£50 weekly food bill??? not in my house.

[6inchnipples]

Having read a few threads on the 'how much do you spend on food per week' topic and having read the 'i spend 40' 'i spend 50' chat i thought i'd really make an effort to try and get mine down a bit (currently spend about 80-90 average per week, 3 kids under 5 plus me and dp)

Just nipped to local co op whose prices are reasonable, do lots of good fruit offers.

I bought 2 packs of chicken breasts 2 for 7 quid offer, two 2l milks, a dozen yogs on special, clementines, strawbs,necterines, blueberries, melon, baked pots reduced to 48p and a loaf

Total 23 quid.

Pots , 1 pack chicken, blueberries, half the strawbs and half the melon gone already, eaten for dinner and pudding.... No way i could do it for 50 quid, not with freash fruit veg etc

HOw do you do it????

Where am i going wrong???

Its the veg that are costing you. Ditto everyone else on buying apples and bananas.

Value everything (including meat for us, not ideal but needs must ). Iceland are cheap esp for frozen meat.

No snacks.

I plan breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Tomato sauces can be cheap, I have a basil plant thats been alive for about 4 months now so we can make pesto quite cheaply now (parmesan and pine nuts last forever), omlettes, chicken dishes using less chicken breast - if its chopped up and in a sauce it can be cheaper.

I also plan my menu, make a list, do a online shop to see how much it should be (mysupermarket.com is useful) and then work on from there. This is beyond dull I know but such is life.

I spend £20 a week on food for the two of us. Top up of £5 for extras like milk.

I hate these threads.

Makes me think of Harry Enfield.

"We are considerably more frugal than yeeow!"

nah not frugal just what we have to spend after the bills are all paid

Don't mean you. Or anyone in particular. Just sounds like an invitation come and show off how many meals you can get out of a chicken.

oh well I think I lose on that one - unless I buy a turkey sized one.

TBH I dream of walking round Asda picking what I want, its very depressing buying only the bare and cheap essentials

By the time you have bought all ingredients and used your electricity, is it really cheaper to make your own bread? I found it more expensive when all accounted for. The loaf is smaller and is only fresh for one day.

Flour, yeast, sugar salt and water - most of these I would have in the cuboard anyway (the yeast I keep in the fridge!)

Bag of strong white flour 79p - will make three small loaves, salt 39 p for a bag that lasts me 2 years, sugar is around 99p a bag of caster, this last around 2 months, yeast I get a little box in waitrose for around £1 and it last about 1 month in the fridge, the electric is minimal.

It is around 50p a loaf. Bread to buy is well obver £1 mark

I also make pizza dough and dough for rolls and then freeze the rolls in bags so they stay fresh, I have a bread crock for the loaves and they last around 2 days then will do for toast.

When I make pizza I use froozen mushrooms, peppers, sweetcorn as it works out cheaper over a few weeks making one a week to use froozen stuff.

We only get one meal out of a roast chicken. There are 5 of us. It is literally picked to the bone after one meal. How do you get more meals out of it?

I also dream of walking aorund asda and buying whatever I want

I dont want to buy 'injected with water' meat

I want to have fruit and veg every day

I want to be able to buy chicken breasts

I want to eat salmon

I want mature cheese

Smaller servings Wallace.
Keep the carcass & boil it up the next day for rich (filling) gravy.

lol @ smaller servings - and then what - they fill up on something else anyhow a bit later (so therefore still spending more on food for the meal)

we do loads of potatoes with a roast chicken.

lways have enough left for a curry the following day.

i should really make soup as well and use the carcass but my kids wint tuch soup.

I do lots of potatoes too - they still put it all away

ah your boys do have hollow legs though.

I know, never mind I shouldn't complain - so many parents have issues getting their children to eat anything, or eat anything healthy and mine will eat anything and everything

When we do a chicken we serve it in the kitchen and put the veg and Yorkshire pudding on the table to help ourselves.

No picking at the carcass in our house!!

What about a syrup sponge pudding made in the microwave to fill your boys up FAQ?

syrup sponge pudding done in microwave??

i'm interested. how do you do it? is it from ministry of food book??

here

its gorgeous, served with custard. its more than enough for 5 big eaters.

Thanks for limk will try this tonight. sounds yum!

and curious misdee what size chicken you buy?

medium.

dd1+2 have the legs, dd3 has a little breast meat and a wing, dh, dd4 and myself have breastmeat.

there is usually a fair bit of breast meat left on the birdm, and once its cooled, i literally scrub hands and remove any meat left for a curry the following day.

We spend loads on food, I partly blame DH as practically every meal he cooks is beg helpings of meat. We really need to spend less.

One thing I do is buy organic chicken on the bone and make soup. You only need 2/3 bits to feed a family of 4 and is really cheap and tasty!

FAQ - your boys sound like mine - well DS1 anyway. he eats bigger portions than me, and on the rare occasions we go out for a bar meal he refuses a child portion. I am dreading the day they are full grown teenagers. I think back to my brothers, 1 is 6ft7, the other 6ft 4, and when they were both at home my mum got through 4 pints of milk a day and 2 loaves of bread a day.

Why is it that teenage boys eat so much and stay thin. if I ate what my brothers ate when we were teenagers I'd be huge.