How can we get our food bill down

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We have a 50 gbp a week food budget
Female - 38 & pregnant
Male - 35

We shopped at asda 1 week
And lidl the next..

Yet this week hasnt ended yet - & food budget has been spent so eating from what we have

And would ideally like to get it down to 40 gbp a week

We are having pasta 4 tea.
My partner with sausages 4 protein..
I will most likely have fish fingers. .

Thurs i can have soup for lunch, and sardines on toast 4 tea and snack on carrot / strawberries / blue berries / satsumas

I do like / need my 5 a day etc. .

Fri we will use some eggs we have already, we have cheese , cereal etc

Just even shopping in lidl - it soon adds up

We bought lidl own brand choc moose - not dairy milk

Do any of you spend more like 40 gbp a week
And if so - how please

Thank you

blueberries and strawberries are really expensive to buy as snacks!
What did you buy and what meals did you make this week?

We bought lidls chicken and veg frozen pies
Which were nice..
Got new potatoes to have with them ..

My heads a sieve atm - i cant remember what we had tues

We bought 2 x packs of 4 peach yoghurts - i really love them atm - and good for unborn babies calcium..
Bought 2 x packs of easy peelers..
Frozen sausages as partner likes them.
Frozen fish fingers - 80p ish
Etc

It just all adds up

healthy and cheap ingredients like lentils are your friend here. Bulk buying is also a huge way to save if you can - eg big shop first week of month and minimum rest of month. My cheap go to is rice and dal, brown basmati rice for nutrition £8 for 5kgs, lasts me months) red lentils are £1.20 for 500g (that’s 10 generous portions worth) you then need chilli flakes, onions, curry powder and ideally fresh coriander plus I buy sachets of creamed coconut (£2 for 4 sachets) then serve the dal with whatever veggies you have eg green beans with cumin seeds is good. Under £1 a portion but depending on veg costs, make a double batch so that’s 2 meals for under £5. Make a big lasagna, I costed my 6 generous portion one to £7.80, that’s 3 meals per person worth or £1.30 a portion, it freezes well too. For lunches make a big portion of soup that will do multiple days, costs under 50p a portion, costs me 50p a loaf to make homemade bread,again it freezes so make two at a time. Porridge is £1 for 20 portions of oats if you make it with water like me, just add a little milk when you serve it.

buy cheaper fruit like grapes instead of blueberries and strawberries and there’s so many free apples about, look for your nearest community orchard or baskets outside peoples houses, forage for blackberries, plums etc

Thank you
My partner is better @ eating cheaper than me - he often does rice with peas with some protein 4 his lunch

How are your cooking skills?
Jaimie Oliver has a few good series available on ALL4 £1 wonders is good, although that's 2 years old now so cost to £1.50. He's worked the nutrition out for you

Even if your cooking skills only run to putting ready made into the oven and pinging sachets - his style of cooking is so easy that there will be a dish or two that you can easily pick up

Yes he does use cheats - ready rolled pastry for etc , but you will be able to make a tasty pie for a lot less then the frozen shop bought ones

Cooking from scratch really cuts costs

Agree with others, even in Aldi/ Lidl, berries are relatively expensive, especially now they are out of season.

I would think you could reduce your spend by cutting out on the fresh berries or buying frozen and making use of grains and lentils

learn to cook. Make your own yoghurt. Snack less eat bigger meals if nec. Eat what’s available seasonally and locally. So now it’d be pears and apples, not blueberries.

I achieve this (excluding alcohol and cleaning products). £100 for two adults and two kids. I shop at the co-op so not even cheap.

I meal plan completely.
Breakfast is porridge for everyone, with various toppings.
Lunch is homemade soup or filled roll.
Dinner is usually four different dinners per week, three of which are double portions and eaten over two nights.
Weekends we relax a bit!

I cook from scratch and make heavy use of lentils, pasta, rice, beans. Tasty strong cheese like feta goes further. We eat meat maybe four nights a week, fish once usually, and cheese/eggs the other nights. We wouldn't buy expensive fruit and veg unless in season.

If you want to go further it's worth popping in separately a couple of times a week to check for meat/fish in the reduced section, then freeze it. The following week you can include it in your meal plan.
We also pick raspberries, brambles etc when available and freeze them. Buy apples and pears in reduced section, stew, and freeze in small portions. Stewed apple is lovely with plain yoghurt, or makes a cheap pudding with crumble or custard.

Oh wait 🤔 did you mean £40 for BOTH of you? I think that'll be tricky, even with Aldi/Lidl being cheaper than co-op.

