I need to reduce my shopping bill - help!

[Sonnet]

I really need the collective power of mumsnet brains please

I really need to reduce my shopping bill to £80 per week to feed 2 adults and 2 children. Breakfast for 4, PL for one hungry DH, Evening meal for 4. Weekends = 3 meals per day.

The problems I face in implementing the simple ideas I can think of are these:

1. Children leave house at 7.50 and need a good breakfast to last them until lunchtime - neither eat cereal so it is boiled eggs, bacon sandwiches, muffins with ham/cheese, toasted cheese ect - not cheap
2. I often get back late and have multiple supper times so I need things I can cook once and then re-heat, I need to get a meal on the table inside 30 mins
3. I do cook ahead but will soon be working an extra day so curtailing my time in which to do this

ideas welcomed by everyone......please....

dh just uses a ordinary small flask but dd1 has a special little one for soup with a little spoon in the lid. I bought it from Boundary Mill for £3.35 I think, she loves it

like this but in pink obviously for dd1!

Cool, thanks! Does it keep it warm enough?

Wow - I have been out - thanks for all the replies...

I will read and digest properly, just wanted to say thanks first!

Hmm. somebody posted something that made me think - portion control - too big in this house!
Billysich - £150 per month - OK £200 max if you include your "pot" - I am in awe of you! You are fab!

Its says it will keep things hot for 1hr but if I heat til piping hot, she says that it is just right to eat for lunchtime, she is only 6yrs so doesn't eat things piping hot.

I have discovered tinned lentils from Tesco. Just throw in your bolognese sauce or casserole and then you can use less meat and still feel full. Also very healthy as they contain lots of fibre.

Me too trying to cut back. I am a single mum and work very hard in the week. £80 is sort of where I am hoping to be. Problem is, my daughter is a vegetarian who doesnt like veg, my son eats everything and I just eat whats easiest. It is so hard to save when you have fussy eaters I can tell you....I am a qualified chef from an earlier life but trying to cook 3 different meals each day is very hard on a budget. Both kids are teenagers and they would eat the sofa if I left them long enough!
The one thing I have discovered which everyone likes is tinned tuna. Goes well with sweetcorn and mayo on sandwiches and with pasta. Tescos sell Pizzas for £1.64, sandwich toasters are also good for cheese or beanie toastie snacks.....

I dont buy crisps or cakes...no point in filling kids up and complete rubbish. Just keep lots of brown bread in, wraps baked beans!

teenagers do eat more HomeNWork. My lads come in from school and have 3 slices of toast, half a tin of baked beans and grated cheese as a snack!
Then they are ravenous for dinner. Its definately gone up since they became teenagers.

Have you thought of getting a slow cooker? May help with the multiple meal times in the evening (can just remove a portion or two and leave the rest on low settinh) and can use cheaper cuts of meat as become very tender. It's not juest for stews, BTW - you can make loads of stuff in it.

I chuck a handful of lentils into the slow cooker one hour before the dish is ready (they seem to take longer to cook that way)

It really bulks out curries, stews etc. Cheap beef cuts are delicious cooked in slow cooker

agree porridge for breakfast, and buy big bag of ordinary oats not instant porridge sachets which are more expensive. we've saved also by getting a breadmaker - a bag of flour for less than a pound will do three loaves - they're expensive upfront but worth looking on freecycle?
have you got a garden? have been fairly self-sufficient in lettuce this summer thanks to a quid's worth of lettuce seed. you can grow it in windowboxes if no garden.
cheap cuts of meat for casseroling cheaper than supermarket packs of chops etc. for some unfathomable reason pork is cheaper than most other meats - hardly eat lamb now.
also trying to eat more seasonally - fruit especially can be bloody expensive out of season and you get through loads with dcs. if you're really cutting back you can make your own yoghurt as well - have done it before but forgotten recipe, there will be one on here - all you need to get started is a spoonful of live yoghurt, some milk and a warm place to leave it overnight.
worth boning up on vegetarian cookery as well esp indian dishes that are quite highly flavoured so you dont eat as much, and things like a quick egg and lentil curry. rice and noodles and stuff are usually cheaper in asian shops if you've got one near you and if you have a turkish-type grocer the fruit and veg is a lot cheaper than supermarket.

Sorry Sonnet, I'm a tosser at the moment. Didn't mean to be rude in my first post. Could make excuses, but in the end am entirely responsible, sorry.
I've been really interested in your thread, and wish you luck with your quest for a more frugal shopping bill. I need to do the same, and atm spend a lot more than £80 pw. Have taken tips on board and am going to really try to action them next week.
Hope it works well for you.

If you do get into making your own bread, you can make stuff like home-made pizza and naan bread - goes very nicely with daal, if you conquer your fear of lentils .
You don't even really need a breadmaker if you don't mind a bit of work kneading etc. I've got really easy recipes for naan and pizza bases, as well as daal (!). Shout out if you want me to put them on here.

PS: Minky - good for you. I didn't even think you were that rude but nice one for apologising

If you live near the countryside, you may be able to find people privately selling chicken eggs for about half the price of supermarket ones. We end up buying all sorts of 'odd size/shape/shell' eggs that the supermarkets won't take.

People who raise poultry on contract for supermarkets often end up with a few dead birds they pluck themselves and freeze, they may sell them on the side, too (their contract is only to fatten up animals ready for slaughter).

Wow - thanks so much - just going therough these - doing my online shop and have added tinned lentils - seem less scary!!

I have a rayburn, so can leave casseroles in low oven all day a bit like a slow cooker i think

minky - No need to apologise I hadn't taken offence but it was so nice you did - iykwim!!

Thnak-you so much everyone I will let you know how I get on..

Tinned lentils are pretty ewwww though, imo!

Agree that toast & butter (peanut butter even better) is a perfectly filling breakfast. If you feel the need to add some protein, make eggy bread, that's really cheap.

Another vote here for own-brand detergent. The Asda value one works absolutely fine and it's less than a pound for a huge bottle!

Look at the Tesco codes thread on MN - I save £5 by online shopping with the codes listed there. You can always find a voucher for £9 off, delivery is about £4.50, so an instant saving! Pasta is probably the cheapest thing you can cook.... add tins of value tomatoes & tuna and that's a meal for under £1!

Porridge of course for breakfast, I have to have a fast turn-around in the evenings, and I find stews and soups are the best. They are certainly cost effective and if you invest in a slow cooker they cook while you are at work. I would make meat go further, shepherds pies etc. soups with left over chicken and have at least 2 nights a week vegetarian. 80 quid is a lot you should easily manage.

wasing powder is a crazy expense just get own brand non bio and don't even get tablets they're not cost effective. Also buy in bulk I picked up a sack of rice and 12 cans of chickpeas at tesco the other week.

Another vote for porridge.

Also you can chuck a handful of porridge oats into bolognese etc to make it go further.

And buy a big bag of popping corn. The dss love making it and it is a v cheap healthy "treat".

I'm trying to cut down the amount of meat by trying to stick to "no more than once a day" and no more than "quarter of the meal". Doesn't always work but it gives me something to aim for.

If/when I cook expensive meat like steak I serve it up cut into strips - I get away with using a lot less that way.

And cauli cheese and macaroni cheese are retro but cheap!