Share your favourite budget family meals!

[babydustcass]

Looking back on 2014s finances, we were not impressed at how much we spent over the course of the year on food for 2 adults and 2 children! We were actually quite surprised to learn how often we were eating out and how much food we have probably wasted because of this.
For 2015 we've set a goal as a family to meal plan every week, cheap, nutritional food and cut our weekly shop of roughly £120 plus to just £50 and only eat out for special occasions at reasonably priced restaurants. Already 8 days in we are realising we can't be quite the socialites with our friends and it's tough saying no but we're more determined than ever to save! My friend has always spent around £40 a week before cleaning products ect and I have always wondered how on earth she does it so I find myself so excited to be actually doing it.
I've been trying to source tastey home cooked favourites and making them myself and also did the downshift challenge with our last weekly shop where instead of reaching for your usual brand of choice you opt to try price range below of that item. So far no one has noticed the difference with any of the prouts we've sampled. We still have managed to get our meats from the butchers but have at least 2 meat free meals a week. Batch cooking helps costs but trying not to do that too much as I don't want it to get boring but always great for next week's meals and already have some of those lined up.
A major eye opener has been how much we spend on fruit. The kids go through tons of it so we've had to cut back a lot there because it costs a fortune
One thing I've struggled to source is recipes with examples of how much they cost.
How much do you spend on the weekly shop and what's your favoruite budget meal?
look if forwards to the replies

 

[wishuwerehere]

This site https://www.budgetbytes.com/ is fab, although it's american so the costings don't help, I've got some really great budget meals off there. We like Italian wonderpot (https://www.budgetbytes.com/2013/05/italian-wonderpot/), and creamy tomato and spinach pasta (https://www.budgetbytes.com/2013/07/creamy-tomato-spinach-pasta/) both are meat free
We also like soups, lentil and carrot or pea and mint are good and very cheap (lentils are pennies per serving and if you buy basics/value peas they're super cheap as well). I like to replace meat with lentils in recipes like shepherds pie as well.
If you want meat/fish, a good cheap way of eating them is canned tuna or corned beef, tuna pasta or corned beef hash. This is my favourite hash recipe https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/corned-beef-hash

Hope that helps!

 

[Kitteh_Kat]

We spend more than I like, around $75-$100 a week for the three of us. I've also been coming up with ways to reduce our "meat is the main dish" meals since we spend a nice chunk of the budget on that alone. Some of the favorites right now:

-Pinto beans with rice (around $1 per meal - beans and rice are cheap when bought in bulk)
-Mac n cheese with broccoli (less than $2 a meal; the cheese is the expensive part)
-Quesadillas (less than $2 a meal)
-Egg and potato burritos (less than $2 a meal)
-Tuna parmesan sandwiches with side salad ($3 a meal)
-Chicken fried rice with veggies ($2-3 a meal)
-Grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup ($3 a meal)

Usually dice up veggies and mix in spices to a lot of them to make them more healthy and tasty, or add some meat to complement the dish (like chicken to the quesadillas and burritos). That way the meat stretches more! Eggs have become my new favorite food, and I've been using them a lot more as a main ingredient. They make great snacks too!

Stalking for more ideas!

 

[MrsEngland]

One of my fav cheap meals is bean chili and i usual do it in the slow cooker. I chuck in a tin of kidney beans, a tin of pinto beans or black beans and a tin of green lentils then add two tins of chopped tomatoes and chili powder and cumin and leave it to cook on low all day, makes the house smell lush and is yummy. We usually serve with pitta bread cut into fingers to dip as well!

Another slow cooker meal thats yummy and cheap is a creamy chicken pasta. Add two chicken breast, a can of condensed chicken soup, a tub of cream cheese and some water and cook on low for about 6 hours, then add pasta, more water and peas and corn and cook until pasta is done.

Hope that helps

 

[Kassy]

Beef stew is pretty cheap for us. Costs about £5 but the batch last us for three or four meals (family of three).
Chili the same, lasts several meals (rice, baked potatoes etc)


That creamy chicken pasta dish sounds lovely. Yummy.

