Shopping on a budget

[VLao]

Just wondering what are your strategies for shopping for a family of 3 on a budget. (ideally to keeping the budget per meal within £5)

Located at North England, ideally I only want to shop once or twice a week.

Having one or two meat free nights (pasta and pesto or omelette)

Reducing products (washing up liquid and boiling water cleans surfaces/ I usually have a limescale remover and bleach ) no need for tonnes of products

Make mince stretch with lentils, carrots etc

Buy the deals... xxl in lidl / super six

Aldi almat washing powder is great. Use less too

Make a list.. Stick to it. I don't meal plan as such but we always have pasta and pesto at least once. I buy uht milk incase we run put to stop impulse buying or send dh for milk as he just buys milk..

Bach cook and meal plan. You can cheaply batch cook bolognaise, chilli, lasagne, curry, dal, cottage pie etc. Make a chicken stretch a long way - roast chicken on day one, make a couple of chicken and veg pies, or curry, or a chicken pasta sauce with the leftovers - a chicken will stretch for three days like that. Bulk out minced beef worth lentils in bolognaise or Cottage pie, or as a handful of oats to make it more filling (you don't noticed them once its cooked). Cheap one off meals - omelette, baked potatoes, beans on toast, frittata, homemade pizza. Bulk out sausages by making toad in the hole. Make a quiche with Amy small quantities of meat - a couple of takes of bacon, bit of leftover chorizo, tin of tuna, bit of smoked mackerel etc.

Choose the cheaper types of meat - chicken drumsticks or thighs instead of breast. Turkey mince is cheaper than beef and very nutritious.

Plan how you will use fresh food to avoid to up shops - use things that go off quickly first, like soft fruit, broccoli etc, then in the middle of the week use fresh stuff that last longer (cabbage, cauliflower etc), and finish the week with frozen or tinned veg (frozen beans, peas, peppers are all great, tinned sweetcorn is good, ruined various are fine in pies etc). Get long life milk or freeze fresh for the end of the week. Freeze bread for later in the week too, or make your own. If you have a freezer and a week stocked cupboard its easy to manage on one shop a week.

Check out local supermarkets for the one day to go stuff. My sister does that and feels offended if she can't feed two for a week on £20.

Lidl and Aldi. Batch cook and meal plan.

Find out when your supermarket does the markdowns. My Tesco is 7pm for the big price drops.

I freeze milk.

Also start the week with "soft" fruit and veg as pp said and then harder stuff like spuds and apples late in the week.

I meal plan for 6 nights out of seven to allow for changes to the plan, kids get invited out for tea, you don't fancy much and do beans on toast instead, you end up with loads of leftovers and eat the same two nights in a row etc. If you need to rustle up a seventh meal easy enough to do from the store cupboards/freezer/bits left in the fridge.

Also buy seasonal veg. Look at courgettes. At Christmas you would have paid for 1 what you now pay for 4.

I try and go to the supermarket at least once a month in time for their final reductions - if I'm lucky then I can get things like meat, fish and bread which i can put in the freezer

I bulk out meat and fish dishes with extra veg or beans/lentils

Rather than buying individual yoghurts I get the big pots and then people just take what they want/need

With fruit and veg I try to eat what's in season as it's cheaper - but it can get a bit tedious in the winter - so i buy frozen berries and eat those with yoghurt

One day a week - the day before i do my big shop - I have a clear the fridge night where I try use up all the odds and ends - on those days it tends to be pasta/frittata for dinner (and for lunch the next day)