How on Earth do you cut down your food bill without buying low quality stuff and when you have 3 hungry kids, a husband and several animals?

[FabIsGoingToBeFabIn2010]

DH just looked through my spending and it is about £800+ a month on food.

mrsmiggins- I don't think I could feed all 5 of us for £180 a month, not even buying value all the way - they simply eat too much

Although actually I suppose I can feed them for not much more than that - it's the cleaning, toiletries, nappies etc that fill up the rest of the cost LOL

I do think it is all relative though. Your nice food might be someone elses basic or treat stuff. Some people might buy all basic or own brand range.

We are eating out of the cupboard and freezer this week, pay day is Friday and then I will only buy stuff to make meals from what is in the cupboard as some of it has been there a while.

Included in the food amount is also the children's school meals which are £6 a day.

One of the things to stop doing is going out to pick up odd bits - you will be spending a disproportionate amount by doing this.

Martin Lews has a great table on moneysaving expert.com about dropping down a level - e.g. if you're buying Tesco Finest, drop down to standard Tesco. On average, regardless of which supermarket you shop at, you will save around 30% by doing this.

I'll see if I can find the link.

And be aware that economy own label products are often better quality than those supposedly 'higher'. They tend to use simple, straightforward - so cheaper - ingredients. I have occasionally bought myself one of their Basics ready meals for my lunch - intrigued by the fact that they were only 75p! Reading the ingredients is a real revelation. I had assumed that they would be full of horrible things, but not at all.

Some of their prices are unbelievably low. As an example, a box of 30 Sainsbury's Basics dishwasher tablets costs £1.78. They are just as good as the expensive Fairy ones I used to buy. I now buy dishwasher salt and rinse aid separately, but it's still way cheaper. (A friend of mine works for one of the soap manufacturers, and she told me it's the dishwasher that does most of the work anyway!)

Own brand (not value, but own brand stuff) is fine. We actually eat lots of value things too (agree with what someone said about checking labels though!) but I really don't get why branded things are supposed to be so much better. It's a matter of trial and error I think - Try own branded stuff, and if asome products taste horrible then go back to your normal brand, but if no one in the family notices then why pay more?

Do you properly read the shelf tickets when shopping? I always look at the price per 100g or price per kilo, NOT the actual price of the item. That makes a huge difference when you are comparing products - what seems the cheapest often isn't.

Also, do you buy pet food / washing powder etc in bulk when it's on offer?

The Downshift Challenge

I meal plan, and aim to make at least one vegetarian meal per week. I don't buy anything unless it's on my list, and I don't just stock up when things are running low. I only stock up if it's something I'm going to be using that week.

I'm shopping/cooking for 2 adults and 2 teenage DC (so really for 4 adults), and two cats. My shopping bill yesterday at Sainsbury was £150. As well as all my food for the week it included:

8 champagne glasses (Different by Design, in the sale)
King Sized duvet cover and pillowcases (also in the sale)
Double Fitted Sheet
Scientific Calculator for DS2
Ordinary Calculator for me
Pair of slippers, in the sale, for me

As well as the food, I also bought 6 bottles of (decent) wine.

We eat loads too, my kids are 9 and 12. I tend to shop a lot in Lidl,fruit and veg are great there.
We eat loads of pasta, rice and potatoes, quite a bit of chicken and a massive amount of fruit and veg. I use olive oil every day, but hardly any dairy. I buy a lot of frozen fish, often the less common varieties are a lot cheaper than the well known types.
I bulk cook and freeze a lot, so if I see something on special offer I will buy it and cook 12 portions, freezing individually.
My children's friends always comment on the good variety of meals we eat despite it not costimg the earth.

Why don't you think of meal planning as writing a list of meals for the week, shiney? You don't have to be so regimented that if you've written it down for Wednesday that you have to have it on Wednesday. You could go mad and have it on Thursday ...

at buying pre-cut fruit. Wanker!

I bought a swede yesterday. A whole one was 49p per pound (or kilo - I forget!). Buying one that was already cut in half was 88p per pound/kilo! I think I can probably manage to cut my own swede in half.

Watching this with intrest.

A good thing I learned from MN was to pad out mince with lentils. (Dried, not tinned. Much cheaper.) Make shed-loads of food and freeze for days you can't be arsed to cook.

Tesco basics dishwasher tabs are better than "regular" I've found.
On the other hand, Basics tinned tomatoes have gone up so much I just buy Nappolina now.

I shop online so I can keep track of my spending, and don't get tempted by lamps and cushions.

Can you get the pet food in bulk from Scats?

agree with BIWI about meal planning.

I always have a "week plan"............and quite often I'll do a "throw together meal" in the middle of the week so something on the plan gets shifted to the next week.

