Need to reduce food bill - tips, recipes, ideas please

[popsickle555]

I think we are spending around £200 a week on food! This is for DH, me and two DCs aged 13 and 10 (who eat quite a lot), DH also eats a lot. We rarely eat out, both DH and i are 100% WFH so that does include lunches every day for us. But I need to get our spend down and need advice and ideas. All my family are slim and if anything a bit underweight so I can't not feed them this amount.

I can't shop at Lidl or Aldi at the moment, I can only shop online because I am recovering from major surgery and can't drive for 3 months. We usually shop at Sainsburys, Asda or occasionally Waitrose (expensive I know).

We eat mainly gluten free as one of us is intolerant. DH wants meat every day (but will eat veggie a couple of times a week if I make him). Kids eat most things except anything too spicy.

Can anyone share any cheap (and easy) recipes please? Also snack ideas for the kids? At the moment the snack cupboard is all unhealthy and I want to change that. Their other meals are always quite healthy except on Saturday night when we tend to have a treat (pizza, burger etc), but not take out.

At the moment my go to cheap meals are Jacket potato, Mac and cheese and that's about it.

I need help 😂

Also soup and desert day sometimes. I find I can add an extra day of my shopping sometimes but making chunky soup from what needs using up ( like a minestrone type thing), and have that with bread and cheese. Then a crumble or tray bake cake after using again whatever needs using ie apples going soft with frozen berries or carrot / banana cake. You then have some leftover cake also for kids snack next day

Home chocolate chip cookies also easy for kids to make and far cheaper if making gluten free than buying

Yes, I think next week I will be able to bake again. Going to add that to my to do list. But also my DCs can bake at the weekend. I think that needs to be a job they do (they don't do many) but I will get the ingredients ordered.

Yes this is good, I would never think to do this, especially desert. DH good at doing this with crumble but I never think to make a cake out of what we have left over. Thanks

If always thought I'm quite a thrifty "housewife" where food shopping is concerned, but I'm finding I'm spending £50+ just for me these days.

To save money and try to be healthy when DC were younger, I never bought sugary cereals, only porridge and shredded wheat and no packaged snacks eggs, cheese and bread were staples or theyd have the cereals and it's amazing how much less they need snacks when they'll have to make it themselves

I second doing Iceland online delivery every three weeks to stock up on basics

But yes we probably spend similar even though we make most things. We spend a bit less but only 1 child, £150 would be average here, ie £50 per person.

We also have some allergy restrictions which limits cheaper items ie can’t have peanut butter, but a cashew butter is double the price. I also try to reduce our upf so like you say it’s a health thing also.

I think if you work from home it’s tricky, as it really is every meal, every tea or coffee etc in food shop budget. Many other people in offices might buy lunches some days, or buy coffee or get coffees or fruit included free.

Use Trolley.co.uk to see which store has the best deals on your regular items

Thank you,

Just done thee shop for the week and it is £170. That includes a 'pizza night' for DD and 5 friends (birthday) and associated treats for that so I think that's not too bad. Now just got to ensure nobody goes to the shop for a top up shop.

I have planned every evening meal and lunch...this is what we are having:

baked potato, tuna, beans/cheese
pasta and sauce (already got the sauce in freeezer, no meat)
pizzas (sleepover night x 6 - bought bases and toppings)
chicken tikka masala (slow cooker)
prawn saganaki and rice
slow cookeer chilli
Halloumi, med veg bake and bacon

Lunches:

Soup (bought 2 ready made ones)
Quiche x 2 on offer
Toasties
Tuna / egg salad

Brakfasts:

Porridge
Boiled egg
Granola and fruit and yoghurt

Snacks

Fruit
Popcorn
Cheese
Crackers
Toast
Smoothie

'Treats'

Brownies (for birthday)
Flapjack - to make
Orange juice

Bought no household stuff eg cleaning though! Luckily we don't drink alcohol so that helps on price.

My initial reaction to your list of regular meals is that you eat a lot of meat (every dish is meat based) and a lot of expense cuts of meat / fish - steak and prawns are not budget foods IMO! Even tinned tuna is quite pricey when you factor in feeding 4 people.
Look at cheaper cuts of meat and how best to cook them. I'd also aim to have some meat-free meals and bulk meaty stews / chilli / curry type dishes out with more pulses.
Look at frozen fruit and veg for things like smoothies, soups and stews as they're usually cheaper than the fresh variety and you won't waste any.
Popcorn is a waste of money compared to buying a bag of corn and popping it yourself!

You need to rely more on simple carbs and pulses, rice, potatoes, chickpeas, lentils and not buy too much of the gluten free expensive stuff.

Cook one meal for 2 nights to cut down on waste, so I do chicken chilli and we have that Sunday and Monday. Jackets on Tuesday. Dal and rice for Wednesday and Thursday. Etc. We never really have meat for breakfast or lunch, but maybe 3-4 dinners a week.

Also cut out any special snacks. I stopped buying any packaged snacks. Fruit, raw veg, crackers, cheese, big tubs of yoghurt, dried fruit, nuts. You’d think some of that stuff is quite expensive, but over the course of the week, it fills them up more than packets of whatever that end up costing loads.

