"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.

We probably spend around 100 quid a week for a family of three but could get it down to less if we cut down on certain luxury foods we enjoy. We manage breakfast, lunch and dinner on what we spend

Tops tips:

Keep the protein vegetarian most days of the week: lentils, beans etc (dal, veggie chilli, minestrone, lentil shepherds pie etc)

eggs eggs eggs: frittata, cheese and veggie-filled omelette, crustless quiche is a fantastic way of using up veggies

frozen fish: cod, haddock, salmon, prawns etc all cheaper than fresh

buy whole chicken and do a couple of roasts a week. If you eat meat buy more lean mince - you can make burgers, chillis and British classics.

potatoes, pasta and rice for filling carbs (do a roast veggie traybake with potatoes a couple of times a week - cheap, tasty and nutritious

stick to seasonal and local foods (imported is more expensive) and eat more traditional local dishes: in the UK this means mainly green veggies such as cabbage and broccoli, peas, carrots, spuds, berries in season or frozen, apples. Build your recipes around these ingredients and rediscover old favourites (roasts, shepherds/cottage/fish pies, apple crumble etc).

oats oats oats - not only are these cheap and nutritious, they are also extremely versatile: porridge, overnight soaked bircher muesli, cookies, granola and also savoury (cook with olive oil, parmesan cheese and add a fried egg, onion, tomato, green veggies or whatever you fancy as a cheaper and easier alternative to risotto that will also help you to sleep better!)

build a spice and herb pantry: essential spices and herbs include pepper, cumin, turmeric, smoked paprika, curry powder, oregano, thyme, bay leaves, rosemary and mustard.

buy strong-tasting, hard cheeses as it will go further and last longer: parmesan, pecorino, extra mature cheddar etc.

And finally adapt recipes to the ingredients you actually have!

Also re cleaning products - many are toxic and unnecessary. I make an all-purpose natural cleaner for surfaces in the bathroom and kitchen, floor cleaner as well as windows and it's fantastic. It's basically water, white vinegar, lemon juice, bicarbonate of soda and lemon essential oil. All ingredients are cheap and long-lasting! You will then only need to purchase washing-up liquid and/or dishwashing tablets, laundry detergent and bleach if you use it (I do rarely for the bathroom).

I also have a teenager but can't comprehend her using up a whole bottle of shower gel and face wash in a week. I think that maybe it is worth having a conversation about that as mine would be issued with a soap bar if this was the case.
We tend to buy most other stuff in bulk. I think we would probably have to replace a small packet of toilet roll every week which is why we buy a jumbo pack from Costco which works out a lot cheaper.
No cats here and our dog is just shy of her senior years so, again, a £30 bag of dog food from Costco ties a 40kg dog over for a good few months.

I’d agree with this-have a look at Nancy Birtwhistle for her cleaning “recipes”, my house has never been so clean since I went old school for this!

I have two teenagers and between us we can easily use up that much shower gel and face wash in a week or two. It's fine. I can afford it - and also my own mother was stingy about the products she'd buy me as a teenager (I mainly had to pay for my own) so I'm not doing that to my own kids.

I also prefer to use eco products which are a bit more expensive. It's definitely cheaper and less hassle bulk buying cat and dog food but I just can't bring myself to bulk buy toilet roll!

Shopping in bulk is great if you’re in a position to do it, it’s almost a luxury, but it’s actually quite a big financial outlay in the beginning. It’s like when you’re trying to build up basic spices etc, £3 on spices may not feel a lot, but if you have to feed an entire family on that £3, you can’t spend it on spices

The issue for people on lower incomes re buying in bulk is that if you have say £75 a week for all your shopping, you can’t generally spend £25 of that on loo roll this week, but you can spend £3 on a small pack, and you may not have anywhere to keep 40 rolls of loo roll. You can’t exactly say”we’ll do without loo roll and save to buy it in bulk”!

If it's your choice, that's fair enough but then starting your initial message with "I honestly don't know how they do it" is a bit misleading because you do know but you choose to manage your spending differently.

