How can I spend £50pw on food?

[jugodenaranja]

not a begging thread! I’ve had over £100 worth of expenses not budgeted for and now literally can’t spend more than £50 per week on food for the rest of November. Toilet rolls and toiletries can be bought separate. It’s just me and DD so should be possible but usually spend £65-70 + extra for toiletries, I buy dog food separate as well. I could put it on a credit card but not sure I want to get into debt.

Sorry should have said the above is for 2 adults and 1 teen DS.

Are you buying all branded or high quality items? We spend roughly £200 a month including top up shops for fresh fruit/veg & milk for a family of 4

There's some really good recipes on the Aldi website under "cardiff mum" that are pretty cheap. I've tried the lasagne soup one, sloppy Joe's tacos with dirty rice and the taco bean chilli. They were all really tasty, quite easy to make and very cheap. They serve 4 so you could either half the quantities or have the leftovers another day, depending on what it is.

Sainsburys also do cheap recipes but they seem to be meat free which is not what I'm after as partner and daughter's boyfriend prefer meat as part of their meal.

Ocado are offering 20% off first order which if you use a different email address will work. They're partnered with m&s now and I don't think they're bad value - especially if you stick to the offers, and then get your 20% off on top. They do a Sunday roast bundle of a whole chicken/pork joint/think the 3rd option may have been gammon, then 3 veg sides plus dessert for 15 quid (12 after discount). If you got the whole chicken you could have full roast, then maybe chicken & veg pie with the leftovers (with either mash or shortcrust pastry on top) and then possibly a chicken soup the day after, with some noodles in and an egg, bit of sweetcorn, and part baked rolls? So maybe 15 quid max for 3 meals? I appreciate that's a chunk of the budget, but you may even be able to squeeze into 4 meals if you made a veg soup/chicken and rice dish - depends on how much of the chicken you eat in any one meal really.

£50pw is completely doable. I spend less than that every week and DC and I aren't missing out. Plan meals, cook from scratch as much as possible, limit meat, use up what's in your cupboards and don't buy brands.

Can't you go to Aldi instead of ordering online from one of the more expensive stores and paying for delivery? That would save a lot for starters.

Keep the meat but make it stretch.
With the diced beef, add lentils or beans like black beans. Add lots of vegetables and stock. You could make a huge portion and freeze a load of it.

Buy a pack of chicken thighs instead season it, rub a bit of olive oil over it and roast. Or even a whole chicken.
Eat some for your meal then Shred and refrigerate for sandwiches and freeze some.

Keep buying normal meat but add lots of veg, chick peas, beans or lentils.

Keep protein levels high as it's more filling.

Yoghurts and frozen berries, porridge oats, eggs, bread, pasta, flour and rice to bulk meals.
Also oil.

Make your own flatbreads, pancakes and muffins as they'll be more filling and leave you satisfied on less.

Fruit buy whatever is on offer or stick to apples, bananas and satsumas.

For this month don’t do it online, save the £5 a week delivery charge. £5 will get you extra fruit, veg or meat for a couple more meals. Especially if you planned on a weekly delivery for the month. That’s £20 from your budget.

Food Warehouse and frozen stuff.

Meal plan each bag and item you buy.

Buy frozen Mince, frozen veg, frozen kebab meat.
Thats four meals at least. Quarter of each, fry meats and bung in slow cooker with some tinned tomatoes.
First day have as is with spaghetti.
Portion out 3 more for freezing but change them slightly.
In one, add a diced pepper and onions to have with rice.
In one, add kidney beans to have with a sliced tiger baguette.
In one add a spoon of cocoa if you've got it to have on toast with cheese.

Get down Tesco about 5pm and look at yellow stickers.

For treats, split a pack of 50p biscuits with a cup of milk for dipping, or tea, or coffee.

For lunches have buster smoothies:
In Tesco Frozen fruit fridge, big bag of 'wonky' mixed fruit.
1kg Bag of 90p of porridge.
Tub of powdered milk or coffee mate.
6 teaspoons of porridge, 1 tea spoon powdered milk, 80g of frozen fruit, blend it up with 250ml water.
The water turns the powdered milk into milk, the porridge adds bulk and the fruit purees and thickens into a pretty filling mini meal.
You can also add a teaspoon of SlimFast Meal Replacement strawberry shake powder if you can afford the tub.

Then for Breakfast you can have home made instant porridge. 60g porridge, 10g powdered milk or coffee mate, 10g sugar or teaspoon of jam. Stick in a little pot to take to work or use a ziplock bag and tip it in a mug and just add hot water and stir.

Cheap bread sucks so keep an eye out for yellow stickered loaves. Seperate them into sandwich bags, 4 slices in each, put in freezer. When you want a sandwich, pull out a bag of 4 slices and defrost them, make a sandwich each whilst the rest of the loaf stays frozen ready.