There’s 4 of us similar ages and Dh and I eat 3 meals a day at home. No alcohol most weeks, though Dh might have some that he buys himself. All toiletries, cleaning products, toilet roll. We shop at Tesco. It’s usually about £100-120 a week.

Baked potatoes with different fillings.
Home made meatballs bulked out with lentils
Bolognese sauce with a lot of hidden veg. If you blitz up mushrooms in a blender the texture is quite similar.

One other thing to consider is having your dinner leftovers for lunches. At the moment, if you’re buying pre-made soup, quiche and tins of tuna for lunch, that’s going to add up. But a little bit of leftover cottage pie or fried rice or a chicken traybake only costs marginally more to make once you already have the base ingredients. But it saves money on lunches. We very rarely make something new for lunch or eat something pre-made. It’s 90% of the time leftovers and then I’ll add a really simple salad of whatever is in the veg drawer (chopped carrots, cucumber, some tomatoes, any herbs we have leftover).

Also, do you have space to grow any veg? You don’t need to become Monty Don. 😂 But having a herb garden means we always have rosemary, thyme, parsley, bay leaves, etc so I don’t ever buy them. And then things like spinach, chard and kale are really money saving. It’s like £1-£1.50 per bag. I bought a packet of seeds like 3 years ago for £2.99 and haven’t had to buy any green leafy veg since. The kale grows all year round. I was probably buying a bag a week before that.

Salad leaves are similar in the summer. We have loads of salads all summer and it just keeps on growing itself for free. Again, salad is like £1 a bag. It’s winter now and I’ve bought 3 bags this week. So you can see how it would add up over the year.

Go down a range - from branded to supermarket own brand. Or own brand to value range. You may not like everything you try but on the other hand you may find there’s really no difference in taste.

I would really cut down on the GF stuff if only one member of the family really needs it. For example if using GF wraps, I’d only use one of the expensive ones (freeze the rest, individually wrapped so you can just take one out at a time) and valuecwraos for everyone else.

Baking the flapjacks etc will save you money - you can make big batches and freeze them.

I second getting the Batch lady books or looking at her website - really good

I have a spreadsheet with 8 items I regularly buy and Aldi is no longer the cheapest. Tesco with the clubcard is cheaper. I also don't buy meat in the supermarket anymore. I use the fat butcher, the offers are great and I buy a family hamper usually cost me £120 per month to feed a family of 4 with meat.

Generally speaking - add lentils to things like chilli, curry and bolognese. It helps it go further and is very good for you. Also add any old veg you have in the fridge, once it’s chopped up nobody notices it even if it’s a veg they don’t like much.

Chicken thighs are cheaper than breast and I actually prefer them. Chicken drumsticks are also really cheap - you could cook those to have in the fridge for snacks (especially for DH to satisfy his need for meat)

Make your own cereal bars with oats, honey, peanut butter (plenty of recipes online)

I buy the massive packs of chicken thighs (with bone in, skin on) from Tesco. They work out so cheaply. I freeze them, or you could cook them first in a recipe (e.g curry) and freeze in portions.

Also big packs of pork loin and shoulder steaks are very cheap at present. Shoulder steaks make a great goulash style casserole, you could put it in a slow cooker at lunchtime?

Chick pea, potato and spinach curry is a cheap staple ( frozen spinach)

Risotto

Not too spicy Chilli, bulked out with lots of kidney beans.

Shepherds pie, lots of chopped veg in the sauce.

Lunches: easy lentil soups.

How about some offal ? Extremely cheap, liver & kidneys are quick to cook, hearts can go in the S.C.

@popsickle555 unsure oats are safe if someone is gluten intolerant but throwing in 2-3 handfuls (or as many as I can get away with) when cooking a bolognese or a chilli con carne makes it go twice as far. You can only tell when you get to a certain oat:meat ratio!

OP- when people say 'add lentils' I wrongly assumed they meant the red, flat ones. I found a 2kg bag at lidl and was very pleased with myself.

I knew there were various types of lentils, but had no idea that when people suggest 'add lentils' to bulk our mince type meals, they actually mean the green lentils! I'm yet to buy and try them, but apparently they come in tins to save time and remain more textured than the red ones.

Morrisons do online shopping, usually have some good deals. 3for £10 on meat. Can your husband do the shopping at a cheaper supermarket?? Jamie Olivers book ministry of food is a good recipe book too. Do you have a local butchers??? Ours does some really good deals

Snacks:
Toast and peanut butter
Banana / banana sandwich
Plain unsalted peanuts
Instant noodles (the ones in the little packets)
Apple
Flapjack - make a big batch and freeze

Cheaper to buy dried, they don’t take monger to cook than the meat sauce

Snacks; homemade hummus is really cheap and easy. With sticks of raw carrot

Have a look at Cardiff Mum on Instagram. She does (or used to do - I've not looked for a bit) a weekly '5 meals for £25' video for a family of four based on Aldi prices. All very manageable recipes and very tasty. Definitely worth a look for ideas.

She also has a book which I've got and find very helpful because she groups the recipes together so that you can use ingredients economically e.g. a pot of greek yoghurt might do two recipes.

@Darkclothes if you follow the Hodmedods link I posted above you’ll find endless recipes for lentils of every type. And every other kind of pulse, bean, legume. Almost all grown in the UK.

I just wish more people who want to eat healthily knew about this source of good food.