 

[Eleanor ace]

I make a sausage casserole which is pretty cheap. Sausages (meat for DH and the kids, quorn sausages for me), a couple of tins of mixed beans, a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes, some paprika, a little chilli powder, a vegetable stock pot, a tin of sweetcorn. Brown the sausages, stick it all in the slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours. I serve it with rice or mash. Sausages always seem to be on offer in the supermarket which makes it cheaper.
Bean chilli is tasty and cheap.
I like veggie curries- cauliflower tikka masala is my favourite. If I make a meat curry I use chicken thigh fillets, the meat has more flavour than breast meat and is cheaper. I buy my spices at a wholefood store, they last for ages and work out pretty cheap.
Macaroni cheese is a hit in my house and is cheap as cheese is another ting which always seems to be on offer in the supermarket.

 

[babydustcass]

Loving the ideas, especially Spinach pasta and Cauliflower curry as we havent had those and we do eat chilli a lot but i never thought to make an all bean one We love sausages in this house but OH is a bit fussy! Ill have to remind him he cant be choosy!

 

[babydustcass]

This weekend we are switching to Aldi too, to see if we can get the shopping bill down even more.

 

[missk1989]

Aldi is great for cheap fruit and veg and also independent veg shops can be pretty cheap and you get what you need not a bag that will be wasted.

For meat I have found that buying a big joint and shredding in makes it go so much further. Aldi do a pork shoulder joint for £3.50-£4 which i put in the slow cooker all day. When it comes out shred it and make pulled pork sandwiches with half and then use leftovers for pulled pork pizza or burritos. For 2 of us it last 2 main meals and a lunch. You can make meat go much further by shredding it and it can be done with beef too which can be eaten as a roast, in a stew, sandwiches and so much more. A kg joint of brisket in Aldi cost £6.99 and should feed you all for 3-4 main meals.

 

[x__amour]

I make menus weekly, checking out sales and whatnot. In my blog in my signature I have about 9 months worth of menus.

 

[aimee-lou]

Speculate to accumulate....get a slow cooker!

I cook a lot in it and it stretches out even the most ropey of ingredients into delicious meals. I always make up a number of meals worth and freeze as it's normally cheaper in the long run as you then have a number of meals ready to go on lean weeks lol.

Bolognese
Chilli
Pie fillings
Soups
Stews
Roast meats

I have also made fudge, rice pudding, cakes and all sorts lol.

Next step is plan plan plan!! I plan every meal - breakfast and lunch included. Obviously snacks and extras are difficult to plan, but I always know what I'll be presenting to the family from one day to the next and I can adjust accordingly if something runs out too quickly.

Yellow sticker sections are brilliant. Get meat and bread and berries and freeze them on the day you bring them home. I try to never pay full price for meat unless I really have to i.e. I need something specific for a meal that's been requested. Veg as well...if I see some likely looking veg going cheap I'll bring it home and whip it into soup or something ready for later in the month/week.

Have a non-meat day every week. This cuts down the cost instantly lol.

My budget for 2 adults and 3 kids is £50 of food plus £20 of extras (nappies, toiletries etc). I have £300 a month and if that runs out we go hungry lol.

My best meals that the kids will eat no matter what:

Sausages and mash with peas and gravy (With or without yorkshires)
Cheesey bean pie (like cottage pie but with beans instead of meat lol)
Lasagne, spag bol etc using the bolognese base
Chilli, mexican pie (again like cottage pie using chilli lol)
Stir Fry - £1 bag of veg, 1 chicken breast, 2 portions of noodles or 1 cup of rice, and a £1 bag of Prawn crackers on the side.......yum and feeds all of us!
Pasta dishes - creamy sauces or tomato based sauces, adding things like sausage, tuna or bacon. Just use up whatever is in the fridge.
Jacket potatoes (do them in the slow cooker! ) with whatever is in the freezer or beans and cheese - Spud'u'like lol
Pies - batch cook fillings and put in the freezer in portions and then just pop on some pastry on the day.

I make bread or my hubby does to go with soups or stews. Things like dumplings or scones (for cobbler) bulk out the dinners nicely and most people like them.

Home cooking is your saviour when working to a budget.

Sorry for rambling :-D

 

[EcoMama]

I've started buying quorn instead of meat, and frozen fish fillets, frozen Richmond sausages are cheaper than their fresh ones.
Smart price frozen peas, sweet corn, tinned tomatoes & rice pudding.... It's got to all be the same stuff as own branded/branded surely?! I don't understand how you can have varying prices of tinned veg?

