham 14 slices 2.49

Cheese extra mature 900g 4.80

Coleslaw 99p

Lettuce 99p

Plum baby tomatoes 325g 89p

Extra large chicken 4.99

Potatoes 2.5kg 1.25

Cauliflower cheese 1.79

Stuffing 46p

Sweetcorn 1.49

Yorkshire puddings 50p

Cheese cake x2 1.89

2 aubergines - 1.30

1kg frozen chicken breast 3.99

Rice 1kg 1.75

2 korma sauce jars 1.40

Pashwari 6 mini narns 95p
Total £31.79

Day 3 breakfast and lunch from original shop so no new costs from them.

I bought an extra milk, still have snacks and fresh fruit from original budget. Going to make up a vat of pasta sauce to do dinners for day 3 and four. Today is spaghetti and garlic bread. Tomorrow will be lasagna

4 pints milk 1.99

Minced beef 500kg x2 packs 4.98

Tinned chopped tomatoes 4x tins 1.28

Passatta 4x cartons 1.64

Tomatoe puree 35p

Stock cube 20p

Mixed herbs from existing Costco jumbo pot 10p? A

2 garlic breads 89p

Pasta 750g 82p

Total 12.29

Running total 44.08

In the ideal world, what is the maximum you'd want to spend, OP?

Why are you posting this OP? Neither of those days appear to meeting the UK suggested minimum nutritional requirements.

Just checking to see if I can stick to a budget for the week. I will stop then 😆

That’s a crazy price for meat. I’m no vegetarian, but I’d hate to think of the conditions those poor animals have been kept in to charge so little. If you cut out the processed stuff you could afford better quality meat. As a PP said, it doesn’t look very nutritional.

Thanks for posting. It's helpful to know what others are eating. I'll go to lidl and have a look. Ignore the comments. Times are tough and rough.

If you have the money, which it looks like you do from previous spending, you could bulk buy bags of spices like curry powder, garam masala, turmeric, chilli flakes. These would last ages so then no need for jarred sauces. I would only use 600g chicken between 6.

Porridge is very cheap and much better for you than sugary cereals.

I would recommend using less meat and adding beans or lentils (or chopped mushrooms work for bolognaise) to reduce spending further. Bulk buy spices and make your own spice paste, then add yogurt/coconut milk, far tastier, instead of naans make chappatis, they are super easy using either atta flour (chickpea, from world foods section) or half white half wholemeal, anyone reading with kids they are a good way to get kids involved as they can roll them out.

Hmm? Not really sure. I have £550 remaining balance to spend on two school trips this month. I also have a slow puncture on my tyre. It's this or go overdrawn. In hindsight maybe I wouldn't have booked both boys residential trips but it's done now and they need paying off this month or its money down the drain. One is off to Paris for £650 for the week so it seemed like a good opertunity for him.

The mince is cheap as its 20% fat so that's fried and drained off. Its the cheapie bits minced up v the lean parts. Its all from same animals as the 5 or 2% mince which is nearer £5. Its just cheaper because its fatty which is fine if your frying it. Not sure id eat it ineg a meatloaf. The chicken is from Argentina and I posted about this before as the air miles seems crazy but someone posted that they have higher welfare there? I was a bit 🤔 when I saw where its from. Its got added water too, so I don't think it's excessive portion size. It's one breast each.

If anyone is interested tomorrow is left over lasagna so just a box of whealmeal pasta sheets. They are really nice, i make it cold the night before or in the morning so the pasta cooks better.

We do normally eat porridge but everyone is up at different times in the holidays. I do sometimes make my own currey sauces but only the Thai ones with coconut milk. I don't think it works out cheaper than the lidl jars though. I get massive pots of spices from Costco and local Asian shops. I made my own chapati but they wasn't very nice. I need to try again.

100g of protein is too much, who knew? Mind you it's 100g raw if that counts. I could easily eat half a tin of beans.

I've seen far worse from someone trying to feed a family on a budget, ie packet noodles as a meal, no veg and biscuits for snacks.

Obviously will have to see what else OP buys, but lunch and tea have salad and veggies included, with a sauce of protein. OP also bought fruit so family must be eating that as and when. I guess breakfast is personal preference, but there is a choice.

Personally, I wouldn't buy the meat myself but that's personal preference and what you priortise spending your money on.

Hi OP -

Family of 4 here and I'm averaging a similar spend to you (about £75 a week)

This week we've had (for comparison)

Monday -
Scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast (get 30 eggs from Farm shop for £5)
DS1 Had a packed lunch at holiday club - meatballs, homemade marinara sauce, homemade doughballs. Crisps. Mini 'mars bar' (aldi own) A satsuma and some chopped cucumber and tomato. I brought leftovers and DH was on a business lunch so free. DS 2 had lunch at nursery,
Dinner was sausages with Cauli cheese, peas and roasted baby potatoes.