There's a whole middle ground between stingy and using a amount of shower gel that must mean it would be washing down the drain without even lathering up. If you use a face cloth or similar then it lasts ages.

I use one of those scrunched net body scrub things and put the shower gel on that. One decent squirt of SG does all of me. I use soap on underarms, undercarriage and feet.
If you apply the SG with your hand it just gets rinsed off without cleaning.

What are the quantities please? I would love to make this :)

I'm terrible at measuring anything so I'd say up a spray bottle with 2 thirds water, a third of vinegar, a table spoon of bicarbonate and a few drops of essential oil and a table spoon of lemon juice ( I use the lemon juice you can buy in a bottle as it lasts longer and is easier to use).

*spray bottle!

Great, thank you. At the moment I just have a spray bottle of 50/50 white vinegar and water for disinfecting but this sounds better & like it'll smell lovely.

Yes it smells great, I spray some on the sofa to freshen up as well! It is also great at getting rid of water marks on shower glass, just a great all-rounder. Can't believe I ever wasted so much money on a range of spray cleaners in the past!

It is also great at getting rid of water marks on shower glass, just a great all-rounder.

Perfect! Mine's a hard-water nightmare.

I have noticed a huge difference in my weekly shop cost since going vegetarian. I would advise a couple of nights with no meat to make a big saving.

Toiletries we don't do too bad on. I was a mobile hairdresser in a previous life and I found I saved a lot buying in bulk from salon supply shops/wholesalers. I kept my insurance up to date so I could keep my store cards/membership cards because it seemed worth it for us.

We buy shampoo, conditioner, face wash, etc by the liter at wholesale prices.

I do understand the teenagers use a lot though. Mine aren't too bad on shower gel and facewash but 2 out of three of them bleach their hair and other has naturally dry, curly hair. We use around 2L of decent salon-quality conditioner a month.

I can never understand people who say they are buying toilet roll, washing liquid, toiletries etc almost every week.

I buy washing liquid from Lidl which is under £3 and it lasts about 2 months. Shower gel lasts ages. If you use a scrunchy you only need a small amount of gel and it lathers up really well.

Toilet roll is best bought in bulk if you can afford to and have somewhere to store it.

I buy 44 rolls from Who gives a Crap and it lasts me and DH just over 8 months. If you don't have room or the money to buy that then Nicky toilet rolls which are sold in many places including Home Bargains, Farm Foods are good quality and work out much cheaper than buying small packs

@mydogisthebest , the amount different people use varies a lot. Cheap bogroll, WUL etc gets used up quickly. One person might use 3 times as much or more as the next person.

If you shop on foot, you are limited by what you can carry.

You can save a lot of money if you buy in bulk but it’s something that’s not always possible for those most in need of saving money. You need to have the money, the storage space and the transportation to buy the massive packs of loo roll and clothes washing liquid or to take advantage of special offers and stock up when things are on offer.

During lockdown, when we were worried about going shopping and things weren't always available , we used a LOT less of all toiletries, loo roll, washing-up liquid etc. It was quite a lesson in how much we actually need.

I definitely didn't use less loo roll! I don't think people wipe less if they don't think anyone is going to be able to smell them!

Loo roll is definitely something worth buying in bulk as it is so much cheaper. I am always amazed that people buy those 2 or 4 packs which don't last long and cost quite a bit.

There are a few companies that deliver loo roll such as Who gives a Crap so you don't have to have a car or the Nicky brand sell packs in different quantities and they are not heavy to carry.

Storage might be a problem for some but most people would have somewhere to store them - under the bed, on top of wardrobes, in the garage or shed, in the loft. I keep some under the bed, some on the wardrobe floor and some behind a settee.

@horseyhorsey17 , in the lockdown, I was probably more concerned about not running out of things, so would be more careful about not using bog roll if I could use a hanky or washable make-up pad, and also not using more squares thn necessary for wiping after the loo.

This is the recipe I use for general cleaner-it’s by Nancy Birtwhistle. I use Eucalyptus oil and it smells lovely