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.

Your Dh is wrong about the cost of packed lunches, tbh, but if the convenience is worth it then that's your prerogative.

Tinned mackerel in tomato sauce is cheap, very nutritious and makes a very easy childrens tea served up with noodles and some chopped veg. LOADS of omega 3!

It all depends on what you buy and how much you put in. I am sure you could do a packed lunch for a quid if you wanted too. My MIL must be wrong too.

Definitely cut down on meat - meat is very expensive.

Try to develop a repertoire of cheaper dishes, such as pasta with different vegetable based sauces - fusilli with courgettes and ricotta, orecchiette with broccoli and anchovies etc. And make soups - you need good stock, so if you have roast chicken once a week, boil up the carcass systematically and then make a soup from lentils or spelt with some celery/carrot/onion/garlic and the stock.

when you say a "normal" portion of mince domestic bulked out with loads of veg lasts 2 meals - how much do you mean 400g/500g?

Bulk out casseroles, mince based dishes etc with lentils, pulses etc. It makes it go further and has the bonus being filling and a very nutritious source of protein.

Fab if you're going to try growing vegetables, can I suggest trying things like courgettes, pumpkins, tomatoes, outdoor cucumbers and sweetcorn, rather than carrots and the like? The are eally easy to grow, so very little gardening knowledge needed, and, apart from the tomatoes, can withstand all kinds of disease and ill-treatment!

And here's a tip - find your local freecycle site, and post asking for leftover seeds and/or unused seedlings - we always give away oour "spares" rather than see them go to waste (many seeds don't store well from one year to the next. I'm in Surrey near Cobham, so if you're anywhere near me, you are more than welcome to my spares!

Toccata - yes 400g though have done it with 250g as well.

The dcs like the tinned mackerel as well - cant get them to eat the tomato sauce version though.

On the occasion we do have other fish - say tinned salmon then I usually make fishcakes - one tin will do all 4 of us with enough potato...

I grwo cucumbers, tomatoes and lots of raspberries - they are all really easy and cost effective - ie quite expensive in the shops, especially the raspberries. We also go on a mega blackberry mission come the right time of year and really fill the freezer up.

how on earth do you do it with 250g? I can add 2 tins of beans, mushrooms, peppers, courgettes, leeks, onions, anything and everything to 400g and the whole lot is still gone in one sitting

Change suermarket?

Dunno where you shop but if its Waitrose, stop! Seriously, I changed from Tesco to Morrisons and have noticed bills a lot cheaper.

hmm I dont know - my bolognaise/rice/wrap/shepherds pie sauce goes mince, one onion, one courgette, a tin of tomatoes, mushrooms, herbs, garlic etc.

Maybe its because I make it all up then spilt it in half - one half goes into the fridge and the other half goes over the penne - well the penne goes into it iyswim. Its more than enough with cheese. Maybe you just like lots of sauce?

now you see for 400g mince I use

2 tins tomatoes
2 tins bean
2 onions
9 or 10 (ish - don't really count lol) mushrooms

as the regular thing - if I've got other bits in the fridge that need using up I'll shove them in too.

Then use 500g of wholemeal pasta or if I'm doing it with rice 2 mug fulls of brown rice.

And then lots and lots of cheese on grated on top.

I suppose I could only use half the sauce.......but then they want extras afterwards so end up spending just as much (if not more ) on top up bits

So thats 5 adults? well thats fair enough if you've got that many mouths to feed. I'm dreading my 2 getting older as well...

no - it's 2 adults, and then 3 DS's, 9,6 and 2 3/4yrs...........

Thats a lot of pasta though isnt it? I measure 100g for dh, 75g for me and ds and then about 50g for dd. Not that I actually 'measure' it.

yes it is a lot of pasta - I try and follow the "fill them up on carbs" thing - but it doesn't really work - I buy the 500g packs and just chuck the whole lot in to cook

DS3 (touch wood) seems to have what I would class as a "normal" appetite, I have a small appetite..........it's DS1,2 and H that eat most of it.

Fab: you would do well to post on here your next few receipts (if you dare). Let others pick over them and comment on how you could reduce.

Everytime I work out the cost of packed lunches it's well less than £1 each, btw.

I will do some recipes a bit later as I haven't got enough time now as school run time.

Can you grow veg in pots as i don't want to dig out the garden atm?

Waitrose is no more expensive when I food plan but that is only tea for us all and I forget breakfast and lunches some time.

I will give Morrison's another go next time I go.

I have written down all the food in the house and will feed us all from that for this week.

catch you later,

Meal plan - and write a shopping list based on what you are going to eat.

Eat less meat, use pulses instead, or half and half - give goodness and bulk but cheaper

Look up that economy gastronomy website (it was a programme that ran a few months ago on BBC)- they have great ideas for a big item at teh sunday and about 4 or 5 meals during the week from the leftovers.

Erm, buy reduced stuff - meat, bread, fruit - freeze where you can so that you can plan the bargain item into your meal plan...

Oh, and shop in a smaller shops with less choice, less impulse!! LIDL is really cheapo, and Aldi. And farmfoods - you don't need to buy readymeals - they sell alot fo good things if you are willing to look. I like Morrisons and Asda. Tesco are sooooo expensive for the things I buy. Somerfield I find do good reductions, much better than any of the others. Our nearest Asda do good reductions on bread.

I will give Lidl a try next time I go into town. Is is somewhere you could do a full shop?

I have 10 weeks of recipes but need to do some more.

I have cheated for today and grabbed a ready made pizza for the kids. I was going to make one but spent all morning at the hospital and still feel grotty so didn't feel up to anything. DH has come home and is sorting everything out.

I am sure that this amount of food shopping is due to my food issues.

your 2nd from last post has just reminded me of something else I try and do (may already have been mentioned in the thread) - when I do my weekly shop buy some "cheat" meals - things like pizza, or other "shove in the oven" stuff (junk ) so that on day when you're really busy/feeling like shit/late home you've always got something in the freezer that you can do as a super quick and easy meal without having to go out and buy extra.

Just to add my tuppence worth....

Lidl is your friend - W5 loo cleaner, bathroom cleaner, washing up liquid - all good value. No worse than branded goods.

The meat is good too. I can't afford organic, and the mince & diced casserole meat is just as good quality/value as other places. Loo rolls - £2.99 for 6.

Most of the fruit and veg is good quality/value too. They do a gammon joint (1kg) for £4.00 (and a few pence). Sainsbury's are doing a 1.4kg joint for £7.60 (and a few pence).

Lidl do pork belly which is good in a slow cooker. I've a Russell Hobbs one which does meals for me and 2 LO's with plenty left over. So I end up preparing meals on Saturday & Sunday, alternating the leftovers from Monday through Thursday.....

Oh, and I usually manage to spend around £60ish per week

My DH swears by the 'downshift challenge'.

Supermarkets stock several different brand levels of each product. Try dropping one level from your current one, if you like the new version stick with it.

I'm attaching a link to the website where DH got the idea.

here

I have done the drop down a level on lots of things and it is a good idea.

I was brought up in care so never had anyone teach me about shopping so I have no clue which is a decent peace of meat and which is rubbish that you wouldn't want your kids to eat.