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?

@Bookaholic73 believe it or not , I too am a bit of a food snob. I cooked for a living - I’m not a chef , but worked my way through kitchens , so I won’t tolerate crap BUT there are many changes that can be made without selling out

Frozen veg , I was like you - fresh is best - but it’s not always. Frozen is picked and frozen within 2 hours. Fresh can take week - even months to get on the shelves , picked when upripe , gassed used to keep them in that state till they need ripening

experiment You know frozen spinach is a win for you , try something else. I buy frozen casserole mix - it great , a packet of that and a pack of stewing beef in the pressure cooker with stock and herbs - dinner - no peeling or chopping - no waste. I think sprouts are disgusting frozen , as is broccoli but I get on well with frozen cauliflower. Frozen chilli’s , garlic and ginger , frozen chopped onions - all save me money and time - no waste and I can make a meal out of nothing because I have these things to hand

Theres an interesting article on the BBC news page regarding oils and fats

loo roll is a conundrum Mum like the 4 ply quilted stuff , I like 3 ply I’m happy with Lidl 3 ply. I did stock up in the quilted cushelle because that was the cheapest per a sheet around

And that is seriously how I shop Price per kilo , per ml ,per litre, per sheet and shops love to confuse you my giving different price per within the same category so yes the calculator comes out.

I scan the ailse whilst walking down them. I can spot a reduced to clear item from a mile away - package size change usually - they need to shift old stock then it’s a do I use this , can I use this but don’t usually buy because of cost ? Before I fill my boots.

cutting the food bill means savy shopping. We all need to eat and eating what we enjoy makes us happy.

I would say normally I don’t shop in Iceland , but a 10% discount on a Tuesday cos I’m over 60 means it’s now on my radar. And it’s great for the frozen fruit and veg and fish.

Thanks @suki1964 yes i can actually try swapping to things like frozen spinach, ginger, garlic, onions, mushrooms and peppers this month, and see how i get on.

Today i spent £38.69 and it was mostly just on crap like fizzy drinks and frozen pizza. So from now on I'll make my own pizzas ( i need to find a good recipe) and cut back on the fizzy drinks.
Every friday night we buy frozen pizzas. So we spend about £6 every Friday on just pizza. I reckon i could easily make my own for less that that.

My plan now is to only buy milk and bread in the next week and thats it.
I'm actually considering shopping monthly, but have always done monthly so am not sure how to even start doing it monthly!

£200 gone today to Tesco 😡 Family of 4

Infuriating isn’t it! How long will that last you?

somehow i spent £400 the month of september, which is less than usual. but then that is still £100 per week for 2 which is more than I thought i spent!
usually 3 of us,
for 3 weeks there were 2 of us. so i guess that's why!
using up meals already in the freezer - buying less bread and fruit
the only time i usually spend so little on groceries is january.
in conclusion, freezing extra portions saves money

Exciting news to report: I made my own bread for the first time. The 1.5kg bag of flour I bought to make it (from Waitrose no less!) was £1.50 ish and I used 400g to make a medium sized loaf. The other ingredients were a tablespoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon each of dried yeast, salt and sugar. So that's got to be quite a saving as I was never one to buy super cheap bread before. I was motivated to do it as one painless way to reduce upfs in our diet but saving money is a bonus.

Of course I also have to factor in the £30 I spent on the second hand bread maker!

Id be interested to work out the cost, but not skilled enough in the maths department

I sometimes make bread, we dont buy any bread so we dont spend otherwise

Each loaf is 3 cups (not sure what that is in grams and probably should start doing it in grams), half tsp of yeast, 1.5tsp of salt and water.

But then the way I do it is not cost effective oven wise perhaps, warm a casserole pot for 30-40 mins, then cook it for another 45 mins, max

Oven is on for around 1.5hrs lets say. Thats a lot of electric.

Im experimenting with my Ninja combi oven, first one got burned. Same cook time but I think they use less electricity than a big oven?

As others have said: Meal Plan, Batch Cook, eat seasonally. We picked & froze tonnes of (obv free) blackberries and took up all offers of free cooking apples.

Protein doesn't have to mean (expensive) meat. Eggs, Beans, Pulses, Tofu, Cottage Cheese, Yoghurt, Seeds & Nuts etc.

On you way home from work & weekends learn where the best reduced / yellow sticker items can be found - thats where we source a lot of items, meat included. We loosely meal plan so that we can accommodate bargain finds (or freeze).

Use all the apps, I like lidl & nectar especially. Your £50 spend free veg item is a £4.09 7.5kg bag of spuds, your £100 spend free snack a 36 pack of crisps!

