I am interested in how many people are trying to cut their food bills

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I went to a farm shop yesterday and spent between £14-15. I got
20 eggs
2 bramleys
1 red onion
a head of broccoli
2 large mushrooms
half a dozen regular mushrooms
a plant
bottle of proper apple juice

I felt like I got a good deal.

I then went to Waitrose to see what they had reduced. I spent £50.11 and got lots of good quality meat, 2 lots of sugar, milk, cheese, ham, a paper, mini ready meal, 2 shapers chocolate bras, cat food, 2 lots of mash.

That would have cost a lot more at full price and if I had bought on line anywhere or gone into store I know I would have spent double.

My problem is working out how to spend less without buying low quality produce.

2 shapers choclate bras?

ALso bemused as to why you would buy mash? Fraction of the price to buy potatoes and make your own.

I am less likely to throw things out at the moment. so, a bag of stir fry veg that was only 2/3 used for a stir fry for me and the kids got chucked into the food processor with some pork mince to make lovely meatballs.
I definitely meal plan as I work and the kids have various after school activities. I use BBC good food recipes a lot which are quick and only have a few ingredients. I don't buy ready made stuff at all. If I don't meal plan it costs me loads more. Even if I haven't had time before I get to the supermarket, I do it in the Starbucks there and reckon I save the cost of the coffee!

You buy mash?

I spend about £130 a fortnight for four of us (well, 5 if you include DS2's nappies)
In that shop we have cleaning products, nappies, toiletries, cat food etc it's not just the basics.

The cheapest meals we have are sausage plait (sausagemeat/onion/sage in pastry), spag bol (mince, passata, tom puree and herbs/garlic/onion - cheaper and nicer than ragu) chicken curry (marinade chicken in yoghurt and spices, throw it in the oven and make a sauce out of the marinade and tom passata - cheaper and nicer than pataks )

If I would buy something frozen (chicken and bacon lattice for example) I just find out how to make it at home, so instead of buying three packets of chicken lattice at about £1.50 each I buy a massive bag of chicken fillets and ready made pastry. The fillets go into curry, lattice and a roast dinner. Three meals for one bag of fillets, so you can afford to get nice chicken as it lasts so much longer.

Also colmans do those packets that you can add to cheap ingredients and make some good dinners, I love the chicken chausser and sausage casserole, the DC's like tuna pasta bake.

rebelmum1, couldn't agree more about supermarkets fruit and veg being a swizz. I never understand why people think it's cheaper - it's not!

I often go into my local Waitrose because they reduce loads of stuff so i stock up and freeze loads. I have also started using my local green groucers, it's much better and you can get seasonal produce in there that's not been "shaped" and "sized" to fit a certain profile (which is what supermarkets do.)

I am gtting better at cooking. Part of being depressed manifested itself in not being bothered about cooking and my kids had lot of frozen food, fish fingers, waffles, etc, but I am much better now and prefer to cook fresh things from scratch. They do still have waffles occasionally though as they like them!

COV and OMDB- I would never normally buy mash but these were reduced and they will do for my lunch with some cheese on top. Bad I know but better than nothing.

I am sure I also spend more as I have to cook two lots of dinners most nights. I do make enough mash for all of us when I make it, and the same with shepherd's and fish pies, but not everything lends itself to that. DH is home early today for the sport's day so we will all eat together and I will cook once.

Is there no way you could change to one dinner?
Does he work late?
Or on the days you can't possibly all eat together make something that is fine to be reheated, like casserole, spag bol, lasagne, curry etc?
Also if you were going to do two seperate dinners buy enough for all of you and just cook half at a time?

He doesn't get home until 6.30 and then it is straight in to baths and bed. The kids couldn't wait that long and they are all in bed by 7 anyway. I do their tea as soon as we get in from school and they eat between 4-4.45pm.

How old are they?
Would it be feasible to have a snack of fruit or a sandwich or something when they get in from school and have dinner ready for when your DH gets in from work?

ATM DP gets in between 6 and 6:15 so I have dinner ready for then, we eat and then both he and I do bathtimes , ten minutes story and bed.

It works out much easier (and cheaper) for me making only one meal.

I am cutting down: making a real effort not to chuck things away and use everything, plus less waitrose and more sainsbury's. I don't like to skimp on good quality meat but ifyou buy the organic stuff on its sell-by date it's reduced, then you can freeze it until you want to use it so that's what I do.

I wouldn't want them eating that close to bed. I used to take a snack for after school and then feed them once in but stopped as I wanted the younger two to eat a better tea. It will get easier as they get older and go to bed later.

Yeah it will, mine go to bed at 7:30 so have their dinner an hour before bed which never has been as issue, it'll all change soon though as DP is starting a new job which will be shift work and I love my little routine!

I am also an advocate of bulk cooking/freezing meals.

My budget has been £65 per week for 6 of us for about the last 18 months and I'm still managing to stick to that.

Frozen veg is my top tip - it's much, much cheaper than buying fresh, tastes as good and is may well be better for you than 'fresh' from the supermarket that has been sitting around for a while.

Value ranges are often very good and much cheaper. Don't forget that the value meat is generally the same animals as the standard stuff, but is just cheaper cuts. If you trim the fat off it's fine (although I wouldn't buy value mince because it is pretty yuck!)

Have started shopping at Aldi when we're passing (it's not worth the petrol to go their specially I don't think, would be a false economy) and have been very impressed.

BTW, I work and get home after the children have had their dinner most nights. I absolutely do NOT expect DH to cook separately for me - it's just not fair on the children or on him IMHO. He's just puts a plate aside for me and I reheat it in the microwave.

there

Moi!

We get all basics in Lidl, veg from Wednesday farmer's market, meat from butcher in town, fish from 'The Codfather' fishmonger in town or the van that comes through from Inverary on Tuesdays, eggs and milk from farmer at the end of hte road and up the hill.

No online shopping available out here because it's rural.

We make all our own breads and baked sweets. We buy flour by the 5kg sack in a local health food shop and yeast in a tin from there as well.

We grow all our own herbs and tomatoes.

We don't buy alcohol. DH smokes, but he gets 50g pouch of Golden Virginia for £5 from an Eastern European work colleague who brings them back and buys skins and filters in bulk from a boot sale.

We don't eat out. There are no restaurants around here, anyhow, and the chippy in town is still about 14 miles away.

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We're growing beans, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, salad and chillis. Out of those the only things we're harvesting at the moment are the cucumbers and the salad so it's not affecting how much we spend very much other than meaning we get to buy naughty treats within the same budget!

DS-65 Pounds v.impressive.
What kind of menu do you have over a week?