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.

Yes, they keep for a long time in the dark with the mud still on them. Can't remember exactly when I bought my current sack but it was weeks before Christmas, just getting to the bottom of the bag now and they're still fine.

has anyone thought of finding a farmer who slaughters for a set group and buy meat directly?

a mate of mine does thios and gets half a lamb for £50 i think.

i am hoping to do the same.

I got half a sheep that way, friend of a friend who has a small holding. Was £90 but sheep obv bigger than a lamb and mutton more expensive than lamb too. I'm hoping to get half a pig from another smallholding.

I spend about 300 a month on food and /dog/rabbit/rat stuff shopping (2 adults 1 3 year old. I menu plan. The cupboards are always bare on shopping day. I also shop online as I find I am less tempted by offers when I do it this way (I am a sucker for advertising). We don't smoke, do include a pack of those little bottles of french lager a week, and our DS is just in drynites now. I try and buy bath stuff on offer and often have stuff in back up. My Mum is a cleaning obsessive and often brings me bottles of various cleaning products when she visits and takes me to Wilkos and buys bulk laundry tabs etc - she does only come twice a year but it still helps a lot.

I realise some of this is not helpful to you - unless you have a generous cleaning obsessive in the family! It has been a useful exercise for me though so thanks for posting this thread!

That was one 3 year old not one 13 year old - I haven't got a 13 year old in drynites - Honest!

That eatseasonably calendar is brilliant, bronze - thanks for that.

I can now check our fruit and veg against it and ask Am I Being Unseasonable?

I read it as a 3 year old .

My MIL buys me fairy detergent and when I ran out I couldn't think what to buy as it had been so long since I'd had too.

See on shopping day my cupboard is still full.

I got this book for Christmas and though I didn't grow much this year it does help with buying stuff thats in season so cheaper and storing it for longer

UQD.

I missed that UQD

Have not really read through this thread much (baby napping so want to get things done while I can!) so apols if anybody has suggested this already but my top tip - yellow labels!

Go to your local supermarket & ask when they reduce their produce - fresh meat, fruit & veg & bread. Then shop at these times! My local Tesco normally reduces things by 75% at around 8pm, so I arrive after 7.15pm & check the shelves every 10 mins or so in case they start early! The other day I got there at about 7.20pm & they were reducing meat by 90% - tonight DH & I are feasting on a pheasant wrapped in bacon that cost 50p! I also got a fish pie mix for 30p, a chicken & gravy pie for 30p, 3 steaks for 45p etc. Spent £13 in total (including some full-price wipes & cereal etc) & got meat/fish for 15 meals!

HTH

I put DS3 (2 3/4 - but getting scarily close to growing out of his 3-4yr clothes ) in pull-ups at night rather than dry-nites type things still more expensie than "nappies" - but cheaper than dry-nites.

Shineon - I'm sure we have - especially in threads related to my H and the incident last September

I don't have a farm shop - but I bought a 10kg sack of "selected seconds" potatoes last week.........even though I make wedges and roasties like they're going out of fashion they should still last me another 2 or 3 weeks - was only £2.49

I tried DS2 in pull ups when I couldn't get the pyjama pants and they leaked.

I also don't want to go shopping in the evening. Too knackered to be going out then. I just want my dinner and a comfy seat!

Huggies/PAmpers are shite and ALWAYS leak - I use Morrison own (admittedly they only go up to a size 5 - but even DS3 squeezes into them )

at £800+

I spend around £150 a month on me and two dc's plus two cats. I just bulk cook things then freeze leftovers. Morrisons do big sacks of potatoes for £3 which last ages!!!

I have 2 adults, 3 kids, 7 cats, 2 rabbits and fish and we spend no more than £450 a month. We buy good quality meat mostly free range or organic for cheaper cuts like mince all from Sainsburys. We do buy own brand stuff (and some basics bits but not much). We get all our pet food in bulk from an online pet supermarket and that keeps costs down, we also only ever do one shop a week because we found if we went out to do a top up we always spent more than we planned to. We found food shopping online actually saves us money as we don't get loads of impulse buys and can stick to a strict budget, and you don't have to drag screaming kids round

It wasn't £800 for a month, Knickers. It was for 5 weeks and it isn't every month. just this last few weeks.

I so have a new plan for how we will eat and shop. Fed up of dh earning decent money but never having anything left. All my allowance seems to go on food.

Amazing what another child and 2 guinea pigs can do to your food shopping bill!

family of 5, i would say we spend around £600 then there are a couple of macci d's and the odd curry thrown in.

potatoes. potatoes. potatoes.

and carrots.

and onions.

rice/pasta

bulk out every meal with veg and starch, and keep meat/fish to a minimum.

and be careful about puddings. 80p sponges aren't any worse for you than £3 ones (though £3 ones are possibly more delicious, if you hae them all the time, you notice less...)

ultimately if you think before buying anything 'am i just spending money on stuff i don't need to eat?' it all gets cheaper.

I don't buy puddings other than yogurts but I think your last line is interesting and will help, thanks.

I used to spend £100-£120 a week. Much more acceptable but that didn't include the £30 a week school lunch whereas my £800 for 5 weeks does.

There are 2 adults an 2 hungry children here and we spend around £240 a month on food.I buy a sack of spuds from the farm shop,which will last 2-3 months,buy bread when it is reduced and put the excess in the freezer.Meat is always English and good quality.I buy big sacks of rice from either the supermarket or ethnic supermarket,and the same goes for pasta and olive oil.I never buy herbs and spices in a jar,they are so much cheaper in a packet.We spend less from May to October as I grow all our herbs,veg and a lot of our fruit,we have chickens so don't buy eggs,but if you do need to buy them,people selling them from their gate usually charge a lot less than the shops.

I don't meal plan,as I don't like the idea of having to eat a certain meal because it is a certain day.I also only go shopping once a fortnight and as there are no shops nearby,I'm not tempted to pop in and buy stuff on the way home ect,which probably saves a hell of a lot.

We've recently moved to a 3rd floor flat without a lift so I've had my first taste of online shopping - I used to walk to the supermarket every day. We're saving a fortune!

Also wanted to recommend the Sainsburys Little Ones meal planner (although, annoyingly, they don't update it every week, so we've just pretended that I'm pregnant/breastfeeding for the last couple of weeks). There's even some coherence in the recipes so, for instance, Tuesday's lunch recipe lists a whole chicken in the ingredients (of which you use some) and then Wednesday's dinner uses the remainder.

There's good balance of meat/fish/vegetarian and everything we've tried seems to feel healthy without being 'boring' (lentil bake, anyone?). Most recipes (except the baby purees) are sized for 2 adults and 2 toddlers so they may need a bit of tweaking.

OK, sounding like an advert now, but seriously, it's really good!