Let's lower our food bills.

[Bookaholic73]

I was wondering if anyone else is trying to lower their food bills and wanted some support. I know I do!
I'm hoping that we could support each other with info on where is cheapest to get certain items, what food is on offer at which supermarket that week etxc.

A bit about us. We are a family of 3, myself and my 2 adult sons. We are currently spending £800 a month on food, and i really want to reduce this by at least £150 a month.
My sons buy all of their own snacks, drinks etc, all i pay for is their main meals and my own food. They obviously also pay me monthly 'rent' but this swallowed up by rent and council tax.

Anyone else want to join in?

We are a family of 5, 2 adults 3 kids and 3 dogs on a raw diet and we spend no way near £800 a month!

average £40 a week which includes all of our packed lunches fresh fruit milk and breakfast stuff.

£60 a month on washing stuff and cleaning stuff.

£150 on raw dog food.

£150 freezer shop.

I bulk cook and can make a meal out of most things. Our bills have crept up but £800 seems incredible to me.

You must be either buying a lot of branded foods or a lot of convenience food to spend that much ?

Are the kids on a fitness high protein thing ? That can add a lot of outlay on eggs / chicken etc so maybe explore other protein sources for them

Thanks @CoastalCalm no, i am actually the one who eats a lot of meat and a high protein diet, not the boys.
But yes, we definitely eat quite a bit of convenience foods, so i know my first thing will be to cook more from scratch.

I’ve stopped doing all of my shopping at the supermarket. The market is cheaper for loo roll kitchen roll and cleaning products. We have a really good weigh shop and another shop that does refills of washing liquid etc
I try to buy a months worth at once so I’m not tripping round lots of extra places every week. It’s on a rough rota

I am right in the middle of my anger about the resentment of how much the food shop is creeping up so I'm in.

We are a family of 5, 2 adults one adult sized 17yr old DS, 13yr old DD and DS9 who is Autistic and has AFRID so limited to no change can be made for his food.
we also have two very loved cats.

@BeMellowAquaSquid £40 a week for 5 people?! Really? How on earth are you doing that? That’s what my daughter at uni spends just for her and that’s considered quite low…what on earth do you eat?!

It’s good practice to start a meal plan and batch cook some basics which can be fancied up for variety - so say a bolognese base which can become chilli bowls or lasagne or even sloppy joes. I’m lucky in that my husband loves an afternoon batch cooking every couple of weeks and mainly makes say four portions of 6 different curries that we freeze along with bags of cooked rice. Preparing a batch of chicken tikka or other marinaded protein to have rather than things like fridge raiders for snacks alongside some boiled eggs. I’d just start with making a couple of changes based on things you spend most on and go from there

@BeMellowAquaSquid how old are your children if you dont mind me asking? Any tips for where is cheapest for cleaning products and loo roll?
Bulk cooking is a good idea and I'll be putting that into practice.

@Autumn1990 i wish my market was cheaper. I used to buy from the market, butcher and greengrocers, but their prices have increased so much that supermarkets are always cheaper now.

@TomatoSandwiches I'm glad I'm not alone in this! I can imagine ARFID makes the food situation much more complicated, my autistic son is very specific about what brands he will eat and that is nowhere near as complicated!

@CoastalCalm how do you do the bags of frozen rice please?

Can i join please.

My tips:

Deliveroo grocery top up Mondays- some really good deals, even with fees added on (don’t forget to link Amazon prime for cheaper delivery).

Morrisons delivered- some great flash sale items on check out, plus check hotdealsuk in case someone has posted a money off code.

We just make a big batch of rice (electric rice cooker for ease and reliability) cool down then pop either single or double portions into individual Ikea sandwich bags and into freezer - they can be microwaved from frozen or thawed and are so much better than the pouches. We use mostly jasmine rice and buy a good sized bag every couple of months

Its not £40pw, there is a £150 a month freezer shop on top of that, so say another £30pw.

Its completely doable if you eat basic veg, beans, pulses, slow cooked or stew/curry type foods, bulk out meat, soups, your own bread preferably. Completely non branded.

Hi @Moltenpink yes please do join in!
Unfortunately we dont have Deliveroo here, we live at the back end of nowhere! I do however have a good selection of supermarkets in our nearest town.
Morrisons
Asda
Lidl
Aldi
Iceland
Farmfoods
B&M
Home Bargains.
I've never bought food from B&M, Iceland or Home Bargains, but I've seen on Social Media that you can.

I bought fish and meat from Farmfoods years ago (about 2009) and it was so bad that I've never stepped foot in there again.

Thanks, I'll do that. I currently use the VeeTee rice packets, or the Uncle Bens microwave rice.

Wow £800 is a huge amount a month, especially if it’s just meals and not snacks and drinks. We’re a family of 4, 2 young DCs and 2 adults, so nappies are included in this plus lots of snacks and also drinks and cat food, we spend around £120 a week and we eat very well, I don’t budget but do meal plan and prefer cooking from scratch and like a lot of fruit and veg in our diet.

Seems very lean , cat and I cope well on £50, that excludes cleaning stuff

Who has time to make bread from scratch every other day? I work 52hrs a week, i defintely wont be making my own bread.

What do you mean by 'basic veg'?

@Overthebow we eat a lot of veg and some fruit. I think meal planning is a great idea, I'll start doing that too. Do you plan and shop weekly or monthly?

It was just a suggestion. We dont really eat bread, I make a loaf now and then, say once a fortnight or so? Takes us that long to get through it, I freeze in slices.

However I only do this because I have discovered no knead bread, mix the flour and water together, stick it in a bowl, leave it overnight, chuck it in a hot casserole dish. No touching or kneading or anything. Beautiful bread. So yes you could do it every other day, total time taken is about 10 mins.

I have read for people who eat a lot of bread, they save a lot of money making their own thats all, which is why I suggested it, which is what you asked, how to lower the food bill

What I mean by basic veg is non prepared, not in bags, a cauli whole, sprigs of salad or whole lettuces, the wonky varieties, buying in season, buying what we grow here, buying what is cheap. Working out if per kg frozen is cheaper than fresh (it is sometimes, although texture is an issue)

Then working meals around that rather than the protien element which is more expensive.

My tip is to meal plan for the week, and pick 3 days out of the 7 to have a very cheap meal for dinner. Things like jacket potato beans and cheese, tomato pasta, macaroni cheese, mushroom pasta, with all sauces made from scratch rather than a jar and using unbranded ingredients like the beans. Serve with a filler like cheap garlic bread (Asda is around 40p), cheap veg (carrots or frozen peas), or basic salad items like cucumber sticks and cherry tomatoes.

We shop weekly, and the kids get a say in the meals to so we all plan together.

@soupyspoon yes great idea about the basic veg. I feel like i could move away from veg like extra special green beans and tenderstem broccoli and just get the usual types, or like yousaid, the wonky types. Thanks for the ideas.

@Overthebow i aim to have about 30g of protein per meal, so would need to add meat to my dinners, but could do a night or 2 a week of baked beans with jacket potato. Actually that sounds really nice!

Yes doesnt have to be every night, we have more expensive meals the rest of the week, but just a couple of the cheap meals each week can make a huge difference. If you’re getting those down to under £5 for all of you for a dinner rather than say £15 you’re saving £80+ a month without needling to think about it too much.

I have been eating my cupboards and our allotment. It’s not main shop for me, it’s the only went in for milk and out I come £50 the lighter with barely 2 bags of shopping. Top up shop!
We have been on a low buy year.

Yes, i am so guilty of this too! I think the secret to combat this for me, is to only food shop once a week instead of 2-3 times a week.