shopping on a budget

[LittleCheese]

Hi

I was hoping to start a new thread to support others but also to get some new ideas myself
We have recently had cut our shopping budget right down to around £50 a week, thats for me DH and DD (22 months)
At first i found it difficult to only spend this much and i know many other people feel the same, I though if we could share what we have bought, how much we have spent and what we plan to cook with it, people might be inspired. Also i am wanting new ideas of things to cook as we are bored with the same meals every week.

Last wed I spent £55.55 at Tesco and this is what i bought

Also I managed to get 5p off a litre at petrol station as i spent over £50

Bakery & Patisserie

1 x Tesco Medium Sliced White Loaf (800g) £0.72
1 x Tesco Wholemeal Medium Sliced Loaf (800g) £0.50 Fruit & Vegetables
2 x Tesco Value Pancakes (6) £0.64

4 x Tesco Bananas Loose (Approx 180g) £0.60
1 x Tesco Kids Easy Peeler (600g) £1.24
1 x Tesco Market Value Cripps Pink Apple Pack £0.99
1 x Tesco Market Value Red Grapes (500g) £0.99
1 x Tesco Plums (500g) £1.00
1 x Tesco Closed Cup Mushrooms (250g) £0.74
1 x Tesco Lincolnshire Savoy Cabbage £0.50
1 x Tesco Market Value Carrots (1Kg) £0.45
1 x Tesco Market Value Mixed Peppers (3) £0.99
1 x Tesco New Potatoes (1Kg) £0.50
1 x Tesco White UK Cabbage (Approx 1.4kg) £0.95
1 x Tesco Yorkshire White Potatoes (2.5Kg) £1.28
1 x Tesco Value Seasonal Vegetables (515g) £1.00

Dairy

1 x Tesco British 6 Pints Whole Milk (3.41L) £2.25
1 x Tesco Localchoice Yorkshire Semi-Skimmed Milk (1.14L) £0.73
1 x Farm Pride Free Range Eggs (6) £1.29
1 x Tesco Value Buttery (500g) £0.64
4 x Tesco Value Mozzarella (125g) £1.88
1 x Tesco Disney Assorted Fromage Frais (6x50g) £0.88

Meat, Fish & Poultry

1 x Tesco Fresh Stewing Beef (Approx 430g) £2.14
1 x Tesco Skinless Chicken Thigh Fillets (500g) £2.49
1 x Tesco Value Whole Chicken (1.3Kg) £2.46
2 x Tulip Irish Sausages (454g) £1.76
1 x Tesco American Style Pepperoni (115g) £1.00
1 x Tesco Cooked Sandwich Ham 10 Slices (125g) £0.99
1 x Tesco Danish Salami (125g) £0.58
1 x Tesco Spanish Chorizo Sausage (100g) £1.14

Frozen

1 x Aunt Bessie's Jam Roly Poly (300g) £1.00
1 x Tesco Mixed Vegetables (1Kg) £0.95

Tins, Jars & Cooking

1 x Tesco Pizza Base Mix (290g) £0.55
2 x Tesco Value Chopped Tomatoes (400g) £0.52
1 x Tesco Naturally Sweet Sweetcorn in Water No Added Sugar or Salt (325g) £0.34
1 x Baxters Favourites Beef & Winter Vegetables Soup (415g) £0.74
1 x Baxters Vegetarian Carrot & Coriander Soup (415g) £0.80
1 x Heinz Big Soup Minted Lamb Hotpot (400g) £0.88
1 x Tesco Broccoli & Stilton Soup (400g) £0.89
1 x Tesco Chunky Beef & Vegetable Meal Soup (400g) £0.89
1 x Tesco Cream of Asparagus Soup (400g) £0.89
1 x Tesco Meal Soup Chunky Chicken & Vegetable (400g) £0.59
1 x Tesco Meal Soup Chunky Chilli (400g) £0.59
1 x Tesco Reduced Calorie Mayonnaise (750ml) £1.24
1 x Napolina Tomato & Herb Pizza Topping (300g) £0.71

Packets & Cereals

1 x Tesco Malt Wheats (750g) £0.98
1 x Tesco Plain Flour (500g) £0.41

Biscuits, Snacks & Sweets

4 x Quaker Snack-a-Jacks Classic Salt & Vinegar Flavour (30g) 1.50

Drinks

1 x Tesco Apple & Blackcurrant Squash with No Added Sugar (1.5L) £1.38
1 x Tesco Whole Orange Squash with No Added Sugar (1.5L) £1.38

Household & Pets

1 x Tesco Luxury Soft White Toilet Tissue (2) £1.16

Baby, Health & Beauty

1 x Tesco My Baby's Chamomile Shampoo (400ml) £1.47
1 x Organix Finger Foods Organic Rice Cakes Apple 7mth+ (50g) £0.91
3 x Tesco Honeysuckle & Silk Handwash (500ml) £1.47

and meals for this week are

Wed Chinese takeaway (bought by parents)
Thurs Corned beef hash + veg
Fri Sausage Caserole
Sat Home made pizza's
Sun Roast Chicken
Mon Stew + Dumplings
Tues Paella

that's a lot of meat for a week! and tinned soup!

a good sized chicken should get at least three nights when cooked up and soup made.

we basically live on veg soup bulked out with homemade bread/pancakes/pasties, during the week and save meat until weekend.

betwen that and yer tinned soup, i reckon you could save another ten to fifteen a week!

good idea for thread though!

Hehe if i told DH we were saving meat for the weekends he wouldnt be very happy, i have never been very good at making soup and we often have family over for lunch which when we only buy a small chicken there is never much meat left. I have however made a pretty good chicken soup this week and dh will be having that for lunch and saving the tins for next week as i plan to make chicken pie with leftovers next week

see you've got chorizo. have you tried a bean and veg soup with a bit of the chorizo thrown in. very hearty!

Our Friday night dinner is Chorizo Hash. First of all you peel some potatoes and slice and then dice them and then pop them in a pan of water to boil. Then fry diced chorizo in a large frying pan, reomove the chorizo and then fry a diced onion in the red oil. Drain the potatoes and add to the pan alongf with the chorizo and stir. Then make 4 wells in the mixture and crack an egg in each. Pop the pan into a hot oven for 5 minutes uutil the white has set. If you time it right the yolk is still runny and it breaks all over the potatoes and chorizo. Its really tasty and quite cheap to do and quick.

I did a stock take of my freezer this week, I found lots of frozen fish (cod, haddock) that I had bought when it was on the reduced aisle. I aslo found 2 packs of mince and 2 packs of streaky bacon. Out of that I made 3 fish pies, 3 cottage pies and 3 macoroni cheeses. I have frozen them and now have got dinner sorted for times when I feel tired! When I can I try to batch cook as it is often cheaper to buy in bulk when the meat is on offer and then its lovely to know that there is stuff in the freezer.

Oh and we lived on £50 per week at the beginning of the year (DH, DS6 & DS3 and me). I shopped at the butchers, green grocers and bakers and only went into tesco for tins and dry stuff (IYKWIM). The suoermarkets charge a fortune for stuff that you can buy at the market.