Trying to make positive changes

[Mumstheword1983]

Groceries (76 items)

1 Alpro Almond Milk No Sugars Long Life Dairy Alternative 1L £1.40
1 Alpro Dark Chocolate Flavour Dessert 4 x 125g £1.85
1 Alpro Greek Style Plain Dairy Free Yoghurt Alternative 400g £2.50
2 Belvita Breakfast Honey & Nut with Chocolate Chip Cereal
Biscuit Snack Bars Pack 5 x 45g £2.00
1 Blue Dragon Sweet Chilli & Garlic Stir Fry Sauce 120g £0.75
1 By JS Digestive Biscuits 400g £0.59
1 Cathedral City Mini Mature Cheddar Cheeses 6x20g £1.65
1 Dairylea Dunkers Ritz Cheese Snack 3x43g £2.25
1 Green & Black's Organic Ginger Dark Chocolate Bar 90g £2.75
1 Hovis Seed Sensations Seven Seeds Medium Sliced Seeded
Bread 400g £1.00
1 Jason's Sourdough The Great White Bread 450g £2.20
0.924kg JS Broccoli Loose £2.02
1 JS CHOC CHIP COOKIES 250G £1.30
1.872kg JS Fairtrade Bananas Loose £1.78
2 KTC Chopped Tomatoes 400g £0.90
2 Little Ones Sensitive Baby Wipes x60 £1.12
1 Mcghees Scottish Pancakes x4 £0.60
1 Naked Rice Long Grain Rice Japanese Katsu Curry 78g £0.75
1 Nutella Hazelnut & Chocolate Spread 200g £1.90
1 Peppa Pig Kids Strawberry Yoghurt Pots 6x45g £1.00
1 RYVITA Thins SWEET CHILLI 125G £1.25
2 Sainsbury's 320g British Fresh Skinless & Boneless Chicken
Breast Fillets £4.68
1 Sainsbury's Baby Plum Tomatoes 325g £0.89
1 Sainsbury's Baby Potatoes 1kg £0.85
1 Sainsbury's Baked Beans In Tomato Sauce 200g £0.35
1 Sainsbury's Basmati Rice 1kg £1.79
1 Sainsbury's British Cooked Honey Roast Ham Slices x10 115g £0.88
1 Sainsbury's British or Irish 5% Fat Beef Mince 250g £2.69
1 Sainsbury's Chantenay Carrots 400g £0.80
1 Sainsbury's Choco Hazelnut Squares Cereal 375g £0.86
1 Sainsbury's Choco Rice Pops 375g £0.95
1 Sainsbury's Easy Peelers 600g £1.20
1 Sainsbury's Egg Mayo Deli Filler 220g £1.45
1 Sainsbury's Fusilli Pasta 500g £0.60
1 Sainsbury's Ginger Snaps 300g £0.59
1 Sainsbury's Grissini Bread Sticks, Sesame Seed 125g £0.55
1 Sainsbury's Iceberg Lettuce 200g £0.69
2 Sainsbury's Little Ones Organic Pear, Prune & Banana Smooth
Puree 6+ Months 70g £0.90
1 Sainsbury's Multigrain Hoops Cereal 375g £0.79
1 Sainsbury's Pitted Green Olives 120g £1.40
2 Sainsbury's Pure Pineapple Juice 3x200ml £2.80
1 Sainsbury's Red Kidney Beans in Water 215g (130g*) £0.45
1 Sainsbury's Roasted Red Pepper Houmous 200g £1.00
2 Sainsbury's Scottish Semi Skimmed Milk 2.27L (4 pint) £3.30
2 Sainsbury's Small Whole Cucumber £1.06
1 Sainsbury's Soft Medium Sliced White Bread 800g £0.74
1 Sainsbury's Steak Family Pie 700g £3.40
1 Sainsbury's Table Salt Bottle 750g £0.65
1 Sainsbury's Thick Soft White Farmhouse Bread 800g £0.72
1 Sainsbury's Thin & Crispy Hawaiian Pizza 385g £1.50
1 Sainsbury's Thin & Crispy Pepperoni Pizza 305g £1.07
1 Sainsbury's Tomato & Basil Soup 600g £1.49
2 Sainsbury's Tomato & Three Bean Soup, Be Good To Yourself
400g £1.26
1 Sainsbury's Wheat Biscuits x24 £1.80
1 Sainsbury's White Large Flat Vitamin D Mushrooms 250g £1.00
1 Sainsbury's Wholegrain Malties Cereal 750g £1.14
1 Sainsbury's Wholemeal Pittas x6 £0.50
2 Stamford Street Co. Double Strength Apple & Blackcurrant
Squash 750ml £0.98
2 Stamford Street Co. Mini Apples x6 £1.98
1 Stamford Street Co. Mixed Size British Eggs Free Range x10 490g £1.95
1 Stamford Street Co. Prawns 250g £2.54
1 Stamford Street Co. Toilet Tissue Double Rolls 4 Equals 8 Rolls £1.65
1 Stamford Street Co. Tortilla Chips 200g £0.57
1 Stamford Street Co. White Rolls x4 300g £0.75
1 Vitalite Spreadable Dairy Free Butter Alternative 500g £1.70
Order summary
Delivery cost £2.00
Subtotal £99.82
You've saved* -£7.35