 

[EcoMama]

I also agree with amieelou.... I loveu slower cooker, baked spuds are great in it!

 

[catty]

I shop late at night and get heaps of reduced food. Like Aimee - Lou I try to never pay full price for meat.

last night I got warburtons toastie things that are usually £1.50 for 10p I froze them and take one out when I need it and toast it.
iv had alot of fantastic deals like the fancy £6 sandwich meat for 50p, I go about 8pm amd if you time it right you will get great bargains.... tray of doughnuts for 20p, never going to eat 12 dohnuts in half a day but im not fussy about eating out of date bread.
Cheap meals
Tuna pasta bake
macaroni cheese
I made a mexican dish in the slow cooker which worked out so cheap cant remember exactly but it was mince, chicken soup, canned tomatoes, tomato puree and some other bits and bobs. Bung it in and it feels free as it just cans that have been sitting ages
Our budget is £70 including nappies and formula, I only go over if I shop every few days rather than weekly

 

[MrsEngland]

A whole chicken does us a few meals too, il roast it and do a sunday roast then use the rest for a curry, chicken soup, sweet and sour chicken, bbq chicken sandwiches, chicken pastry tart....the list is endless! I also boil the carcus for stock sometimes.

 

[maryp0ppins]

If you buy fruit and veg at the supermarket stop that If yyou can! Its a huge ripoff. I buy all my fruit and veg at small independent shops and its 1/3 of the price and tastes better.

 

[aimee-lou]

If you buy fruit and veg at the supermarket stop that If yyou can! Its a huge ripoff. I buy all my fruit and veg at small independent shops and its 1/3 of the price and tastes better.

I wish I had one! Unfortunately the supermarkets have ruined that! Where we lived before we moved here we had a proper greengrocer andI could get all my veg and fruit fora week including berries, soft fruits, peppers and chillies and I could never get my basket to cost more than £6! lol It became like a challenge lol

Nowadays I have no other choice. The fruit and veg stall on the market is all supermarket cast offs....they're still in the tesco/asda/sainsbury's packets. Yes they're cheaper, but they're also older and don't last as long or taste as good as the ones you buy in the tesco up the road.

 

[babydustcass]

Aldi is opposite Tescos so its not hard to do a two shop trip in one go for the best deals. Think we will try out their fruit and we are testing out frozen veg to stop waste but give us some options throughout the week too.
Thanks for all the ideas ladies, I am now raiding the cupboards to see if we can use up some packets, jars, tins and ingredients over the next few weeks!

 

[MommyJogger]

We eat a lot of egg and lentil-based meals. My weekly grocery budget is $55-65 (and that's still too much for our actual budget, so we're still trying to cut), but we also raise chickens and rabbits, so we gets eggs and meat off of that. We don't buy anything pre-made, so a lot of the bread/wheat-based stuff that would cost $1-3 is made by me for pennies' worth of flour, milk, egg, and oil. Our biggest expense tends to be fruit and veg, which are really expensive this time of year. We try to offset that by growing as much of the more expensive off-season stuff ourselves in the summer (peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, tomatillos, melons, berries, etc) and freezing/canning them.
lentil tacos, omletes, lentil bakes (https://www.food.com/recipe/brown-rice-and-lentil-casserole-74629, https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Lentil-Red-Pepper-Bake-Recipe-30469593, https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/spiced-lentils-poached-eggs, https://homecooking.about.com/od/casserolerecipes/r/blcass25.htm, https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/red-lentil-rice-cakes-with-simple-tomato-salsa) (we replace meat with lentils and beans in recipes that call for meat or we use ground rabbit meat/offal. The cheese is either cheese or avocado, whichever I can get cheapest at the time, or neither if we can't afford it.). Spices and stuff like rice wine/oyster sauce is expensive, but it goes a long way and makes up for itself when you avoid pre-made sauces. We eat way more than our fair share of mexican food because it can be made very cheaply and the spices are strong enough that meat-free or rabbit meat doesn't make a taste difference.

 

[Becky61]

Stalking this thread!

Keep the good ideas going ladies!

I have nothing to offer as I am awful when I go shopping! I only started meal planning a few months ago & that's working wonders, but I still want to get my food shop down.

Great thread x