I was contacted by The Sun newspaper to see if I could possibly run a menu for a family of four ( 2 adults and two children, ages 6 & 8) for a week, and have very little/ zero food waste and also a budget of £30.

The tricky part was that It had to be all regular priced healthy food and no reduced priced items or yellow stickers were to be used!

How to save money on a weekly food shop for 4!

picture of Kelly sat at the far end of a table covered in food

My first reaction was ahhhhhhhhggggggggg but when I had a look into it, I found that not only is it viable but I can also feed the family with a good healthy, varied and vitamin packed menu.

picture of shepherds pie

Where to shop for food shopping?

My main Supermarket where I bought the bulk of my shop was Lidl, because it is my favourite supermarket, as the prices are fab, it is always fresh and I have Never, ever had a problem with them ! I also used Tesco as I bought some products that were on offer. It always pays to shop around for offers, as this could really help with your target budget.

How meal planning saved me money

Meal planning, will also help anybody on a budget, as you can log onto Supermarket websites, price things and also work out what you can cook, how you can carry foods over and what and how could you stretch foods and make them bulk out. On this Plan I made a large chicken go three ways and this really helped with the pricing, Every meal was completely different, but they all had the same base ingredient …..The chicken !

picture of unknown food

Carrying food over is also a great tool for making food go further, for example this Shepherds pie had beef, leeks, carrot, lentils, potatoes, sweetcorn and courgette squashed in, so it would make it a great balanced meal, but as it was well and truly bulked out, there was a lot of leftovers, which were packed into pastry and turned into pasties ! Which worked out to be fab for an easy and quick lunch, which were not only lunch box approved but also kid friendly !

shepherds pies

This is the link for the recipes, ingredients and story I really hope that you like it, please leave and comment with any helpful info or even your thoughts.

Kelly X