"Normal" people who cook from scratch everyday - tell me this gets cheaper

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By normal, I mean excluding those who can feed a small African village with one can of chickpeas, an egg, and a tomato. Normal people, who eat normal portions of normal foods.

We've canceled Hello Fresh to save money, so we've started meal planning with a recipe-building app instead, otherwise, we just cycle through the same 5/6 meals all the time.

One child is away this week. The remaining child has picked;

Cheesy broccoli pasta bake, Piri piri chicken wrap “fakeaway”, easy creamy chicken curry, penne arrabbiata with roasted peppers and pancetta, easy chicken jalfrezi curry.

£75 fecking quid.

It's not even a full shop. I'm not eating breakfast or lunch coz the price now just for evening meals is way too much. I've added a couple of yoghurts and crappy pizzas for the kids lunches and breakfasts and we already have cereal in.

I bought cat litter and cat food earlier or that would have been added too.

Admittedly, we had to buy a lot of spices because Hello Fresh used to send them in handy little packets and DD has used most of the ones we did have jazzing up her instant noodles. But, the spices only added around £10ish. That's still £65 without breakfasts or lunches.

Obviously, next week we won't need as many spices and should have some butter and oil left but still...

If this is the best we can do I am going to have to consider rehoming a child.

Thanks so much.

Kara was a beauty, Very smart and regal and gentle and amazing with very little Dcs. Parents were devastated as you can imagine.

I bet! What kids don't love Turkish food :). They might like homemade dhansak, which is all lentils but you'd not notice. And maybe Caribbean beans and rice with fish fingers? You can do it with creamed coconut instead of coconut milk, which saves money.

I agree with this.

We know a couple who spend a perplexingly little amount of money on food. Turns out they do it by eating pretty basic (but still perfectly fine) meals with very few ingredients. There are plenty of cook books with this aim. I think this is achievable with Italian food particularly. They are also fine with eating exactly the same batch cooked lunch for a week.

I would get very bored eating like this so our budget reflects that although I think there is a happy medium with maybe having the same lunch (leftover from a dinner like a lasagne) for a couple of days and only doing the more elaborate cooking with numerous herbs and spices on the weekends. We tend to try one new recipe a week - just one because it often means buying a few new store cupboard items.

I think life is too short & wouldn't it be miserable to live on basic meals. Plus, my kids would complain as they've been bought up on tasty food.
We do batch cook but I will freeze half for another time.
Op I do sympathise though at the cost.
My 18/19 year olds ate 5 chicken thighs each earlier in Chicken Adobo with rice/quinoa. Now the 19 year old is cooking himself a steak. Plus the other night as they're semi-nocturnal in the holidays they ate two duck breasts from the freezer & some salmon I was marinading.
We do shop at Lidl to cut costs but we don't really skimp on food.
I make my own sourdough - the starter was grown by my Vet DD a while ago.
Every couple of weeks I make sourdough pizza dough as it tastes so good & so much better than normal pizza dough. I also make lots of homemade soups for lunch. Often Asian types like crab meat & sweetcorn, egg drop & tomato, Filipino chicken & rice soup & any types of noodle & miso soups, as they're all really easy to make.

@Cantonet I need to look some of those soups up, they sound great.

My 18/19 year olds ate 5 chicken thighs each earlier in Chicken Adobo with rice/quinoa. Now the 19 year old is cooking himself a steak. Plus the other night as they're semi-nocturnal in the holidays they ate two duck breasts from the freezer & some salmon I was marinading

This is why I keep the freezer stocked with pizzas. DD1 is not so bad, she helps with cooking so knows the meal plan usually and what is going spare and will make fridge pasta for them. DD2 can't cook/won't cook but they have been in trouble previously for making an entire Hello Fresh meal at 3 am and eating the whole lot between the three of them.

This doesn’t sound right. Can you post a pic of the receipt?

I'd be getting some bread in and telling them it's toasts for snacks, not a whole meal!

I think I deleted the email reciept. I have a billion screenshots of the order. Our fridge broke so we had to replace a lot of the basics (milk, butter, cheese etc) that we might usually have had in because we did not go shopping last week. We ate what was supposed to be in the fridge before it started identifying as an oven.