Hi I'm looking to make changes to my weekly food shop. Currently spending around £85 I can afford to up this. I'm trying to wean the kids off sugary cereal and only have these at weekends. We eat a lot of biscuits as we have weekly visitors of around 8-10 family members and often get the biscuit plate out. I've cut back this week! We would normally have 6 packets in. We are a family of 6. Young children. I haven't bought any break time snacks for the kids this week. I would normally buy Oreo packs or crisps. Again I am trying to cut this back and choose something healthier but I struggle for ideas. My children all get free schools (universal free school meals here) apart from the oldest.

I'm looking for ideas on what to change/ add in as on another thread I took quite a beating about the unhealthy food shop (understandable) it's something I've been wanting to change for a long time. We both work and I was brought up on food like this so it's partly learned behaviour.

I've skimmed through, & it strikes me there isn't very much meat/fish/cheese/eggs for 6 people.
Or are you all having a proper balanced meal outside the home?
What do you normally have for dinner ? That might give more of a clue as that list is quite a lot to wade through.

Thanks. The kids don't really each much eggs other than the 2 year old who will have egg on toast.

Typical meals are chicken and veg stir fry, pizza and salad (when husband is out as he's dairy free) chilli and rice, prawn stir fry or curry. Pasta dish. Try to have broccoli or carrots with most meals.

How much time do you have available for cooking? Your list contains quite a lot of ready made products, almost all of which would probably be better homemade but that is dependent upon you having the time to go so. A good place to start would be by looking at the ingredients list on the prepared items and identifying those with the most additives and looking for better alternatives to those.
In terms of evening meals I’m guessing
Pizza
Pie
chilli
stir fry
A chicken dish
A pasta dish
Which provided they are supplemented with veg (which I see you have) aren’t too bad, obviously you could make pies, pizza and your own stir fry sauce but that requires time.

I would concentrate your efforts on less processed breakfasts and snacks.

Make your own bread, pizza, cakes, flapjacks etc?

If you get bread flour and yeast you just need water and a bit of oil or butter to make bread, pizza or rolls dough.

Oats and raisins and nuts in home made granola bars?

You can make sponge cake with just flour, sugar and eggs and top with home made fruit compote/jam and low fat custard or whipped cream?

Thanks for the suggestion. I would like to do this. I am not a good cook or baker and have never attempted this. I work 3 days a week so on work days it's highly stressed trying to get out the door with dropping 4 kids to various pre school care and bus stops before work. On my days off and at weekends I could do this.

Breakfast on work days needs to be quick. At weekends they will have egg or banana on toast or pancake yoghurt with fruit. I do want to reduce the cereal. They also want this as a pre bed snack so it's often twice a day. I recognise this is a problem. As a child I ate cereal morning and night too. It was thought of as healthy!

I’m struggling to see how this list turns into actual meals.

As a starting point, work on finding some recipes for a couple of soups, a couple of pasta sauces and a couple of stews, curries, pies maybe.

If they’re getting plenty of vege in meals, having cereal for breakfast really won’t hurt them - try plain cornflakes with banana or a few raisins maybe. Porridge if they’ll eat it.

If cereal works for you as it’s quick and easy, buy ones which only have a few ingredients in. Porridge, weetabix, corn flakes and shredded wheat are ok. The kids will moan for a few days but their taste buds will get used to the lower sugar.

I've posted the normal meals we have out of this up the thread.

There seems to be a lot of UPF on there and very little I'd consider healthy.
It has almost no fresh veg.

