Please help me reduce food bills

[TheGander]

We are a family of foodies. There’s 2 DS: 18 and 22, both live at home , plus DH and me. Apart from DH who can only cook about 3 dishes, the boys and me love cooking. But it’s gotten out of hand, I estimate I can spend £40 per day so that’s £1200 pm, half my salary. I’m the main earner. The boys are obsessed with chicken, each meal has to have a protein.DH doesn’t eat meat. We shop mostly at Sainsbury’s, also Waitrose about once a week and Lidl occasionally. Trying to be more mindful, planning meals, agreeing on some value meals either the boys. Any other ideas? TIA.

Are you buying loads of chicken breasts? Thighs are cheaper and tastier in curry etc. The mythical MN chicken does have basis in truth. Four of us here and I buy a large one from M&S about £8.00. It does us a roast dinner, a curry and a risotto or a soup.

Thanks @Womblingmerrily . That used to be my attitude, I’ve had years of v high stress with a dad with dementia and a brother with lifelong mental illness ( no mum, she died 30 yrs ago) and food and cooking have been my refuge. But lately the relentless price rises and boys’ limitless appetites have made me reconsider. I’m no longer comfortable with how much is being spent.

Lentils, lentils and more lentils.

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/economy-gastronomy-book-allegra-mcevedy-9780718155728?sku=GOR001848063&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17428061960&gbraid=0AAAAADZzAIAYBRZA0uUSOO5LA8-yEDtyl&gclid=CjwKCAjwz5nGBhBBEiwA-W6XRJISuBW4BdNCkAsO_CJFUpJ0Iwrcd6qCX-KQHBkr8_7953aS1eiCnBoCnhIQAvD_BwE I’ve found this book quite useful for inspiration.

Also use your freezer and batch cook and get the boys to. You could make a huge pot of ragu with lentils and freeze it in portions, chilli is so easy to batch cook and you can put tonnes of lentils and beans in it. Same with curry, you can make it in bulk at the weekend and have it for weeks from the freezer.

we often have a roast on a Sunday with lots of seasonal veg and then make stock with the bones and risotto with leftover meat on Monday (or curry / wraps / flatbreads).

@Whatwouldnanado i usually buy thighs, but has to be at least free range or DS won’t touch it. Boys will eat any old chicken so they will top themselves up, often after we’ve all eaten, with chicken DS1 gas bought with money he earns.

@FurForksSake I will seek that book out. I love pulses, unfortunately DSs not so much, but DS2 will happily eat falafel .

Is £40/day providing breakfast, lunch, dinner and toiletries for 4 people?

It sounds as if you can sort of afford it, but would prefer not to.

During lockdown Waitrose muddled up a Click and Collect order with a stranger so I ended up with half of their order. A few thoughts:
Tea and Coffee: organise a taste test (you DH can set it up as he seems less fussy)
Ditto dairy, cereals, eggs, pasta, baked beans…..

Challenge DS’s to feed 4 on £50 for 5 days (or something similar).

Stop buying ready meals. For curries try Spice Taylor or Holy Cow (or splurge on a jar of Gymkhana) and bulk up with veg and make some dhal sides from scratch.

Get the kidults batch cooking soffrito, base sauces and chilli/spag bol and freeze smaller portions (or make them lob in some extra beans/lentils).

I’m sure the suggestion to have some vegetarian meals have been mentioned, veggie chilli is super easy and can be protein packed.

You could also think about eggs, omelettes and homemade chips and a salad is easy. You can make sheet pan omelettes in the oven for the four of you, left over chicken, peppers and cheese is tasty but you can make whatever you like. You can also make them in the air fryer!

thinking of the air fryer and eggs, you can “boil” eggs in the air fryer, just google the instructions. That’s an easy source of protein to keep in the fridge for several days. You could also make kedgeree and have that for dinner.

other suggestion is to think Asian, rice bowls are great as you can make a variety, pho is also delicious. Crispy tofu is amazing and easy to make. Get the kids investigating and perfecting!