Do you buy laundry, toilet rolls and washing up liquid every week though? I do a load of washing almost every day (I live with a builder and a gym rat) and I am in my 7th month of using the 5l bottle of laundry liquid and I still have almost half of it left. We buy three or four packets of jumbo toilet roll a year (I think they are about £20 each) and the washing up liquid once every six weeks or so.

Yes, I don't really understand the 'with cleaning products and toiletries or without?'. They would make a difference on a tight budget but don't add much to my shop when averaged out to a weekly basis.

Learn how to de-bone a whole chicken, you'll need a sharp knife but it works out way cheaper.

But this is Mumsnet. People drown everything in bleach, take at least 2 showers a day and wash everything after one wear or use so I can see that costing more than normal in products.

But seriously, I do agree that cleaning products along with toiletries and laundry detergent etc should be a reasonably trivial percentage of the whole cost for most people.

But seriously, I do agree that cleaning products along with toiletries and laundry detergent etc should be a reasonably trivial percentage of the whole cost for most people.
On the weeks we run out of bin bags, cleaning products, washing powder, toilet roll and other household maintenance products our shop is much more expensive and it isn't a trivial amount.

Everything is going up in price. We aren't a zoflora everything and wear clothing once family either.

We buy what we use in bulk where it's on offer if possible but also appreciate that's a privileged position to have the upfront money to do this and to store it, and a car to transport it. Those people without a car, without the ability to buy bulk, or store it are kept buying smaller amounts more often.

Cheap doesn't need to be dull, my quick go-to is often pasta with something savory mixed in for taste. So, onion, garlic, a few olives, capers and shredded almonds, fried up in olive oil, or a couple of chopped-up anchovies and cherry tomatos... mostly, small quantities of store-room basics and anything that needs using up. Yesterday the base was a 250g packet of spaghetti, mixed with a large courgette and a carrot cut into strips and lightly fried in olive oil with garlic and a few cashew nuts, and some fresh basil added before serving. Delicious, less than ten minutes prep apart from cooking the pasta and cost very little

Nice and tasty, but not much protein...getting protein in can be expensive. Yes beans and pulses bulk stuff out. But some people do prefer meat, it's an easy way of getting lots of vitamins....etc etc.

nuts, seeds, tofu
eggs
yoghurt, quark
legumes
quinoa

can add protein relatively cheaply

Toilet rolls, shower gel, face wash, cat litter - we run out of that on a weekly basis (I have teenagers), plus I usually have to add in something else like laundry liquid, dishwasher tabs, bin bags etc. Plus I also have to buy cat and dog food, which I haven't factored into the £100 weekly shop but would put it up a lot as they're all elderly and on expensive diets.

I'm sorry but this is an absolute no no, you can't have other people using your kitchen resources-have snacks or cheap pizzas for them if you must, but they can't interfere with the meal plan and expect to get fed.
Meals are your responsibility so the kitchen and it's resources are your kingdom-you need to read them the Riot Act, and mean it.

A lot of this reads like you need to be eating drastically different, or only having meat one day a week, but you really don't need to change that much! You are probably finding it more expensive as you're just starting out, but if you're on Instagram try follow jadesbites or Cardiff.mum

Both of them do 5 meals for around £25 per week and really mix it up. Jade'sbites is probably better for you as she has done it at multiple supermarkets to show you can shop at you usual places and always serves 4 portions, whereas Cardiff.mum does exclusively Aldi which I know you have already stated you would struggle to get to - her meals are also more catered towards 2 adults and 2 younger children. There is also a blog here with all the recipes on:

https://www.jadesbites.co.uk/budget-food-blogs

No, nit a good idea - you can’t give chicken bones to dogs. They can splinter and injure them.

Actually looking at your receipts, only about £47 is for this weeks main meals that you have listed. From that £47, another £17 or so, will last for future meals - ie spices, oils, mustard, sauces etc. So you're not doing too bad!

I thought that too - chicken bones aren't advised for dogs are they?

Chicken bones are fine if they're raw but not cooked

Look at savoury pancakes, they are filling and an alternative to baked potatoes. Ham and cheese, onion mushroom and cheese. Also, Jamie Oliver's budget meals are worth a google search. Batch cook bolognese sauce and have 2 or 3 in the freezer if you can. Same with any other kind of all in one casserole dish with chicken, beef, pork. If you manage to buy a multipack cook it all at once and freeze it. Home made quiche -buy the ready rolled pastry, add any selection of veggies to the quiche delicious and filling. Eggs are so versatile.