HELP! Need to spend less on the weekly shop!!

[mrswhits]

We are a family of 4, 2 adults, a 2 year old and a 8 month old and I spend around £200 a week on the food shop 😑

This doesn't even include cleaning products as I don't need to buy those and any laundry stuff that I do need to buy I get from amazon.

My husband and I decided this morning that we will not be buying any alcohol for during the week anymore, so that should cut out a bit... maybe £30. And I also decided that I will cut down on the amount of convenient (but still healthy and organic) snacks I buy for the kids and instead prepare fruit etc for them that will maybe cut out £20. But that still leaves us at £150!!!!

I meal plan.... kind of.... but my husband and I do like meat and like good quality meat. We have meat every night, although I will have fish if my husband is having pork. I cook from scratch most nights of the week but my husband does not eat veg (it's basically a phobia he has, we are looking into hypnosis to have it sorted) so the quantities of meat are increased to make sure the meal is big enough without veg. For example, if I make a curry, I will have to use 3 chicken breasts rather than 2 so that there is enough food for him.

Usually the £200 does include most lunches for my husband and myself, but this week for example I have completely run out of food and it's only just got to a week today! I had to give my husband one slice of cheese on toast for breakfast because I have run out of bread and cheese!!

My eldest child doesn't even eat here 3 days a week as she is fed all her meals at nursery, and most days I don't eat lunch.

We can not afford to be spending like this, we looked at our finances this morning and realised how screwed we are since I have been on 2 lots of maternity leave back to back.

Does anyone have any suggestions how I can get this bill down to £100 a week max??

Will your husband eat lentils, chickpeas, beans, nuts?

Me and DH are vegetarian and spend about £50 a week on food and we shop in Sainsburys or Waitrose. Sorry but the veg does go off quicker from Aldi. In fact often it is already going off in the store (yes I have shopped in more than 1 Aldi).

Meals like nut roast, black bean burgers, chickpea burgers, bean chilli, egg and lentil curry, chickpea curry, shepherds pie with lentils and ordinary potato and sweet potato topping, veggie sausage toad in the hole are filling tasty and pretty cheap

Maybe take a look at your attitudes to “good cuts of meat”. Lots of classic dishes are based on cheaper cuts, cooked appropriately and absolutely delicious.
A shoulder of beef cooked very slowly and gently will melt on your tongue. It has more collagen than a fillet of steak which has more fat. Cooked slowly the collagen melts and you get a lovely tender meat. If you tried to cook it like a steak it would be as tough as an old shoe. Likewise if you slowly simmered a good steak it would be tough too.

Since you’re already cooking from scratch maybe you just need to extend your repertoire?

How on earth can you make a curry without veg? At the bare minimum it will contain onions and probably a tin of tomatoes. What on earth does he eat, meat and carbs? It sounds terrible for his health and will be setting an awful example to your kids.

Frankly no one needs three chicken breasts. I find that disgustingly greedy to be honest.

I think you’re getting a getting a hard time here. Yes we all know veg is cheaper than meat, I think you know that and in an ideal world your hub would eat veg but he doesn’t.
Aside from the meat, think about other areas you could change. Assumably you still buy fruit and veg for yourself and kids, are you buying seasonal products? If you are buying things that are out of season or imported they are always loads more expensive. Don’t rule out frozen produce, they are particularly good for putting in dishes (although I appreciate this may be less applicable for dishes your husband eats.)
I often stock up on store cupboard staples when on offer. Don’t be afraid to try own brands, some are great, some less so but it’s worth giving them a shot. Do you end up chucking much food? I think you save a lot of money by meal planning with leftovers in mind, for example if a recipe requires half a pack of blue cheese plan a recipe later in the week that uses the second half.

Could you post an average weeks meal plan for breakfast, lunch and supper for all of you? We could then make money saving suggestions.

@AtleastitsnotMonday Thank you, I feel like my poor husband was being given more of a hard time than me tbh!! I do think my meal planning needs to be better and I am going to work on that and also think about left overs, which we often have and end up throwing out.

Since writing my OP I have realised that if we spent nothing on alcohol each week it would actually take £50 off the bill. We have an awful lot of wine that I seem to be storing for some unknown reason and we tend to have people over a lot that I insist on fully catering for rather than making simple meals.

I think we need to change our habits and I also think that blending veg into things will make a big difference.

Thank you everyone for your responses, even the snarky person who said my husband was greedy, if you had read the post properly you would realise that he does not eat 3 chicken breasts at a time.

The point is, your 'poor husband' does NOT need extra meat! Carbs are cheaper and better for him, he's just being fussy. And it is greedy no matter which way you look at it. Bread and butter will fill him up more than an extra chicken breast you can't afford. You're just indulging him.

