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?

I have started to send my adult DD’s because if I text milk. That’s all she buys.
I use to love a wander around the shops, but I can’t be trusted.
Also other than roast chicken then next day creamy chicken pasta. Possible bolognaise to chilli. They won’t eat porridge but do like Greek yogurt with berries. But a big pot only lasts two days with the 3 adults eating. So even that isn’t cheap!

@Sowthegarden i totally understand what you mean, 3 adults can get through a lot of food, especially active men! My boys and I can all put away a lot of food!

@Bookaholic73 i don’t want you beating yourself up about your budget. I’ve always struggled to pinpoint what I’m spending on food (and household essentials) and after a careful month i managed to work out I was round the £700+ mark (2 adults 2 children 8 and 4, 4 year old ARFID 8 year old multiple allergies, DH other food issues). I’m also working and caring and doing everything else and food costs a lot. I’m a good planner, a frugal cook, but certain things cost money. If I was alone I’d spend barely a thing but the family have needs! One thing i would love and would help me budget even more is a chest freezer but I don’t have the space. There’s an article on BBC at the moment about batch cooking X amount of meals for £20 but my goodness it’s depressing! www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/meals_in_two_hours_challenge

Buying dried pulses and lentils too is much cheaper overall, although that needs forward planning, to soak them and they take longer to cook. A slow cooker is your friend here.

Bags of frozen berries or forest fruits as they like to call themselves I think are cheaper than fresh.

Definitely meal plan . We are a family of 4- 2 adults , dd24 and ds12. I do an Aldi shop every 2 weeks and spend about £150 then in between I will pop to Asda and top up on lunch stuff/ fruit and probably spend £20-£30. If I do a lasagne / cottage pie I always make 2 so that’s one for the freezer . Egg fried rice is a super cheap idea for lunch time and can be made in advance . Creamy spicy pasta is popular here and you can put any veg in along with chicken or quorn .

Depressing in what way?

Looks a lovely set of dinners, healthy,cheap, tasty and easy.

Also on the same page is a link to Asian butter beans they look gorgeous but does need an outlay of buying miso paste, worth it if you use enough of it over time.

My gosh, thats a depressing read isnt it! Do people actually eat like that? Maybe I'm just used to being able to eat and cook what i want, but that looks awful.

My sons have very different food preferences, which doesnt help. Myself and the oldest try and be dairy free when possible, i dont like dairy. But my younger son loves dairy. None of us like lentils and beans ( apart from black beans, baked beans, and kidney beans) and my younger son and I love meat, whereas as my older son prefers vegetarian food. It's very difficult to feed everyone and keep them all happy.

See i would do a friend rice but add prawns, chicken or steak to increase the protein. I think egg fried rice is a perfect side to some Asian dumplings though, so will make that this week.Thanks for the idea.

I think it’s reasonable, I hate wraps, swap for something else

They only like the raspberry ones, but will help in winter.

We love frozen fruit, so can definitely switch to that.I do prefer fresh, especially berries, but during the winter i think the frozen would work out cheaper. Is that right?

I dont know who this person is or what outlet this is exactly but there are some pointers here about which is cheaper, fresh or frozen for what produce, not that surprising

https://sophiemorris.co/journalism/10-foods-that-are-healthier-and-cheaper-to-buy-frozen

OP I work 40hours a week, make two large loaves of wholemeal bread on a Saturday morning and freeze half. It really doesn't take long, once you get into it. I buy a 16kg sack of wholemeal flour from a mill. It works out much less expensive and tastes lovely.

Another tip, I buy chicken legs from Tesco (£2.25 for four) sear them and then cook in a slow cooker with whatever veg I fancy. Cook with a little stock or juice. When cooked, strip the meat from the bones and return to the casserole.

A healthy, filling meal for four at less than £1 a serving. This evening I cooked chicken legs with onions, cherry tomatoes from the garden, grated coconut and some tabasco. Served over brown rice with broccoli.

And I buy packets of frozen whiting. Cook with sliced chorizo to make a really good risotto. Again less than £1 a serving, and healthy served with peas & sweetcorn.

I feed me & ds a good mix of fish, meat, eggs and dairy plus fresh fruit & veg for about £55 a week for two.

I make mine in a bread maker it takes 2.5mins to do it.

I never wash the pan out, just weigh the next one and press go.

A bread machine is great for cheap bread and mine also does pizza dough. There are often machines on facebook marketplace going cheap.

For protein Aldi has frozen chicken which is inexpensive and tinned sardines are very cheap.

Sainsburys has skyr yoghurt at £1.25 for 450g just now if you are a nectar card holder.

aldi used to have recipes for under £1 per serving on its website, not sure if they are still there

How do you manage the paddle by the way. When I used to eat bread regularly and got a bread maker this ruined it for me.

The paddle just stays in the tin I pick off any old bread (aren’t I a joy) and make the next loaf.

My kids are 19, 15 and 14 we all have chicken and rice most days or at the moment they have stay hot pots and I’ll do a massive batch of veggie soup and add noodles to it. I used to spend a fortune on ready prepared chicken satays and stuff now I just do my own I have hundreds in the freezer. I make shortbread they take that for snacks or rice crispie cakes. Regular crisps and chocolate bars. When my daughters all started school they were easily spending £5 a day each in the canteeen and when I looked at their statements they were buying bottles of water and other crap it drove me mad. We get free eggs from our neighbours at least 2 dozen a week so we eat a LOT of eggs! Fruit wize I buy the wonky veg and do my own carrot batons and again home made hummus. My mum tells me I shop and cook like a 1950’s house wife but I bought my girls up as a single parent for 10 years so literally learned to be so careful. We don’t waste anything either. Don’t get me wrong there will be the odd week here and there that we may spend more but never more than £50.

We do this with chicken legs they’re so cheap will cook around 6 for the week and they do us for all sorts, lunches, stir fries. They’re so much tastier than breast meat too.

It always used to stick in my bread and make a massive hole where I tried to take it out or I would try to leave it in and slice round it and ended up scraping it after a while.

Yes slow cooked chicken here too, I cook it up and freeze it in portions and then its ready for whatever I want it for. Never breast, cant stand it anyway but its also more expensive. Always leg or thigh, far more flavour and fat.

I only ever buy thighs, much tastier!

I now realise I am really too lazy to do the prep work. I hate thinking about what to cook for tea(DH and two DD) who say anything you like, then complain!
The vegetables from the allotment take 3 times as long to prepare. Especially if like me you don’t want the extra protein (yuk).
They won’t eat whole meal bread anymore!
The children were so good when small then it all went to shit late teens.
But am reading and saving ideas. We are saving to retirement slightly early and give both our girls a nice house deposit. But I need to buck my ideas up.

We have a market stall near us that sells stuff that’s out of date my husband literally buys the most random stuff this week we got a gallon of Thai green curry paste we froze it all into ice cube balls god knows when we will get through it all but I appreciate his attempts at cost savings! It’s almost a competition between us as to who can get the cheapest bargain. The amount of meat and fish that we buy discounted is insane. I’d recommend everyone investing in a large chest freezer if you can it’s been such a cost saving to us for food. We were all so wasteful now instead of chucking anything it just gets cooked up and put in the freezer.