Food Budget- what do u spend

[Clarabumps]

My family shopping for me,dp and two ds is about £100 a week..i think this is quite a lot but i cant seem to cut it back. What do you spend and how do you keep a low budget??
Im really struggling financially this month and NEED to cut the bills in a major way..Help wanted!!!!

Do you plan meals? Do you eat meat-free meals? I think they are probably the biggest things I do to keep costs down.

i do try and plan meals but not consistant with it..and meat free meals are something i've honestly never consider. i should do though..i spend most of my budget on meat. i tried quorn mince as a cheap substitute but it was a bit sloppy..

We eat very little meat now, really. This week we've had Leek & potato soup, a fried potato thing with cheese and egg in it, pizza, am planning vegetable fried rice for tonight.

We generally eat a fair bit of pasta with cheese and/or vegetable-based sauces: aubergine and tomato, cheese and leek, brocolli and pesto.

Why not try lentils and other pulses instead of quoth( yuck) or meat.

Surely the quality and substance of the food is important too.

Assuming that evening dinner costs £5 - £8 per night, 4 loaves of good wholemeal, milk, good packed lunches, vegs, fruit,kitchen roll, endless..£100 is probably a sensible value. what I have done is cut down on is midweek wine, too much chocolate, no crisps, only homemade cakes & puddings...really keeping to basics really. Meal planning with good slow cuts. PORTION control - less waste. Make one - freeze one too. I was easily spending £150pw now £80 - £100.

I was a 70's child too, we had very little money (may be less than what people think now)but we eat very well (incl. offal), never served beans on toast or processed foods. Always good homemade dinners with puddings.

Try links like bbcgoodfood.com where recipes are tried and tested. As my hubby works outdoors, sometimes with chainsaws, heavy plant and constant hastle controlling the employees the last thing he wants to be served is a soup for a hearty supper.

Hi
There is a sub section of moneysavingexpert forum devoted to this subject: I give you grocery challenge lots of helpful advice about reducing your bill and making best use of your grocery purchases.

I worked out how much we spent last month and it's shockingly high - just for DH and I = £580 on food shopping, then another £260 on eating out

I feed 3 adults, 1 teenager and one 3 year old on just over £100 a week, including all cleaning products and skincare type mallarky. Meal planning, plus padding out a bit - less mince more tomato in a spag bol, for example. Plus I cook in bulk in the Slow cooker and freeze. And mysupermarket is a great way to bring down the cost.

we have managed to cut back to around 80 some weeks - 2 adults, 2Dcs.
try to make and freeze stuff. never throw away leftovers.
reduced biscuits adn crips and snacks adn alcohol and moved from fresh to frozen veg.
go down to budget brands wherever you feel you can.
it's grim though, i wish we had more money for nicer food.

i suggest buying fruit and veg / free range eggs from a local market instead of supermarket

MUCH cheaper that way

We're vegetarian, eat almost 99% organic food and feed 2 adults and a 3 year old and 5 year old for £65 per week. We have a weekly shop delivered from waitrose. all meals and puddings/cakes etc are cooked from scratch and also make all our bread and yogurt which I think really helps keep the food bill down. That is also with lunchboxes for my 5 year old all week too.
I cook double amount of any main meal I make so one can go in the freezer to cut my cooking time in half by 50% otherwise I wouldn't be able to (or want to!) do it. I am SAHM which means I have plenty of time to do it. We rarely throw away food.

poppyboo, how do you do it for £65 per week..that amazes me!a girl in my nursery does it for £50 a week and im amazed at that although she says she eats everything from the basics section of the supermarket. Someone said having a cooking day once a week and batch cook for the weeks dinners? anyone tried this?

Clarabumps, it really is possible! I think it is down to the fact that we've vegetarian and make all the bread and yogurt. There is no way I could if i was buying bread. I can bake three organic loaves of bread for under £2.00 for example in my Panasonic bread maker.
Also I double every meal which seems to save money. This week we're eating:
-Veg and lentil lasagne with salad for two nights
-Red lentil soup for two nights with fruit slices and a loaf of homemade bread
-One nice cheese on toast with pickles and fruit and a bag of crisps (This is such a simple, yummy meal!)
Pease pudding with creamy mash and veg, with gravy for two nights.

So I always cook double and put one in the freezer to have another night.

We have homemade pizza which is very yummy and cheap.
Macaroni cheese.
Tomato pasta and veg.
Mozzerella pasta bake and garlic bread
etc etc
Fruit scones/fruit bread/sponge pudding/cake and biscuits for pudding all made from scratch b/c it is cheaper.
So I cook max three times a week, sometimes twice a week and then we will have more three snacky meals like baked potatoes with things on the side, cheese on toast or cheesy scones with fruit and pickles.
I swear it is possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is all using organic staples too. I think the only thing i buy that isn't organic is high juice squash and shreddies.

Oh and I do things like buy set honey over runny honey because it last longer. I look at what the cheapest organic veg is (We will weekly buy a KG of carrots for example b/c they are cheap. I will buy green beans over baby sweetcorn because you get twice the amount for similar price) I buy yeo valley spreadable butter over an other one, b/c it is not particularly spreadable in my opinion it lasts twice as long b/c it is harder to get out of the tub LOL I will buy waitrose organic own label where ever I can too.

I've been very impressed with cheapfamilyrecipes.org (sorry can't do links)
which is all from scratch including puds and snacks, and costed at £100 per month for 4 - worth a look just for ideas and planning imo.