Hold my hands up to the snarky post. Two breasts is still quite greedy though.

But still intrigued by your veg free curry recipe.

Lots of good ideas but having RTFT one thing I noticed that I don't think has been picked up on- what are your lunches like? I noticed you said DH has macaroni cheese for lunch but to me that's a dinner, does he have a proper meal twice a day? That could be a factor.
I'm having ramen noodles (out of a packet, admittedly) with a variety of veg tonight, cheap and filling. DP is out otherwise we'd be having pork meatballs in it too but I'm more of a veg person (yes I am one of those weirdos that's fussier about meat than I am veg 😂). That's a really easy, cheap and potentially toddler-friendly meal.

Turkey mince is a good cheap meat, I make Bolognese and chilli with it ( I do add a beef stock cube for flavour) I also make burgers from Turkey mine but use fajita spice mix to make them tasty.

I buy organic braising steak, which takes longer to cook but is cheaper good quality meat. Also pig cheeks.

What about risotto with bacon / chicken for flavouring rather than bulk?

Also cooking a whole chicken is more cost effective than pieces and there would be leftovers for another meal (I also boil the bones for stock)

Agree you (your DH) are getting a hard time here. Having known someone with ARFID, I understand that real food phobias exist and are not "just fussiness".

Similar family to you and we spend around £60 a week (household, toiletries & nappies etc included, no alcohol), so you should definitely be able to get it down to £100. And you don't need to eat soup and veggie 3 times a week to be able to cut down on your spending!

Things that have helped here are:

• buying the cheapest versions, no brands (unless they are on offer, as an occasional treat). Most things you won't notice the difference, and you'll work out the things you won't compromise on.
• planning one day of leftovers into the weekly menu. (With emergency backup meal in freezer if there are no leftovers.)
• cook from scratch. Chips are easy and much cheaper if you make your own. Some sauces (eg pesto) aren't cheaper (especially if you're buying supermarket own brands) so do have a proper mooch around the shop to get a sense of the prices of things. Easier said than done with 2 little ones, I know!

If you make a few simple changes you can still buy your high quality meat and fish.

pearly barley in beef and chicken stew.
big meat trays from cosco
chicken thighs.always thighs.so much more falvour and cheaper.
one pot rice dishes.
lentil to bulk out mince dishes.
sausages,beans,tin of lentil and tin of tomatos stew
lentil and mince shephards pie or bolognase
chickpeas with chicken for fajitas.
in currys bulk it out with sweet potatos
does he like roast veg.we have a vegg phobic but love cauli and cabbage steaks.and roasted peppers and carrots done with garlic and red onion on a tray.
pasta bakes.
go own brand everything.look for basics.
jambalya to bulk out meat and rice dishes.
buy whole chickens roast and use the meat for the next two meals.
have cheap beans on toast or hoops for some nights.
or a jar of dolmio pasta and some frankfurter sausages for cheapo meals.
poacheg eggs.
frittata
make your own flatbread and wraps with flour oil and water.

Family of 4 adults here. Our food budget was too big and getting out of hand. I've set a limit of £100 and online shop. I put the ingredients for our meals in first, then essentials like bread/milk/loo roll/fruit/cereal etc. There is always money left for treats. If I do go over, I back track and adjust. I won't go over £100.

It is more than doable. We have everything we need and good, balanced, meals.

It's easy to put things you see as you go along in the trolley, if I'd shop in store, I'd definitely spend more than I want too.

That’s quite a good strategy Sea. I’ve switched to Aldi/local farmhouse, with a big ASDA stock up once a month. Saving an absolute fortune.

Farmshop

I also think extra rice / carbs

Can you do something like a chilli con carne use extra rice and then next day make nachos? Just add tortilla chips and grated cheese
Spag bol grate some veg (maybe dont tell him the first time?) Does he eat mushrooms? Lentils?
Give spag bol extra pasta next day leftovers in a jacket potato
Omelette with ham
Gammon egg and chips
Left over gammon in warm baguettes with chips the next day

Anything like that?

Can he commit to trying one new veg every day for a week? I got my veggie hating partner eating almost everything just by sticking small bits on his plate for months and just making the portions larger as time went by!

Would he eat cauliflower cheese or veg in a meal like cottage pie?

I am in at £200 and you are still running out of meals and we are two adults, a nearly 3 year old and a cat.

Is your 2 year old out of nappies because that will make a difference.

I noticed that you said you had to give your DH on slice of cheese on toast for breakfast. Would he normally have 2 slices of cheese on toast for breakfast? That’s a lot of fat/protein? Is he not responsible for his own breakfast? It’s time DH starts to become more responsible for menu planning and cooking especially as he is so fussy.

