Dh and I did a month's food shopping today and spent ...

[Miaou]

£98.05

Beat that!!

How's the guide coming on Mr Miaow?

He's busy rescuing a computer from certain death atm MrsSpoon - however I am compiling the shopping list just now. MrMiaou has lost the till receipt so it won't be entirely accurate ... back in a few mins...

Can't wait to see this!! It sounds like a good job!! I eat hardly any meat except for chicken too so will look forward to reading your list!

For a month?????

OMG, I can't manage that for a week!

Ah, no meat - see we spend quite a lot because we buy it from our butcher and it's not cheap.

We also buy organic wherever there is an option to.

You're not buying any juice either - we buy loads of organic juice for the boys.

well done to you though - that's fabbo! Great that you are both good at making things. We are both crap really (I can follow a good recipe and have a good 'stock' of meals but can't improvise when it comes to cooking at all!)

Ah, no meat - see we spend quite a lot because we buy it from our butcher and it's not cheap.

We also buy organic wherever there is an option to.

You're not buying any juice either - we buy loads of organic juice for the boys.

well done to you though - that's fabbo! Great that you are both good at making things. We are both crap really (I can follow a good recipe and have a good 'stock' of meals but can't improvise when it comes to cooking at all!)

OK - here is a rough guide to what we bought including prices if I can remember them (I am mentally going round the supermarket so it might be in a strange order ):

1 bag Braeburn apples (£1.20ish)
2 large 1.5kg bunches bananas, one yellow, one green @ £1.19 each
5 packs leeks @ 17p each - being sold off as they were a bit bruised! BARGAIN!!
4 packs of redcurrants @ 20p each (ditto bargain! MrMiaou made redcurrant jelly with them when we got home )
1 large bag potatoes
3 bag onions
half a melon @ 20p (reduced for quick sale)
2 courgettes
2 heads broccoli
1 pack carrots
1 swede
1 pack sliced ham (processed stuff)
2 large chickens for roasting
2 4pt cartons of milk (we will buy more milk from the local shop as we need it)
3 packs mature cheddar (Morrisons own this time - but we work out which is the best offer each time. I have a tip about cheese - remind me later if I forget)
Pack of Morrisons own chocolate mousse - see? Treats are possible on this budget! Costs about £1 I think.
(Didn't need marge this time and we buy plain yoghurt in large tubs from the local shop and put homemade jam or honey in)
4 tubes tomato puree (Morrisons)
4 tins spaghetti hoops (Heinz)
8 tins Branston baked beans (usually get Heinz but these were on BOGOF so we are trying them this time)
6 tins of betterbuy peeled tomatoes (13p each!)
1 tin each of knorr chicken and vegetable dried stock powder (MrMiaou does not skimp on this so we don't get betterbuy stock cubes)
Pasta - 6 packs betterbuy pasta twists @ about 20p each. One pack will form the basis of a meal for all five of us.
2 packs macaroni pasta
4 tins Morrisons tuna in sunflower oil @ 96p each (ouch! but one tin will go a long way - sandwiches for us all, or make a tuna bake with it.
2 x 2kg bags of dried cat food (we have two huge cats). They don't get tinned meat.
1 x 9 pk Charmin loo rolls. MrMiaou won't skimp on loo roll either . However they usually have a "three free rolls"offer so it works out at little more than the cheap stuff.
No kitchen roll this time. We do try and manage without but capitulate occasionally if there is a good offer on.
No tea this time. But last time we bought a huge bag of Morrisons own red leaf tea - about 450 bags (!) - and it's not bad really.
2 jars of Morrisons coffee. Really good value.
2 x 1.5kg bags Morrisons white bread flour
2 x 1kg bags of wholemeal bread flour
2 x allisons tins dried yeast. In case you haven't guessed MrMiaou bakes bread (and pizza bases and pitta breads). Much nicer than shop bought and cheaper than buying it too.
1 tub Morrisons shortbread bats @ 99p. Guess why they were on offer then
2 jars betterbuy clear honey @ 99p each. The kids put it on weetabix and in yoghurt and ds likes it on bread for breakfast occasionally.
1 jar betterbuy marmalade. I am trying it this time but will go back to Morrisons ordinary brand if it is too crapola.
2 packs Morrisons wheat biscuits (own brand weetabix). I can't taste the difference.
2 packs chocolate chip muffins @ £1.05 and on BOGOF. Yuuuuuum.
1 frozen organic duck @ about £6. I guess it is so reasonable because a) it is frozen, b) it is so far before christmas they think we'll eat it and buy another one, and c) it's wrapped up in such a way that you can't see what it looks like. But it will be edible and it means we can work towards Chrismas dinner a bit at a time at this rate
1 pack salami
4 tins pineapple chunks
2 tins rhubarb
4 tins betterbuy sweetcorn. This is fine for putting in casseroles, lasagne, shepherd's pie etc. We do get Green Giant sweetcorn to put in tuna sandwiches etc as it is nicer.
1 kg Morrisons frozen mince @ about £2. Much cheaper than buying it fresh - you'll pay about £2 per lb for it at the counter.