There's a couple ideas that may help, probably not.. lol

yep - leave a load in water overnight to soak - reduces cooking time. Bring big batch to the boil, they then need minimal light simmering - 8 minutes or so. Freeze the lot - placing in shallow trays. Then use as needed - already cooked.

M and s do three chicken halves for £8 cooked in the fridge section.

These are really good value as they work out cheaper than cooking a full chicken and you get loads of meat.

One half does both of us for meat in a meal and you could prob make it go further if you got a sheet of pre prepared pastry and made a little pie

no way unless everyone eats like sparrows .......

We spend approx £150 a week for 6 of us so it is totally doable.
meal plan, go through your cupboards and freezer to see what you already have. We rarely throw away food and bulk everything out with lentils, veg and make tasty (lots of herbs and spices) cooked from scratch meals

The difficulty for you is if you weren’t expecting this then you may not have the basics to do your meals. Can you ask a friend for herbs,spices, tinned tomatoes etc just to see you through?
I have been where you are and now make sure we have back ups to our back ups incase there is a sudden expense

I’ve just spent £16 on a free range chicken, £3.25 on 500g of mince and £8 on 4 servings of salmon - this was feom
Waitrose so could have been bought cheaper but for a £50 budget for two that would cover meat for all evening meals. The remaining £22 would easily cover vegetables, eggs, milk, cheese, porridge for a week for two for lunch and breakfast. I don’t mean to be dismissive but it doesn’t sound like it needs to be particularly tight to me.

Go onto the Feed your family for around £20 a week Facebook page. They have fully costed meal plans that will give you a very good starting base.

That's easily doable for two people.

Buy full fat milk as you need less of it in tea and can even water it down a tiny bit for cereal without noticing.
Buy a chicken - I know people laugh at the MN never ending chicken but it really could do loads of meals - roast it and then cut off the drums, thighs, wings, breasts separately and freeze what you're not using, then shred what's left on the carcass to use in a noodle soup or risotto.
Pasta, wholemeal bread, long grain rice, frozen peas and fresh carrots, and seasonal veg like cabbage (if you eat it) which is way cheaper than other veg right now. Use budget brands of tinned tomatoes, beans, tea and coffee etc for now. Use up freezer and store cupboard food.

Easy

Breakfasts of toast/cereal/crumpets and a satsuma, yoghurt

Lunch - sandwiches, pasta salads, soup

Dinner - pasta bake, jacket potatoes, stew, giant yorkshires, sausages, gravy, stuffing, big pan of mash.

Frozen food can be cheaper than fresh if you have a freezer.
Sign up for nectar points and tesco club card for offers.
Co-op I generally find very expensive but their yellow ticket deals are better than others. Same with offers at the tesco garage, although obviously harder to plan meals around that

Can you share a typical weekly shopping list to show where the money is going? It would be then easier to see what changes could be made.

I shop online with Sainsbury’s (just me and 2 cats) and average £50 pw. I would recommend signing up
for Nectar as a lot of prices are cheaper with Nectar. If you need to get delivered chose a save slot.

Round my way we have "top up shops" and community pantries. They don't require a referral and the top up shops are £3 for a full bag of food.

Also what have you got in the house? Anything in the freezer, or tins that can be made into curry etc?

Eggs are good, cheap protein and you can throw leftover veg, ham etc and make a meal.

Porridge is a cheap and filling breakfast too

That's a really got tip!

Meal plan for the next month.You can add oats to mince to bulk it out.Grated carrots in a bolognese can double the quantity.Have you seen Feed your family for about £20 a week on Facebook?You could get a few meals off there or some ideas.Its definitely doable,i see you have had some amazing advice on here 😊

Savvy.bites on insta is a brilliant place to start. She posts weekly meal plans from Aldi that are either 5 or 7 days of family dinners for under £25 from Aldi. She also posts the week’s shopping list to make life easier. She even has loads of tips for leftovers or what to do with any ingredients leftover. Definitely recommend checking out her account xx

https://instagram.com/savvy.bites?igshid=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg==

£50pw isn't going to be difficult for 1 adult and 1 child.
We aren't budgeting / needing to cut back but only usually spend £60 - £65 for 3 adults.

I think snacks are the expensive things.

scotch pancakes (put two in a pot or a bag if you go out).
crumpets
A packet of cheap biscuits-two in a plastic container if you go out.
A big bag of raisins - a handful is a lovely snack
Fake cheerios or dinosaurs as a snack
oranges pears apples much cheaper and more filing than other fruit.
Make a jelly and put into little pots

Also every other day we have beans on toast, spaghetti hoops and scrambled egg, jacket potatoes.

It’s tough but once you get into the groove it becomes habit. Good luck.