Nectar gives you extra personalised prices, so that I actually get toilet rolls & bleach from there when im given 30% off - i buy tonnes then.

Home Bargsins great for some things, spend a little time wandering the aisles - some cleaning, foil, papers and food bags.

Farmfoods is worth a look for everything BUT frozen food - again, scsn the shelves carefully. Currently 1kg of red lentils is only 99p. Ive stocked up for a year+ as the expiry is 2027.

Most employers offer some kind of benefit or discount scheme, so use it to buy discounted gift cards. Use both the Trolley App and HotUKDeals. Mostly, know your prices.

No wonder you are spending so much! A bag of value rice is 52p!! In all stores.

Back on the protein topic again, Lidl now do mixed weigh free range eggs - 6 for 82p.

I get good quality bread, nice seeded, Jason's sourdough for 20p or less from my little local store or sains on my way home from work, and freeze it.

I think by basically veg it's either wonky or seasonal. I bought a 49p sweetheart cabbage in aldi today to use both as veg and to shred to make coleslaw.

We have made bread for decades

first we had a bread maker - takes less than 5 minutes to load it up

now we make an oven full of bread and freeze most of it to see us through the week

Tins of tuna are really good value for this.

We bake about 4 times the jackets we need and freeze the rest. Defrost as you need, great crisped up in the air fryer as either tuna melt or with chilli (bulk out with protein-rich lentils and kidney beans).

If you put red lentils into mice dishes, they literally disappear!

Definitely. Most of us have been on your journey and have gradually made the changes.

We spend £40 per for 2 adults, mainly veggie & prioritise protein and healthy eating.

Remember, most things WILL freeze. Freezing hummous was a game changer for me, I think it's better when it comes out! As was bananas - defrosted I use them in protein flapjacks / bananas cake / overnight oats etc.

We love value porridge oats, rice, sains value beans etc.

Also, I think you said you were renting? If you could halve your food bill, the savings you make could give you a house deposit!

We are spending £65-70 a week on average for food for 2 adults and we eat very well, I always am confused how people spend so much more. That money includes general toiletries, household cleaning items etc too but not specialist things you need to go to the diy shop for or order online. Once every 6 months or so I go to the Asian food store for bulk rice, spices etc spending around £60.

the trick is no waste, to plan and no junk food or snacks.

For starters, use the Trolley app to check for prices / deals.

We either get the Colliers cheddar (like Cathedral City) in either Farmfoods or Home Bargains - £1.99 for 350g, sometimes on offer @ 3 for £5. We will buy loads and then use one of their vouchers (go to their website to sign up) for more money off. Otherwise the massive Simply Mature block in Lidl.

Olive Oil - whichever decent one is on offer.

Toilet Rolls - the Double Size rolls in Sainsbury's WHEN I get a nectar price on the app.

I use money-off coupons and / or discounted gift vouchers for almost every purchase.

Another trick is to not run out of stuff, try and bulk buy (when cheap) the things you use a lot of

What I would say is that Farmfoods can be variable, depending on the week AND the location. If you have one near, try popping in every couple of weeks and scan the shelves ABOVE the freezers.

I get a lot of good quality / organic / non-UPF stuff from there - Dorset Cereals Granola, CLIF protein bars, Green & Black chocolate, Forest Fruits, Fage Yoghurt, Napolina. Plus many everyday staples, tins of toms, beans, Pulses, sweetcorn, fruit (as back-up), Nuts, Seeds, Nescafe Azera coffee is 3 x 140g for £15, plus the £2 off a £25 spend coupon.

The thing is you never know what you're going to find (which is why I like it) - often the staples have a long shelf life & are only there because of a packaging or size change, or because of a competition that has since expired.

Try the Nicky Toilet Rolls in there or HB if you haven't already.

I did a quick add-up of the prices I would pay for those items and it comes to half the price!

A lot of those are value staples / set prices in every supermarket. You can spend 50p on a lettuce or £2, but I would rather have the cheaper one so I can save the £1.50 to spend on me / mortgage/ retiring early. We all have our own priorities and it's a balance.

I have a baseline for most things eg: apples & satsumas is £1 and will just buy something else on offer eg. Pears or Grapes instead.

My nectar card gives me Cucumbers for 63p (plus points on top) almost weekly.

But mainly I pick up a lot of reduced stuff - last week in Sainsbury's I got 2 x posh bags of pears for 39p each, then later in week 2 bags @ 24p each (there were loads).

Buy the bags of value Peppers. Sweetheart cabbages are 49p in aldi this week. ALWAYS make the 7.5kg bag of potatoes in Lidl your 'free' veg item for £50 spend (and get it separately, otherwise you will be given the 'cheapest' veg item in your basket free).