I'm sure there was more but I can't think of anything else!

Menu ideas coming ...

Actually, more meat on there than I thought . But as you point out GDG, no juice (not even diluting juice) - the kids drink water and milk and dh and I drink water and tea/coffee. Makes a HUGE difference to the bill.

Ah - ds is awake - will do the menu stuff later on today

My daughter (vegetarian) went to see a dietician recently and the dietician was very against carton juice. She said unless you squeezed it yourself it was 'empty calories' and you were better off drinking water and eating fruit.

Am v impressed miaou at your shopping and typing skills!

what the tip about cheese Mioau, my boys eat enough cheese to sink a battle ship so if its a tip to make it go further that'd be FAB!

Here is a quick guide to how we eat, and spend as little money as we possibly can.

Firstly breakfast.

Porridge is brilliant! Costs very little, and tastes delicious, alternatively toast with homemade jam, or honey or whatever takes the fancy. Supermarket own brand cereals - weetabix, cornflakes, rice crispies, nothing too processed and stuffed full of sugar and additives. Morrisons sell their own brand organic weetabix for the same price as regular branded weetabix!

The older children eat school meals, so me Miaou and DS often eat a filling/hearty soup for lunch. Some favourites are lentil and veg, leek and potatoe, broccolli and cheddar, tomatoe, chicken and veg broth, mulligatawny (sp?) (curry soup), french onion, all served with bread usually just our regular "malthouse" bread, sometimes cheese and onion rolls, but always homemade. Usually fruit for pudding, sometimes yoghurt. In general I reckon it costs about £2 for lunch for the three of us.

Some days we will have a beef and veg stew, or chicken curry or chicken rissotto. Chicken curry or rissotto uses the leftover chicken from the weekend, which will also provide the makings of the chicken and veg broth. Beef stew uses the cheapest beef I can find - usually the fatty stuff that is in the bargain buy fridge - near to date etc add plenty of root veg, some leeks, an onion, mushrooms if you like and cook real slow. Usually make enough for 2 meals and plenty to make into a soup for another 2 meals, average cost is probably £5 (including sagey dumplings!)

Tea tends to be a lighter meal, a typical week would be something like:

Monday: beans/eggs/cheese etc on toast, fruit for pudding
Tuesday: Pizza - all homemade toppings vary, ham and pineapple, courgette and sweetcorn, pepperoni, salmon and broccolli, sweet red pepper
and onion, fruit for pudding
Wednesday: Something fishy - salmon steaks, salmon fishcakes, fresh pollock/cod/mackerel, tuna bake, served with potatoes/pasta/rice and veg, maybe chocolate mousse for pudding
Thursday: Sausages in some form with potatoes or pasta or maybe yorkshire pudding and veg - fruit or yoghurt for pudding
Friday: probably pizza again as the kids love them, fruit to follow
Saturday: for lunch some sort of soup and a roll, fruit etc to follow (or maybe cake or biscuits if we've baked), teatime pasta with some sort of sauce, some veg or salad
Sunday: roast chicken (most weeks!) veg potatoes etc a fruit pie or crumble with custard, homemade scones and jam for jea

In addition we snack on fruit - fresh, tinned and dried, or homemade biscuits bread etc

The cheese tip: grate it into a large tub. If the kids want cheese as a snack, give them a handful in a bowl. It can be added to sandwiches, used as a toast topping, put on top of cooked pasta as a quick and easy light tea, and will go a lot further. I grate up a whole pack into a lidded tub and keep it in the fridge.

Oh and Ikea have an excellent grater in a bowl with lid for storing grated cheese. £2 , I think

Your shopping list Miaou is not hugely dissimilar to ours and we have a similar budget at the moment.
Tis good to see others are doing the same.

Today we had Lentil and vegetable soup. Made as follows:

half a courgette
1 carrot
half tin of sweetcorn

(the above were all left from last nights tea)

2 handfuls of puy lentils
1 handful of dried mixed veg
1 tsp of veg stock powder - marigold swiss vegetable bouillon powder
1 tsp chicken stock powder - knorr
half tube of tomato puree
1 stick celery
1 onion
1 small leek
black pepper
3 litres water
tablespoon of sunflower oil

Total cost of the ingredients was £1.29 even adding in the cost of the leftovers!

Simply chop and fry the onion until soft, chop and add the remaining veg, add the water, stir, add the dried veg and lentils and the tomato puree, stir, bring to the boil stirring occassionally. Allow to simmer gently for about 30 minutes (or longer). Add black pepper to taste, stir and serve.

The above made 10 adult servings!

I served that with home baked bread, total cost of the bread is 3p per slice!

DS had yoghurt and homemade blackberry jam 15p
Miaou had a shortbread biscuit 99p for 30
and I had a banana abou 12p

In total lunch for 3 cost about 75p!!

that sounds lovely, you've inspired me to put lentils on my shopping list

Excellent suggestion for the cheese.....will do that i think.