Yes I saw, but there’s virtually no vege on your list.

As I said, I think starting small is your best bet, with a couple of vege-based meals which don’t involve ready made sauces (the latter have their place as a quick midweek meal, for sure, but you could easily do a big pan of tomato sauce, for example, and use half of it with pasta and turn the other half into a chilli or sausage casserole. Or make a big pan of vegetable and lentil soup.

1 Cathedral City Mini Mature Cheddar Cheeses 6x20g £1.65 - buy a block. It's much cheaper (+less plastic)

I remember you from the other thread OP, the list contains more ingredients than your last one

My advice would be to keep on trying to eat much more good protien, fats and vegetables (I never prioritise fruit) and if that has to be ready made given your lack of confidence and time at the moment then so be it

Once your tastebuds and habits have changed a bit and contain less sugars, as this is what you were struggling with in the last list, then start to get confident with some recipes and buy less ready made stuff.

Its a good start

You surely dont buy veg every week do you? I have a fridge and freezer full of it and it doesnt need replacing weekly.

I surely do! Not really a fan of frozen vege, other than peas tbh.

You are joking?

Good:
1 Stamford Street Co. Mixed Size British Eggs Free Range x10 490g £1.95
1 Sainsbury's Chantenay Carrots 400g £0.80 – regular carrots are much cheaper
1 Sainsbury's Easy Peelers 600g £1.20
1 Sainsbury's Pitted Green Olives 120g £1.40
1 Sainsbury's White Large Flat Vitamin D Mushrooms 250g £1.00
2 Stamford Street Co. Mini Apples x6 £1.98 (regular apples better value)
1 Sainsbury's Roasted Red Pepper Houmous 200g £1.00 – UPF and it’s really easy to make your own hummus.
1 Sainsbury's Iceberg Lettuce 200g £0.69 – just the 1!
2 Sainsbury's Scottish Semi Skimmed Milk 2.27L (4 pint) £3.30 – buy the whole milk not semi.
0.924kg JS Broccoli Loose £2.02
1.872kg JS Fairtrade Bananas Loose £1.78
2 KTC Chopped Tomatoes 400g £0.90
1 Sainsbury's Red Kidney Beans in Water 215g (130g*) £0.45
2 Sainsbury's Small Whole Cucumber £1.06

I had to really scrutinise the list to find the things I consider good.

I haven't added the just OK stuff and I'm too tired to look up things I'm not familiar with.

I haven't commented on any meat because I don't eat it.

@Mumstheword1983 , sorry if it seems I am having a go. I don't mean to and people have different lifestyles.
The veg on your list would not be enough for me for a week.

And your list does look a lot better than the trolleys I see in Tesco
(I do approve of the nice chocolate and it is organic)

I would focus on veg. Fresh, frozen, tinned. Eat three or four at each meal. Also, red lentils are your best friend. Cheap, full of fibre, protein and iron, chuck them in suops, stews, curries, bolognaise.
Own brand unsweetened soya milk is cheaper and more nutritious than almond.
Make banana oat bites with the kids: mash a couple of bananas, add oats, sultanas, seeds and choc drops, bake for 8 mins. Lovely for snacking.

I would do a meal plan.
pick your protein - then your carb.
we try to have a mixture of salad / veggies / ratatouille with our meals.

i am never going to home make pizza. A bowl of cereal is fine for breakfast . I don’t know why you’ve gone for oat milk? Cows milk here (organic) full fat for the kids as they seem to need the calories.

pad out whatever you’re making ‘with the mince’ with lentils / beans / veggies

this week for example we are having veggie chilli tomorrow- (it’s a Jamie Oliver one with sweet potatoes) with rice and salad (there’ll be left overs that we’ll freeze)
we are out for lunch on Sunday - dinner will be something on toast.
Monday we are having chicken - maybe marinated in yogurt / lemon / garlic / cumin / sumac - we’ll have it with chickpea/ feta salad (dead easy - dead nice - there’ll be leftovers)
on Tuesday we are having Chinese - will buy a chicken fried rice and Singapore noodles and some salt and pepper chips from the take away because we cannot make these taste nice! I am making a Chinese chicken curry (good food app) with m and s spring rolls and prawn toasts and dd makes a beef / broccoli dish. Again there will be loads of leftovers.
I am away Wednesday and Thursday for work - so the fridge will be full of tasty Chinese leftovers overs and if someone grilled some halloumi / marinaded some wings in the left over yoghurt with the leftover chick pea salad, hummus and the left over salad with some pitta - that feels relatively easy and will leave leftovers for lunches.