Tuesday -
Kids had cereal for breakfast (Weetabix with a sprinkle of frozen blueberries)
DS1 another packed lunch this time croissant with chopped banana and Nutella.
DS2 at nursery again. FF Greek yogurt with half a teaspoon of honey and some more frozen bloobs and the extras he had yesterday. I had soup. DH wasn't hungry so a handful of mixed nuts and a latte apparently.
Last nights dinner was homemade 'Tacos' Mince, Cajun spices, chopped salad, a couple of fish fingers in case the kids decided that today they don't like spice And some wraps warmed in the oven over the shelves until just slightly crisp.

Today -
Breakfast was fruit. Then DS1 went to MIL where he's had crumpets. DS2 at nursery so will have had toast and weetabix.
Lunch - DS1 at MIL. DS2 at nursery. I brought a tuna salad and DH took leftovers.
Dinner tonight - butter chicken (chicken we get once a month from the butchers and between 4 of us use 3 breasts) plus veg - courgette, broccoli and mushrooms in there today, which I've had in the slow cooker all day with some quick 2 ingredient homemade flatbreads (Greek yogurt and flour) and rice.

@Marchforward Very helpful post - notice you don't offer your assistance there and instead just a judgement and a put down. People are always so quick to demean, and never as speedy in holding out a helping hand.

I was waiting for the OP to reply with what her aim is before I can offer assistance. From her post I can’t tell if she is just wanting some where to track or spending or if she is after advice.

Aim is to cut my food bill as much as possible to divert money to paying off school trips. Any tips for filling recipes welcome. I can't bulk with lentils really as three of the kids have sensory issues so they don't like the gritty texture of red lentils. However I can cook lentils as a meal for the rest of us. I sometimes used quorn mince. But not really in the mood to go into the high street shop I normally buy it from ( because got the kids in tow)

Day 4

Lunches and breakfast from original budget. Lasagna made with yesterday spaghetti sauce with salad

White cheese sauce made with existing milk and cheese. Salad and Coleslaw from original budget.

Flour 69p
Lasagna sheets 75p
Cucumber 79p
Total 2.23

@QforCucumber thanks that is helpful. How do you make your dough balls? I had tones of flour. I think I'm missing a trick with breakfasts. I am going to do beans on toast for lunch tomorrow. I think. We do the Mexican style mince wraps too. I sometime cook a pack or two of savory rice with it as that bulks it out and we have salsa and sour cream.
I froze all the left over chicken and then the bones separately so I might cook that in a stir fry but I found a bbc good food recipes for a £1 per serving creamy chicken rice dish that I might try. I might make some home pizzas but it was so messy last time. I'm all about cooking things in under 30 minutes

What on earth are you talking about

All these people bulk buying spices or rice/provisions, where do you store stuff, not everyone has unlimited space and personally I dont want my house looking like a grocery store.

@bellac11 choose the things you actually eat, designate a cupboard as the larder cupboard. I buy rice in 5kg packets because it is cheaper and we eat loads. I buy 500g of paprika a time for the same reason. Never buy a big bag of something you don't use frequently.

Cheap ways to fill up teens. Teach them how to make it themselves.

Homemade pot noodles; get supermarket instant noodles with the flavour sachet add grated carrot, frozen peas and some TVP mince. Add boiling water, prat around for a couple of mins, microwave for a min, rest and eat.

Soup, loads of veg, red lentils, spices, use a whizzy wand to make it smooth and serve with cheese toasties and or toast.

Cook extra rice and show them how to do egg fried rice. Make sure there are loads of additives (vegetable, flavour and protein)

Bags of spices don't take up much room, mine are on the top shelf of a cupboard with bags of rice/pasta etc. I decant into glass jars on the bottom shelf for easy access. The cupboards have doors so it doesn't look like a shop.

I only bulk buy what use a lot of. Sacks of rice from Costco live on the floor by a cupboard. I buy big bags of chilli, garam masala, fajita spice, paprika and mixed herbs and they are in constant use. They live at the top of a cupboard. Pasta and red lentils are decanted into glass jars that live on the counter top. Most other herbs come in the small jars that live in the spice rack. So it's only bulkly for a few things. Not every spice. I'm trying to buy less so that's freeing up cupboard space. But things like sacks of rice only works for bigger families. The sack lasts almost a year even having it at least once a week

i often used to add tinned chickpeas to a chicken curry
make a cauliflower curry
use butternut squash

kidney beans/black beans - chille con carne