Excellent thread too. We are needing to do this - especially as mortgage rates have just gone up too.

Do Miaou's children get free school meals? Not criticism, but that must help with costs? And MrMiaou at home, so no office temptations, lunches out, sarnie trolleys?

My kids won't touch lentils, alas.

We eat WAY more vegetables than you, but we don't buy coffee or catfood, either. I think we eat a lot of food, full stop, though.

Not being funny, but won't you need to buy more nearer to Christmas, mince pies?

Still, RESPECT if you manage to do it. You should add up your costs for the next month and report back how much you spent in total.

Mince pies will be homemade or not bought at all. Ditto Christmas cake. We are on this budget because it is all the money we have!

No we don't get help with school meals, they are an extra £15 per week (for two dds). Not included in that budget though. We thought long and hard about letting them have school meals instead of sending packed lunches, as it would work out slightly cheaper, but we didn't want them to miss out.

The veg on our list is perhaps not truly representative of what we get through in a month - we prepare and freeze a lot of stuff too.

Oh, missed your last sentence, peanutbutterkid - we are intending to do that and will report back with figures!

I bought soem mince pie mix, without hydrog. fat in it (first mix I've found like that, mentioned with respect to concurrent food fascist threads). Had to be cheap because it was from Lidl.

Packed lunches are about half price of hot dinners for me, but DCs have occasional hot dinner, too.

Wow, do you rent Mr Miaow out? He sounds like a gem!

We are in a similar situation in that my DH works from home, so needs fed at home and we have one pre-School DS and our older DS has School dinners about 50% of the time. However I still spend an absolute fortune.

I've just done my Tesco online shop and this lot comes to £82.10 (£5.99 of this is delivery charge).

2 Allinson Malted Wheat & S/Flower800g Each £1.07 £2.14
2 Soreen Fruity Malt Loaflarge Each £0.85 £1.70
1 Jaffa Easy Peeler Pack 800g Each £1.49 £1.49
1 A Bag of White Seedless Grapes Class 1 Loose (approx. 500g - 650g per bag) Each £- £2.58
10 Bananas Loose Each £- £1.50
1 Tesco Organic Gala Polybag Apple Each £1.99 £1.99
1 Tesco Organic Pears Polybag Each £1.99 £1.99
1 Tesco Organic Potatoes 2.5kg Each £1.79 £1.79
1 Cherry Tomatoes 500g Pack Each £1.23 £1.23
1 Spring Onions Bunch Each £0.49 £0.49
1 Cooked Beetroot Vacuum Pack 250g Each £0.69 £0.69
1 Cucumber Whole Each Each £0.64 £0.64
1 Red Peppers Loose Each Class 1 Each £0.68 £0.68
1 Yellow Peppers Loose Each Class 1 Each £0.68 £0.68
1 Tesco Broccoli Loose Each £- £0.41
2 Leeks Loose Class 2 Each £- £0.84
1 Tesco Butternut Squashcatchweight Each £- £1.79
4 Tesco Onions Loose Class 2 Each £- £0.56
1 Florette Mixed Salad 200g (Best enjoyed within 4 days) Each £1.38 £1.38
1 Tesco Medium Pot Basil Each £1.19 £1.19
1 Tesco Houmous 200g Each £0.74 £0.74
1 Willow Farm Whole Chicken 1.00-2.40kg Each £- £6.70
4 Tesco Organic Semi Skimmed Mlk2.272ltr Each £1.40 £5.60
1 Lurpak Butter Unsalted 250g Each £0.98 £0.98
2 Pilgrims Choice Classic Mature 400g Each £2.99 £5.98
1 Yeo Valley Organic Strawberry Jumble Yoghurt 4pk 4x100g Each £1.49 £1.49
1 Tesco Free Range Eggs Large Box Of 12 Each £1.89 £1.89
2 New Covent Garden Plum Tomato & Sweet Basil Soup 600g Each £1.99 £3.98
1 Green & Black's Organic Dark 70%chocolate 100g Each £1.48 £1.48
1 Milky Way Snacktime 10 Pack Each £1.14 £1.14
2 Heinz Whole Peeled Tomatoes 4 X 400g Each £1.96 £3.92
1 Heinz Baked Beanin Tomato Sauce 415g X 4 Pack Each £1.79 £1.79
2 Princes Tuna Chunks In Brine 4x185g Each £3.19 £6.38
2 Seeds Of Change Organic Penne Pasta 500g Each £0.99 £1.98
1 Tesco Sweetcorn 325g Can Each £0.25 £0.25
3 Tesco Pure Apple Juice 1 Litre Each £0.79 £2.37
2 Carex Handwash Peach Kernel Oil & Vitamin E 300ml Each £1.84 £3.68

A few BOGOFs on handwash, tuna, tinned tomatoes and the Covent Garden soup (don't normally buy this but as it was BOGOF). I already have a list for Aldi that will set me back around £10 on top of this and then when the wine runs out ...

I could be persuaded MrsSpoon ...

Send him down on the next train!