Hi
For evening meals, I always buy for 4-5 fresh homecooked meals:-
Beef Mince
Sausages
Bacon
Pork or Roast Chicken
Then, I do 2 'easy meals':-
Fish fingers/Chicken gougons and oven chips and veges
Pizza (with added veges/bacon/mozzarella cheese) and salad
With the fresh ingredients I do:-
We do spag bol... one small pack of mince (250g in our case), then add either a can of beans (with or without the juice) or loads of veges... carrots, peas, sweetcorn, courgette...
Cottage pie - again, a small pack of meat and pad it out with baked beans and carrots and courgette.. make the sauce with oxo cubes and water and a bit of bisto best (chicken normally - left from the roast chicken day) to thicken it.. then mash pots - but not with butter, with fromage frais..then bung in the oven, and serve with peas/brocolli
Sausages from the butcher are cheaper (for some reason!) - we get chipolatas, and kids have 2 each, and we have 3 or 4 each... and I do loads of mash and veges and onion gravy.
Pasta bake (tin toms with either fromage frais (to make it creamy) or cream cheese) and add bacon chopped up (again, from the butchers = i bought a huge heavy pack of 'cut's of bacon, and it was only £1.29 and surprisingly there's barely any white fat in it, and it's lasted us 4 weeks now!!!!!)
Sticky vege rice Stirfry loads of veges - onion, brocolli, with olive oil and garlic... then, cook the rice - and just stir the cooked rice into the wok with the veges... then sprinkle soya sauce on and maybe sesame seeds.
-Jacket pots_ - this is my kids favourite.. as I put a choice of fillings in bowls on the table, and they just sprinkle away!
Pork steaks and apple - We buy the frozen pork steaks from asda.com... but will try the butchers next week. I get basic apples and peel and core and then slice and cover the bottom of a baking tray.. then, place pork chops (or sausages) over and pour a bit of water/wine/cider/apple juice over - anything you've got hanging over... then cook.. and serve with roast pots and veges... and take the pork out, then put the baking tray on the hob and heat, and mash! and add some water to make a gravy, and if you want - add fromage frais to make it creamy.
Chicken roast - Get the largest chicken as possible, or two medium roast chickens. Have your roast and use left overs for next day or two.
Chicken curry Use leftover chicken, and make a curry with a curry paste and fromage frais and milk... I always add potatoes to mine and spinach. Serve with rice and toasted pitta breads! (We like spinach as a salad with the pizza - with grated carrot etc)
I could keep going - but it's always another way to use the 4 main fresh ingredients.
Things like bread.. I will get it and bung it in the freezer and make sure we use all of it, including the 'cob' ends for toast. The kids LOVE cream crackers for breakfast or lunch instead of bread sometimes, so we don't eat loads of bread to be honest. We always buy homous and celery and carrots - they love that for lunch too with a few crackers.
I like 'clover' - but only use it for sandwiches/toast etc.. not for cooking.. (too expensive)
I have stopped buying expensive kids yogurts etc. I now only buy large pots of own branded fromage frais.. and then I mix it with fruit. (If i have time... i will blitz up puried apple, as my kids love it)
I make fairy cakes/muffins every other week and batch freeze them, so we mostly have those for snacks and rich tea biscuits.
I'll get what's on offer crisp wise, but we don't have them everyday.
Milk - loads!
Squash - loads!
Washing powder and loo roll - loads!
I use Asda.com weekly, as it works for me with 3 small kids. I can get it down to £80 most weeks.