Friday 6 February 2015

Menu for the week

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to visit my blog and read through any posts and comment too! I really appreciate the feedback. It's great to think that some of the things I say resonate with others out there in the blogging family.

According to Greg Wallace last night, the average spend for a family of six on their grocery shopping each week is £108. I'm not sure if that includes toilet rolls, shampoo etc etc? On his programme, it only seems to be food and drink.

As you know we are a family of six - five adults (OMG am I REALLY that old?!!) and one child who eats as much as an adult! There are specific dietary requirements (gluten free and dairy free) which bump up the price of things. We have two moggies expecting food too and of course my feathered beauties, although their food comes out of the sundries budget rather than my weekly shopping budget.

On the menu this week:-

Veggie chilli, guacamole, rice and tortilla chips
Vegan shepherds pie, peas and sweetcorn
Vegetable curry, poppadums, raita and red onion relish
Gammon and roasted vegetables (or GF vegan sausages) followed by apple crumble
Vegan mac 'n' cheese and green salad
Vegan burger and chips

(If you recognize any if these, I am giving Jamie Oliver a go this week .... So to speak!)

My GF and vegan bake this week is 'Peanut butter granola bars'. Daughter number one has a tough week ahead and may need an energy boost!

I know - perhaps not the best photo ever, but this is half the leftovers from last night's chilli. (I added an extra sweet potato to make it stretch further so it made 8 portions). Daughter number one took the other portion for her lunch. Note to self - only use one home grown chilli next time!!

This menu plan comes to a total of £71, including some toiletries and cat food. There will be absolutely no wastage either! I may possibly need to go and get some extra salad bits later in the week, but I won't spend more than a few pounds.

I know many of you have found the programme 'Eat well for less' very irritating and I can see why, but I have found it quite astounding to see what some people think is OK. I wonder if it would have been better bypassing Greg Wallace altogether by using families who can budget and feed their families well, to support those families who are in need of some advice and help? Perhaps I should send my idea in to the BBC? What do you think?

I had a rare visit from Freya this morning during my half hour 'quiet time' in bed. It was very nice to have a snuggle and she certainly appreciated it! 

17 comments:

  1. I confess that before we decided to get serious about paying off our debts we spent £650 a month at the supermarket, I bought my lunch every day and we ate out or got take away a couple of times a week. We didn't have any pets at that time either. I did the grocery shopping to relax, I was out of the house for 14 hours a day every day working so shopping was a nice way to relax - even though I wasn't at home to eat much of the food. Crazy!

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    1. Oh yes, I was exactly the same when I was working! We ate very well, but expensively. I would succumb to more convenience foods and there was far more waste, which I feel terrible about. It's one thing me choosing to waste my money, but food wastage is a terrible thing to do for so many reasons! We have reduced our food expenditure by approximately two thirds I reckon!

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  2. I was amazed at the amount the featured family spent per week on food!! We have a family of 5 (2 have now flown the nest and one is half university and half at home) and I admit that when they were all living here and I was out at work and short on time our shopping bill was very hefty but nowhere near that amount. I used to do a weekly shop on a Friday night on my way home and then the following week, Mon to Thurs, I'd just pop in to the supermarket on my way home for milk or a newspaper but in actual fact this little stop-off was costing me on average about £20 a visit due to other temptations! I am much more thoughtful of shopping now and now cook every day from scratch (OK I admit I do use ready made pastry on occasions!). However, this weekend our youngest is home from Uni hence I have had to buy stuff I wouldn't normally get as she's gone all posh what with her avocado, berries and the likes!!! Have a lovely weekend everyone. (P.S. Many thanks for directing me to the Down to Earth blog - I am in the process of reading it with great interest).

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  3. Good grief, what is it with these children are berries, avocados and smoothies??? My eldest two girls are exactly the same! My son doesn't care too much as long as there's plenty of it and the youngest hasn't gone all health conscious either yet, but there's time! When I was a student, I survived on toast, beans and lentil curry!! I enjoy shopping much more now too. Enjoy your weekend too x Rhonda's blog is great isn't it? A whole wealth of wisdom!

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    1. I too am astounded by what I see people pile into their shopping trollies. We never buy drinks(apart from coffee) and just drink tap water at home. I buy HUGE bags of pasta from Tesco and last weekend used the sauce from a can of baked beans to make the base of a veggie pasta sauce. Worked just fine. Don't make my own bread since the bread maker packed in and fear electricity bills if I use the oven loads. So always buy marked down bread and freeze it.Cook mainly using gas hob and microwave creatively. Maybe you should offer your services as frugal food advisor. Maybe they don't want to freak the families out too much by going" too frugal". Don't know.....haven't watched it as I would be climbing the walls by the sound of it. I too am trying to cut grocery spend down to absolute minimum.

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    2. P.s. I also stopped working a couple of years ago as my husband works lo ng hours and we hardly saw each other! Although I only worked part time I now spend a lot less on food and other stuff as I cook from scratch and have the time to shop around for the cheapest bargains. I was on minimum wage so I'm not convinced we have actually lost out financially at all. Works for us but obviously not for everyone.

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    5. There's certainly no need to suffer in terms of meals despite being on a tight budget is there, but you do need to have some basic cooking skills! I'm going to send my idea off next week and see what, if anything, comes of it!

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  4. Do send your idea to the BBC. I'd certainly watch a programme along the lines you suggest.

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    1. Thanks - I will do that next week. I think a 'real' family living on a budget helping others rather than some 'celebrity' and another bloke whose name I don't even remember, would be an interesting formula!

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    1. gracias. ella es hermosa, tampoco ella?

      I think that's right! I speak french and some German! but not Spanish unfortunately!! I think you said the cat was lovely? X

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  6. I am always amazed at the amount of food people buy! I am an online grocery shopper at sainsburys and it's a conversation we have most days. You can always tell who the people are that like a bargain etc! I found your blog today and have enjoyed all the posts I've read so far. I'm on the Norfolk/suffolk boarder so like reading local blogs :)

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    1. Welcome! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and I'm glad you're enjoying it. This blogging is totally addictive!
      As a family, we used to spend a lot more money on food, but I am proud of the fact that we have cut spending so much but kept the quality of the food we eat! It can be done with some planning and thought, oh and a bit of cooking ability too I guess!

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    2. Yes I defiantly found that I needed to sharpen my kitchen skills when we cut our food budget

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