Have you considered doing the meal deliveries like hello fresh and Gousto? Picking 2 adult and 5 evening meals you'll get only what you need portion wise and the meat is good quality. Then do an Aldi shop for your 2 weekend meals, (we buy their steaks for Sat) only get loose potatoes etc, the fruit, staple bits like bread, milk etc.

Works a treat for us but we buy the 4 person packs as it's cheaper per meal and you get 2x 2 people portions I.e 2 packs of pork, 2 satchets of oil, rice etc so I just split them, freeze meat and the weeks we don't use the companies I look at What recipes I have and buy the fresh stuff I need, most dishes are 2 peppers, 2 pak Choi etc.

Has worked well for us.

This has to be the first time on MN a I can feel smug about my grocery bill all in jest @mrswhits, I’m usually reading threads about how a family of six is fed very comfortably on £60 a week and feeling a bit

First off, I would start with simply trying to make some changes in habits (eg the meat you buy, what you do with it) and see how far you can bring down the bill. At the moment you’re talking about halving your food bill, that’s quite a big jump to take, if it’s dire straits then by all means crack on but otherwise I would say give yourself a bit of adjustment time, like a few weeks/a month to work the bill downwards and keep building in new habits.

FWIW we're a family of 4 (2 adults, 6yo, 4yo) and 2 cats. We spend around £150/week, and our grocery buying covers all of our meals including lunches (DCs have packed lunch), plus tea/coffee/snack supplies for me at work. We don’t meticulously meal plan, but we do have a lot of recipes to draw on that we like so we buy the meats we like knowing the type of things we’ll make with them. We get a larger online Tesco shop on the weekend, then some top ups mid week from M&S. Hence, we’re not as frugal as others!

A couple things jump out me:

• leftovers, it sounds like you don’t always eat them? Eating leftovers is a big part of how we cook, we cook enough for at least two meals, so that will cover lunches for the adults for instance, or dinner two nights later.
• cheaper cuts of meat and batch cooking, we’re fans of chicken thighs, pork shoulder, beef brisket etc, we slow cook (or pressure, we have an Instant Pot, it’s great), that means we can buy, say, 1.2kg of pork shoulder, slow cook it, and have a small mountain of tasty slow cooked pork to have for dinners, lunches etc. We usually buy at least two joints and a whole chicken each week, more of our cooking is of this kind than ‘quick cooking’ meats which tend to be more expensive cuts - eg we never buy chicken breast, we buy steak as an occasional treat, same with fish fillets (can buy chunks of fish and seafood more cheaply but it more suited to a curry or pie).
• the odd simple meal, eg we often have one night a week where we just have a very easy meal, like baked sweet potato with cheese.

We like to buy better quality/higher welfare meat where we can, organic eggs/milk/butter, we buy some organic veg and fruit but not always. We don’t bulk on carbs as we eat lower carb diets (due to autoimmune conditions).

So basically what I hope is coming across there is, you don’t suddenly need to live on vegetable soup and shop at Aldi to cut your bill. We’re feeding a similar number of people, but our DCs are older (and eat tons now ) and we’re also feeding two cats, and we like naice things, and that comes in £50 cheaper than your bill - halfway to your goal!

Have you looked into meat share schemes at local farms? e.g. www.buyacow.uk
You invest in animals with other people, the farm will raise the animals and give you the finished meat products. You will end up with a variety of cuts and can get a lot for your money. If you don't already, start to find ways of using cheap cuts which can be the most tasty when correctly cooked - and bones which can be used to make stocks and soups.

Cmagic7 the buy a cow thing is so cool!

It would be really useful to see where your money is going because £200 is way more than we spend for effectively 4 adults and we eat meat. Can you break down a typical week's spend?

1.Ditch brands, except perhaps for a few must-haves (in our house ribena, diet coke, specific cheeses, basically everything else own brand)

1. Look at recommended protein daily intake, your dh needs to work on increasing other food groups and/or switching to cheaper protein like lentils, beans and eggs.
2. More veggie meals. DH will like them if they are tasty. Try bbcgoodfood.com (order by star rating to get decent recipes) for ideas.
3. Buy all fruit/veg in loose, not prepared, not prepackaged versions.
4. Eat up everything in the cupboards/freezer - will save loads to start you off!

We are 4, 2 adults and 2 kids (8,4). Teetotal. Spend approx £100/wk, which we can afford, inc all cleaning/general household bits. I could reduce this easily but we don't need too at the moment. If you are spending £200 now, cutting slcohol and brands will reduce the amt vastly so little other change is needed!

As pps have suggested-shop at Aldi. I feed 2 adults incredibly well for £200 per month. I also meal plan and batch cook.