MrsMiggings - my 2 older DS's (6 and 9) with for example - after snacking on crap all afternoon eat 4 (thick) sausages, with beans, egg, mash (or more usually wedges), mushroom and tomato.......and follow up with desert.

A large (1.6kg) chicken will leave enough for a few sandwiches the following day, but not enough for another meal

I'm hoping DS3 keeps his more "normal" appetite and takes after me

Sainsbury Basics peeled tomatoes are 31p. That's much cheaper than Napolina, surely?

because- though only worth it if you will use the whole swede of course

I do what you say about weekly meal planning, mainly cos dh never wants what I'm planning otherwise

I am so ott that not only do I have a menu plan and what ingredients I need written on the same page, but it is laminated so I can reuse it. I have about 10 of these so can just pick a week and go shopping.

Waitrose only does brands and it's own brand, not cheapie basics.

I have tried reading labels but don't understand what half the stuff is so get disheartened.

lol Shineon - we've clashed on many a threads - but you do make me .

Morrisons chopped (I'm too lazy to buy the unchopped ones and chop myself) tinned tomatoes are certainly cheaper than Nappowhatsit.

Mind you I've got LOADS of Branston beans in the cupboard at the moment..........they were selling pack of 4 for £1.....Morrison value beans are 28p a tin - bargain

Fab - if you can't understand what half the stuff is on the label, PUT IT BACK ON THE SHELF. Seriously, i'm a paranoid label reader - some of the shit they put in our food is horrendous, and then they have the cheek to charge us more for it. Stick to carrots. Well, not just carrots, but you get me.

We have 2 children, a man, a dog and 2 cats, shop with Ocado and our shopping somes to about £320 a month.

Meal plan
reduce meats
reduce nice snacks - crisps, posh biscuits.

Ours is doable, I could cut it down even more but we like fairtrade tea and free range chicken.

If we shopped at asda and bought all value ranges I reckon I could get it down to about £240 a month maybe.

1. Don't just pop into the local spar to pick up a 'few things' - it is REALLY expensive and all adds up.
2. Try shopping one week in a big supermarket such as Asda, and the next week in Lidl just to top up on veg, milk, cereal etc. (I spend about £120 in Asda, and then £50 the following week in Lidl/Aldi)
3. Keep an eye on wastage (we have a food compost bin in the kitchen and even though I thought we weren't wasting much, it seems that we are!).
4. Try shops like Poundland or other local bargain shops for cleaning products, offers etc. I recently found 4 packs of those baby fruit yoghurt things (frutapura???) at our local bargain shop (in date) for 39p! And also bought Huggies pull-ups/night nappies for £3 (£5 normally).
5. Make snacks at home where possible (e.g. breadsticks and cheese spread rather than dairylea dunkers!).
6. Use less meat - a veg stir fry tastes just as good as a meat one, or if you are a real meat-freak, adding a few rashers of bacon makes a big difference.
7. Buy frozen - packs of frozen fish are quite cheap compared to fresh, and make a fish pie.
8. Cook in bulk and freeze.

But don't skimp on chocolate! My DH bought me a bar of supermarket brand chocolate the other day . Some things are too important to be stingy about!

Awasailing I love stuff like that - for a while Asda did large bags of Iams cat food for less per 100g than their own brand We bought tons!!

Also we cut out alcohol because that's a killer for the budget.

I haven't done my full weekly shop in Asda for months and would rather sell a child than do it again. I hate it and the food is so much nicer in waitrose.

Menu planning
bulking out with pulses
mysupermarket.com
local market

Ironically I saved money when I started to use Ocado membership - you pay £8.99 a month and have as many deliveries as you like (over £40). With a bit of menu planning, I could get two deliveries a week for about £120 in total (6 of us). I wasn't doing the top-up shops which saved me a fortune. I'd go to Sainsburys for a loaf of bread and come out with £30 of BOGOF goods.

On top of this are the milk deliveries. But on the whole, I'm spending less and throwing away next to nothing.

I also keep an eye out for special offers on things I need like washing powder or dishwasher tables. Lidl are good for that. M&S have a BOGOF on frozen haddock this week in our local store.

I bake a lot too..

fab, go shopping ONLY ONCE A WEEK.
Buy milk, butter, and bread for the whole week and FREEZE IT.

Make a massive thing of veg soup and freeze half of it. Other fresh veggies usually keep nearly a week.

The night before you go shopping again is "leftovers night". Sad but the family will survive!

If you run out of something during the week do not go shopping for it unless it's a matter of life or death - make do with what you've already got and add the thing you've run out of to your list.

Take your list and stick to it.

Cut down on one treat a week.

Better still, shop online (ONCE a week!) where you can take things out of your "basket" if you've gone over-budget.