I don’t work on Friday and will cook a roast - either chicken or pork or lamb- making sure we have left overs to make a ramen or a curry or stroganoff.

i always have an eye on the wall planner so we eat some variety - we don’t waste a lot (that tub of 80p natural yoghurt is getting finished!) not everyone will eat everything but there’s ‘enough’ and if they don’t they can have a pudding.

I’m a bit manic about food waste and trying to make sure the 5 a day are met. I am also ‘not a very good cook’ but am learning as I go!

Oh, the freezer is absolutely rammed full of frozen veg and stuff I have prepped and currently we have veg in the fridge which lasts and doesnt go off too fast, cabbages, roots etc.

And I keep forgetting Im trying to get through my mountain of pulses and legumes!! I keep buying weird and wonderful tins and jars of beans and chickpeas, a lot of our veg comes in that form

1 Alpro Dark Chocolate Flavour Dessert 4 x 125g £1.85
2 Belvita Breakfast Honey & Nut with Chocolate Chip Cereal
Biscuit Snack Bars Pack 5 x 45g £2.00
1 By JS Digestive Biscuits 400g £0.59
1 Cathedral City Mini Mature Cheddar Cheeses 6x20g £1.65
1 Dairylea Dunkers Ritz Cheese Snack 3x43g £2.25
1 JS CHOC CHIP COOKIES 250G £1.30
1 Mcghees Scottish Pancakes x4 £0.60
1 Naked Rice Long Grain Rice Japanese Katsu Curry 78g £0.75
1 Nutella Hazelnut & Chocolate Spread 200g £1.90
1 Peppa Pig Kids Strawberry Yoghurt Pots 6x45g £1.00
1 Sainsbury's Choco Hazelnut Squares Cereal 375g £0.86
1 Sainsbury's Choco Rice Pops 375g £0.95
1 Sainsbury's Egg Mayo Deli Filler 220g £1.45
1 Sainsbury's Ginger Snaps 300g £0.59
2 Sainsbury's Little Ones Organic Pear, Prune & Banana Smooth
Puree 6+ Months 70g £0.90
1 Sainsbury's Multigrain Hoops Cereal 375g £0.79
1 Sainsbury's Steak Family Pie 700g £3.40
1 Sainsbury's Table Salt Bottle 750g £0.65
1 Sainsbury's Thin & Crispy Hawaiian Pizza 385g £1.50
1 Sainsbury's Thin & Crispy Pepperoni Pizza 305g £1.07
1 Sainsbury's Wheat Biscuits x24 £1.80
1 Sainsbury's Wholegrain Malties Cereal 750g £1.14
2 Stamford Street Co. Double Strength Apple & Blackcurrant Squash 750ml £0.98

I've taken out a lot, but id look at removing, replacing or making homemade versions of some of these above.

There is one heck of a lot of Cereal on that list! Plus breakfast bars, pancakes (make your own!), and Nutella. Basically sugar for breakfast - im suprised at how little milk is on there for the Cereal quantity.

Youve already acknowledged the Biscuits, and said youve cut down - great start.

The cheese and dunkers - can you buy block cheese? Replace some of the snacks stuff with fruit?

Hopefully the salt is just a one off - a bottle like that lasts ages - maybe a year?

I too am struggling you see a weeks worth of evening meals in there for 6, or are you eating separately several times - hence the single katsu curry?

What are you having for lunches? 6 people, 7 days is 42 lunches - ok, there are some ham or egg sandwiches, and one days worth of soup. What are people having the rest of the time?

All that said, im sure my list would get slated on here too, and its very brave of you to post it all. A couple of changes now, a few more next month, and keep going. Over a year thst can make a massive difference.

Hi thanks for all the advice. I will take time to read it all today.

Yes for the poster that saw my list on the other thread I have started with doubling up the broccoli and cucumber etc and switched some of the cereal to less sugary options.

I always have some frozen veg in the freezer and berries actually. The salt is a one off. We haven't had salt in the house since we moved house in August and I kept forgetting to order it.

The milk is enough for us per week. Husband is dairy free so all the dairy free on there is for him. He can't have milk.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with frozen veg. It’s can be more nutritious than fresh as it’s often frozen very quickly after picking.