What we eat in a week | easy vegetarian family food

As a family in the UK we know the the cost of living is on the rise and how this has impacted families’ budgets. It seems to have particularly impacted the family food budget so I thought I would share our easy vegetarian family food shopping to give you some ideas on what to cook and keep on budget. The meal options here should be suitable for a range of people and for families on a variety of budgets. We do tend to stick with vegetarian food options in our household as two of us are veggie, but we do occasionally purchase meat for those who eat it (this week the shop is fully veggie :)).

Budgetting

I try to keep to a strict monthly food budget however some weeks I spend more than others. As I shop at a range of supermarkets I like to stock up on favourites from each when we shop there, so not all the food necessarily gets eaten in one week but might cross over to other weeks too.

To help with the budget I find that having a really good meal plan is essential and a variety of ‘go-to’ easy cook meals that the family enjoys super helpful.

This week I did most of my shopping online at Ocado which is a UK based, online only, supermarket. I really enjoy using Ocado as I find their shopping app really simple to use and the delivery is always on time. The quality of food is also excellent and they have plenty of good discounts and vouchers available. Quite often they will send me discount vouchers offering a set amount off my weekly shop which is super helpful.

Never tried Ocado? You can often get a discount code for your first shop, try searching the web and I’m sure you’ll find a really great offer.

We also did a small top up shop at Aldi for a few basics, such as fruit and peanut butter (and a couple of yummy treats). We usually buy most of our fruit at Aldi as it is such good deal and as a family we eat quite a lot of it!

The Weekly Shop

This week I spent £19.12 at Aldi and £86.52 at Ocado so a total of £105.64. That is a little more than I usually aim for as we try to budget around £100 per week, however some weeks we spend a little more and others a little less as long as the budget for the month comes in around £433.

So, I’ll show you what I bought this week and I’ll follow this post up with a meal plan to show you exactly what meals I’ll make with my purchases.

Aldi

So at Aldi I bought:

Apples
Grapes
Kiwis
Flat peaches
Cherries
Strawberries
Salad bag
Peanut butter (definitely seems to be the best value we can find)
Titan ice creams
Fiesta ice creams

Total: £19.12

The rest of the shopping came from Ocado which cost £86.52 in total:

For the freezer I got:
Richmond meat-free tasty sausage x8
M&S crinkle cut chips
Linda McCartney Vegemince
Linda McCartney Country Pies x2
Quorn Roast

For the fridge:
M&S mozzarella and tomato pizza
La Vie bacon lardons
Bunch of spring onions
4 egg custard tarts
Broccoli
2 garlic baguettes
Cucumber
Cherry tomatoes
6 Free range organic eggs
This isn’t chick’n kievs
This isn’t chick’n thighs
Wyke Farms vintage cheddar block
Cauldron Marinated Tofu
4 Alpro berry yoghurts
1pt semi-skimmed milk
Quorn mozzarella and pesto escalopes
Quorn vegan beef style slices
Mozzarella ball
Grated mozzarella
Alpro Coconut milk
Alpro Oat milk
Innocent Apple juice cartons x4

And for the cupboard:
2 Lebanese style flatbreads
6 petit pans (part baked)
8 mini tortillas
6 crumpets
6 mini bags of choc-chip cookies
Spaghetti
Custard creams
M&S Dutch shortbread
Milk & choco hazelnut pillows cereal
Bag of macaroni
Loaf of white sliced bread
2.5kg white potatoes
6 white bread cakes
4 Warburtons teacakes
Cheeselets
Seabrook’s Canadian Ham crisps x6 packets
M&S popcorn sharing bag
1 bag of plantain chips

What to make!

So that should cover us for a weeks worth of food including breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a few cheeky snacks for three people. A few bits and bobs will be popped in the freezer for now as they are things I like to buy from Ocado when I do a shop there, which is usually just once a month (the items can be quite hard to find elsewhere at times).

We do also often go out once or twice a week for food however that usually just involves coffee and cake or the occasional treat breakfast (usually once a month for me and hubby).

I’ll be posting a meal plan soon to show you exactly what I made with the food purchased so be sure to look out for that.

I hope this has given you an insight in to our shopping habits and budgets and hopefully the meal plan will give a little inspiration to the other parents out there after all I think we’re all looking for new family friendly meals to try!

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