And always check out the £1.50 fruit and veg boxes in Lidl (will try and post a picture).

Chickpeas are very good value and high in protein

I often make a roast veg couscous if lunch needs to be portable or some convenient in fridge . Lasts a few days. Add a tin of chickpeas stirred through. We then have with a few of tzatziki/ houmous/ frozen edame beans/ chicken/ hallomi/ Greek salad or whatever is around similar. Mix and match by what’s on offer or at home.

Personally, I feel that buying water or fizzy drinks is just throwing money down the drain. I'm happy with tap water or hot drinks (or alcohol).

We have homemade pizza on a Friday, plus it freezes really well for lunches another day.

Another tip is to buy mozzarella in bulk when you find it cheap & freeze it (whole in sealed pack) - defrosted it comes out perfectly!

I had 2minute noodles for dinner 😂 there's nothing left to "lower" my cat eats better than I do ❤️

£800 a month! For 3!

We’re just 2 of us and used to spend a fair whack until I went back to university. Now we spend £23 on an Oddbox of fruit and veg for the week and I base my meals around that. I then spend around £30 on other bits like carbs, meats and dairy at Aldi weekly. Sometimes this can go up to £40 if I need to restock things like oats, quinoa, nuts etc.

Works out at £212 a month or £26.50 per person per week.

We spend around that. €200 a week
doesnt go very far at all where we live.
2 adults, 1 child, 1 cat.
I bought a small bag of local potatoes this morning for €12… so it’s hardly a caviar lifestyle either
€3.50 also I paid for a broccoli to go with tonight leftover pasta bake.

We also struggle to keep food bills down and it definitely takes laser-like focus. The moment I get a bit casual about it... BHAM, it screeches up.

A few things I think make a big difference:

Much as I love a rice or grain pouches, buy packets and cook your own. My 500g of rice today cost 85p and will do three of us for at least two meals and normal appetites probably 4. Pouches are at least £1 EACH and we'd need two just for one meal around here.

we also need the protein here but I do try really really hard to ensure that the protein is a quarter of the plate at most and that we'r ebulking up with vegetables. So, if we have a stir fry, there's meat, yes, but SOOOOOO MANY veg too. And I like to see what veg are on special, of cheap because they're seasonal, because it's a great way to bulk up veg. Eg I buy some form of cabbage most weeks to go in stir fries or other things.

I think pasta sauces are brilliant for this too - if I make sausages and mash, I'm looking at 3-4 sausages each for DH and DS. If I do a sausage based pasta sauce, I can do 4-6 for the three of us. And pasta itself is cheap.

Also, bulking out things like bolognaise with red lentils and extra veg adds to the nutrition, and reduces the reliance on the mince.

Most of the bigger online retailers do deals on meat/fish - 2 for £10 or 3 for £12 or whatever. I often browse those and get things we love when they're on those deals. eg salmon which is usually insanely expensive but is often on those deals - so still not CHEAP, but not AS expensive.

I use Amzon Fresh quite a lot for basics - they often have deals or their base prices are closer to what a deal price would be at a major retailer.

For oils, when olive oil prices went through the roof I switched to organic rapeseed oil for most things and just saved the good extra virgin olive oil for actual salads and dressings.

we do buy sparklling water but keep tap water in the fridge. we use cans of fizzy drinks because we don't drink them a lot but if we're having friends over or the kids are doign sleepovers, I do the big bottles as they're much cheaper.

Cheese is a nightmare but I found online, again, there's almost always a deal on cheddar. And we use cheese for vegetarian meals so that can get a bit pricier, but probably still cheaper than meat for the equivalent meal. For three of us, we do need 1.5 halloumi blocks which always annoys me as I then have to find somethign to do with the other half so it doesn't get wasted, so it's a regular meal when Ds has friends over! I often use dto get good cheese deals at Aldi and LIdle too - but haven't been there for a while.

Cereals are a LOT cheaper at Lidl/Aldi. Try their versions and only go back if the taste is notably different!

This thread is reminding me that I really need to get back to Lidl. I used to do one big shop there every 2 weeks or so but I haven't done it for ages.

Are you being serious that that's really as much as you can afford?

I ask because so many come on threads like this to take the pee

If your situation is that bad, please post again and we maybe can help with ideas and point you in the direction of help. Even a food bank referral for a one time visit, or help from a community fridge for a while can help get the bools looking a lot better . Getting even to the point of having an excess £40 , can increase your nutrition for months

NEVER be afraid to ask.