Feeding your family for under £60 a week

Hunnibee88

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Can this be done? or possibly even less? Im currently living in birmingham at the moment and im living with my partners parents. We plan on moving bak to my home town as soon as we have saved up enough to rent a property.. Im trying to save every last penny i have but im noticing im spending about £100 a week on food shopping and a majority of what i buy goes to waste just because it hasnt been eating.so just wondeeing if anyone has any tips on how i could cut my food shopping bill almost in half? i bulk buy on things like toilet roll, washing powder etc so it really is just a food shop. Thanks in advance ladies xxz
 
Hey :)
We're also on a budget and I find planning every meal helps. Then you know exactly what to buy and don't get loads of rubbish that ends up binned xx
 
Yes planning helps here aswell as we are also on a mad saving mission. I plan in advance and then write my shopping list. Lots of good meals you can have for not a lot if you think about it. Also we separate fresh meat and freeze in portion sizes so a) don't use too much and b) doesn't get thrown away as been open unused for few days. x
 
I give myself a £200 per month budget for food but that's just for 2 of us. I also meal plan for every week and I deffo think that that helps to save me some cash, I'd probs spend double what I do if I didn't! And like Steffy I split packs of chicken breasts etc and freeze them individually so I can defrost exactly what I need and not a whole packet.

With my meal plans I try and link things together... for example, if we have fajhitas one night, I'll maybe do pesto pasta with peppers and red onion another night so that I can buy a pack of peppers (cheaper than buying individually) and actually use them all up. I find buying packs of carrots, parsnips etc is cheaper than buying individually, guess it depends where you shop though! So if we have a roast one night, I'll try do a casserole and make up a pot of soup in the same week so using up all the extra veg.

Also, if you know anyone with a cash and carry card then it's great to stock up on certain items!
 
Thanks ladies, iv managed to pull together a shopping list for under £50 for my family of four for the week. I actually feel like asking my partners mother to go to asda to get it as i know when i get in there i may have trouble sticking to the list lol
Mangaged to do some realy good meals aswel such as homemade chunky veg soup and crusty bread, pasta bake and salad, homemade toad in hole mash and veg, spag bowl and garlic bread etc, very chuffed as i thought i would be eating a few ready meals in the week just to be able to stick to my budget but no everything is fresh :)
 
Get to aldi! Bet I could feed a family of 4 using fresh veg/fruit for 60 a week

Don't send your OH mum- she isn't going to be there to do it for you- you need self control and you need to have discipline

We spend about 50 a week but we have cats and that includes all
Cleaning products and household items like toilet roll etc :)
 
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Do u have a farmers market near u? We get all of our meat, fruit and veg from the local farmers market and we save a fortune! We then nip to tesco express for things like kitchen/toilet rolls etc. We spend about £30 a week at the market and everything is better quality than u get at the supermarket x
 
Wow that's great to know jayjay! For some reason I thought it would cost more to shop at a farmers market! I'd much rather go there than asda! :)
 
You may struggle to find a farmers market in Chelmsley wood in brum unfortunately Hun :/
 
We shop in Iceland and for 3 of us including loo roll etc it's always between £40-60. Though we changed this week and went to asda and got extra bits we didn't actually need and it still cost no more than £60! X
 
Online shopping is great if you normally go by bus, its cheaper than traveling and it stops you picking up extras, there are tones of cheap meals, Jacket potatos cheese and beans, eggs chips and beans, sausage and mash, pasta bake, pasta with a sauce and cheese. And bulk with veg xx
 
Macaroni cheese with broccoli or bacon is super cheap too, also you can buy casserole fresh veg ready peeled and chopped veg for £1, add a tin of peas, maybe some of those tinned new potatos and throw in with gravy, add corned beef and have corned beef stew for a family a few pounds really quick and easy with no prep if its a rush day xx
 
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Another fan of Aldi here! Even when I feel like I've bought loads , lots of treats, restocking fridge (butter, cheese etc) and bought 2weeks worth of meat with the everyday stuff on top I've never managed to spend more than £80 in there even with an overflowing trolley it's the same product from the same factories without the big well known branding :)
We eat lots of healthy freshly prepared meals to its not all frozen rubbish 6meals out of 7 are freshly prepared with fresh meat & veg etc.
 
Until recently I've always prepared all our meals from scratch. It's cheaper than ready meals - e.g. often you find 3 for £10 offers that include ready meals for 2 people, but also include packs of mince beef etc. weighing 500g that will easily feed 4 people (have stretched it to 6 on one occasion). I find frozen veg really useful too as that'll often cost only £1 for a kg and obviously stays "fresh" (I found I wasted quite a lot when I bought fresh vegetables). I also make up double lots of dinners and freeze half or we have it again the following day. I find that saves money too.

Excluding baby formula, I pay around £60 a week, which includes household stuff like washing powder etc. I always shop online after making a list and go through the list again if it comes out a bit more expensive than I thought it would.
 
Used to shop in Sainsburys but over the last 6 months switched to Aldi
I can safely say I still buy the same amount of food and save about 40-60% each shop
Highly recommend switching as has saved me huge amounts
 
We aren't on much of a budget, but I think grocery shopping is the easiest place to save money so I have extra for other things.

I don't see the point in cutting back of quality and ending up with meals that no one likes, so I only buy the core items like oil, flour, eggs, butter, cereal when they are on special. Also frozen foods I stock up on when on sale too and we've got an extra freezer in the shed that gets filled whenever there's space.

Most of my meat I get from the butchers. Funnily enough I think I get more for my money there, although if chicken or mince is on sale at the supermarket I will definitely stock up and freeze.

At the moment we are a family of 4, stepdaughter at weekends which takes us to 5, and I'm spending about £50ish a week. Will go up with nappies etc when baby arrives though.
 
I struggle sticking to a budget too, my OH is a super fussy eater and he does a ridiculous amount of exercise along with having a physical job so he eats shed loads! It is chicken I always spend the most money on and it is so expensive! This week instead of buying breasts I bought a large chicken and used it for a roast dinner and left over meat for fajitas (normally I would buy a small chicken for sunday roast and breasts for fajitas and it would cost me double the money). Worked out great, will be doing that again :) I also always buy my kitchen roll etc in poundland, saves a fortune on certain items. Also if you go to Asda you can get a pack of root veg for £1 and some smartprice stewing beef for like £2.50 and make a lovely stew with it. It doesn't matter that it is cheaper meat as you cook it for so long being a stew that it softens up and tastes lovely x
 
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I bought food shopping for me and LM (recipes I blught for were for 4people) and it was £40 so it can be done. X
 
I started shopping in lidl a while ago but we have just moved further away from pur nearest store and having had bubs the thought of going grocery shopping fills me with dread. So I am going to do it online, tesco and asda both deliver to where I live, not sure who is best/cheapest? I spend a fortune on food etc for just 2 of us, about 80 a week!
 
my supermarket or something you do your shopping in there and then they tell you which its cheapest at and then you order it via them x
 

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