Tinned meals are good. Bean chilli made with an onion, 1 tin black beans, 1 tin kidney beans and 2 tins tomatoes lasts us a few meals with rice. Quick to make and very tasty, especially with a bit of cheese on top. I haven't had to get down to £40, but we eat cheap meals so we can buy fruit etc.

You could buy full fat uht milk and water it down.

For fruit just buy whatever is on offer a bag of apples or oranges are usually about £1.

Basic baked beans tend to be just under 30p per tin. Cheap brown bread is 55p for an 800g loaf, you could freeze half if you won't get through that in a week.

A big bag of red lentils is half price atm if you can't cope with cheaper cuts of meat (I can't).

Weirdly grated creamfields (tesco basic) cheddar is cheaper than block cheddar atm p/p/kg. You could freeze it and just take out a sprinkle when you need it.

If you're skint look online for your local community pantry, you don't need a referral and they tend to have free fruit and veg and baked goods.

My prices are all tesco.

We're managing about £52 for two adults, I could cut it by a quid or two. We don't drink anything except water (from the tap, using a glass 😂)

Aldi is cheap 35p for most tinned veg toms etc. I would batch cook large portions of chilli, curries, stews etc add lentils and beans for protein for DP and to bulk them out. Most berries are expensive you’d be better off buying bananas oranges apples Aldi have some 69p special offers each week.

Agree with community pantry suggestions. Open to anyone and you can use the ones in different areas, in case the nearest one to you isn't as good. Check your council website for details. I also use Too Good to Go for groceries (Aldi does it near me), and I often get lunch for free provided by Sikhs (they bring stalls out to the community) and it's open to anyone.

That is a very tight budget for 2 - especially if you are health conscious - are you sure there is nothing else you can cut ?

for protein - lentils and beans are your friend - make a bean and sausage stew and have one sausage per portion

Eggs and tinned tuna are better cheaper sources of protein than sausages. If you must buy sausages, buy frozen as cheaper.

Agree with pps you're snacking expensively - bananas, apples and melon if you need sweeter are more cost effective. Carrots are a great alternative.

As a pregnant woman you need protein too - but don't eat tuna more than twice a week.

Try yellow sticker food - we often set ourselves a challenge to see what we can make - this week it was Turkey mince so made meat balls :)

£40 per week is about what I spent as a single person tbh, we manage about 120 a week with dh, me and toddler.

Interesting about too good to go for groceries, I've tried a couple of meals on tgtg but I'm not sure they were even worth the reduced price really. I'll give a bag of groceries a shot. My £52pw above was propped up with the community pantry. I got some fruit, eggs, a little veg and some donuts.

This is what I do.
I go through Quidco so I get some money back, then I obviously use my Asda club card (which is rubbish)

I also shop around, try farm food too and even Herons

Have you considered walking to and from the shops, or driving a smaller car (or none) to probably save almost as much if not more?

I agree with batch cooking stews, chilli con carne, soups. Bulk them out with tins of haricot beans and black beans to make the meat go further. Eat with rice or on a jacket potato. Grate cheese on top.

Cheap snacks include things like pears, cheese and crackers... too late in the season now but in the summer buy a whole watermelon for £3 and that will last a week.

Buying packaged snacks like the peach yogurt, or processed food like fish fingers, often works out as more expensive than cooking from scratch. You don't have kids yet so you've got a bit more time to cook from scratch.

I use Oddbox and that works out as good value, it's a surplus fruit and veg box.

Don't peel vegetables (like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots), just wash them. The extra fibre is good for you and helps you feel full and you waste less food.

Try things like making your own quiche with ready made pastry - seriously delish, cheaper than ready made, and really easy

If your dh drinks alcohol, he could cut that out and save the £10 a week with very little effort.

Also if overtime is a thing in your or his workplace, you could do just one hour of that and that would cover it

There is some good advice here. I would add to this - use the Olio app. Food waste heroes pickup the yellow sticker bits from supermarkets that haven't sold (usually about 9pm) and list it online. You can then request the bits that you would like from this for free. It can give some variety and treats into your shopping when on a small budget, as well as freeing up your budget.

This. Also, eggs. Make omelettes with some frozen peppers. You can make a huge bean chilli with cheap beans which is full of protein.

There is some good advice here. I would add to this - use the Olio app. Food waste heroes pickup the yellow sticker bits from supermarkets that haven't sold (usually about 9pm) and list it online. You can then request the bits that you would like from this for free. It can give some variety and treats into your shopping when on a small budget, as well as freeing up your budget.