This year I've switched from chicken breasts to chicken thighs for most of my chicken dishes and tweaked the recipes a bit to make the most of them (kebabs/pies etc). Using thighs gives more flavour! I've tried cooked more 'two course' meals at the weekend - so french onion soup followed by frittata, which we didn't used to do before. That way no-one feels they are missing out. We have also spread our wings to include a bit more middle eastern cooking and served it mezze style. Lots of grains in ME cooking, so protein and fibre at a lower cost.

If they are such good cooks/ foodies I think it's time to teach them about food groups, budgeting and new recipes.

Do your main shop online. Sainsbury's or Tesco which will both be cheaper than Waitrose.
I buy free range chicken from Lidl or Aldi .and it's cheaper.
If you don't want vegetarian then do a mix, add lentils to beef for Ragu. If not lentils then diced sweet potato or carrot.
Agree with the taste test. There are some things I will not compromise on but I have found coffees, teas, cheeses, butter etc that I like at Lidl.

@DancefloorAcrobatics you’re gonna laugh. I’m a state registered dietitian. Healthy eating is an ongoing conversation with them. DS1 is quite influenced by “ influencers “ and their gospel of high protein. He works out. DS2 knows in theory but just lines the umami of chicken and meat.

If you have space in the freezer have a look at Uber eats. They've got a current deal on some accounts where spend £15 get £25 off in most supermarkets that can be used more than once. I've managed to order 3kg of 5% mince steak for less than £10. Had I thought about it better, I should have ordered chicken breast instead of going full mince steak!

😅 that's probably why they want to do their own thing...
Personally I would give them a budget and let them work it out for themselves.

At least, they are living at home, so mistakes will not end in empty plates for 3-4 days a week!

I find this sort of thing infuriating. You earn most of the money, they make most of the demands and yet its you that's doing all the mental gymnastics trying to cater for their extremely expensive dietary preferences.

I think I would do a food shop based on what the family can afford (some chicken but lots of vegetable protein and cheaper veg) and let them work out how to fund the mountain of chicken they want on top.

If they don't do their share of cooking and budget balancing I'd just make myself an omelette and salad and leave them to it.

We had two adult children at home for over Uni break. They are 25 and 21.

Plus dh and I our Lidl app shows we spent £397pcm ( figure averaged over 3months )
we are vegetarian though

I think you need to check our Trolley online to compare prices and find your local Aldi or Lidl for starters.

I kind of agree @Bjorkdidit and I want to row back on the high expenditure. But at the end of the day I’m their parent. I think some menu planning, pre agreeing more budget meals, shopping more at Lidl and limiting the Waitrose shopping will help.

Definitely meal plan, also try setting a £10 meal challenge for each if you on a different day if the week

Asian foods are very inexpensive.

Brown/ green Lentils, rice, onions and cumin make a classic dish for 50p a head
delicious

Shop in Aldi. Use less meat, use cheaper cuts - thighs instead of chicken breast, pork, make steak into strog or fajitas. Bulk out with carbs and veg.
Cook from scratch.

Thanks, is there any way you can input your shopping list and it shows you what it would cost in different stores? Have looked at https://www.trolley.co.uk/explore/ but can’t figure out how to work it.

Scrap that I’ve figured it out!

I don’t think £10 per person a day is a lot to spend on food nowadays unfortunately with prices crazy as they are. Would it be cheaper to go to a butcher and buy chickens in bulk and freeze them?

Well it's up to you.
I would love to buy a load of amazing food but I also want to go on holiday and over pay on my mortgage so I can retire earlier.

You can eat amazingly all the time and retire older and do less fun stuff , or you can compromise and eat amazingly half as often and have more money for other things.
Neither is wrong.

Are the boys paying you keep? If not then they need to eat vege food more often.

My dh is the manic trolley site fan.
He uses it to check prices of stuff across all our local stores.

Lidl isn’t on it though. Aldi is.

You can’t put the whole shopping list on but if you put in a few of your regular buys you’ll see which shops are cheapest.
id start by looking at your most pricey items ie washing powder meat etc.

You'll soon see how much you could save by switching shops, it might spur you on