does anyone elses food bill go up in the heat?

Bitsy_Beans

I am growing my own little gem lettuce so am not having to pay for it. I am not really a fruit lover so I don't feel the urge to buy anything extra like summer fruits. I am just glad that Mr S Basics Courgettes are reintroduced as they are so expensive to buy out of season but I do love them. Am just waiting for my own to grow so I won't be needing to buy them at all soon :T
So I don't think my bills have gone up anymore but I am probably the minority.

kippers

I have an allotment so my fruit & veg budget goes down in the summer...i especially save on lettuce as we eat loads. I know i am lucky and i really work hard to store and preserve fruit & veg for the winter.

It is easy to grow things like lettuce in your garden, you can put cut and come again lettuce in a pot near your back door and just pick a few leaves at a time for a wonderful salad for tea and it will grow back

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Bombchelle wrote: »

I can understand how your food bill can go up but call me weird if you like but I still love having stews and casseroles in summer! Also, salads don't just have to be green, you can have "beany" salads too which works out quite cheap. But those bright red strawberries and raspberries are irresistible though....

We still like casseroles,stew and dumplings ect even in the summer as well.To be honest there's only so much salad I can eat so something hot makes a change.
We do eat loads of fruit though and our markets good for that,always very cheap when the weathers hot and the produce goes off quicker they can't risk not selling it.
I always think you spend around 15% more on food when the weathers hot anyway.

Essex-girl_2

I havnt noticed my food bills going up this year but I have been watching what I spend overall.

Definately have saved money thanks to our veg plot. Will be digging up loads of new pots this week (hopefully) & I did spend a fortune on them before, we have also got strawberries and they are doing really well.

We have loads of barbeques over the summer, asda and tesco generally have meat & barbeue stuff on offer and we pad it out with lots of different salad and pot/pasta dishes.

With regards to lollies - stocked up in Iceland ages ago when they had lots of offers on, dont make my own but but kids love Jubblies.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

I find my food bills come down in the summer due to growing our own. I only cut the outside leaves of lettuce and the plant keeps growing. I find we are happy with cheese/egg based meals such as spanish omelette where I can use leftover veg.

BBQs can be expensive though due to using meat, we tend to go veggie during the suumer months as I find meat quite heavy to digest in the heat.

Ways I save money in summer are...

- make your own lollies, make them out of leftover stuff such as over ripe fruit, save jars of jam and swill out with water and add this to lolly mix.

- sprouted peas, beans and seeds grow very quickly in the heat, I have a plastic sprouter on my kitchen windowledge that I cobbled up out of an old jar and a pair of tights! At the mo I have alfalfa seeds but last week we had mung beans and aduki beans which were lovely in a salad.

- watch out for stuff in the shops that are going ripe and sellers want to sell off cheap. I picked up a couple of bunches of bananas last week for pence and made a lovely banana cake in my remoska. Also good are over ripe tomatoes which can be frozen and used later, made into soup ar passata for pasta.

- Take advantage of the growing season! I found a bag of potatoes that had sprouted and gone soft a couple of weeks ago and instead of throwing them out I planted them in the garden and they are growing into plants so hoping to have fresh spuds sometime soon!

- radishes don't take long or take up much space and salad leaves can be grown in a pot on the windowledge as can herbs, even cherry tomatoes.

Trinny

libbyc3 wrote: »

Hi,
just wondered really - in the winter I have the food budget under control, use the slow cooker, stretching casseroles with lentils, using frozen veg, etc, but this time of year our food bill seems to rise with the temperature!

Buying lots of lovely salad ingredients - and having to top them up during the week coz they don't last, fresh summer fruits, more juice and a few ice lolly treats for the freezer just seem to tip the budget over.
We don't waste anything and this year is our first at trying to grow our own - with varying degrees of success, but does anyone else have this problem and how do you deal with it?

Hello there libby

We grow lettuce toms and onions in containers here - our first crop of lettuce bolted but our second is doing fine - Make HM ice lollys - check out the recipe index - you can buy lolly moulds/sticks in places like lakeland.

Make this the autumn that you forage for blackberrys/ apples etc - we have one box of last years blackberrys in the freezer as well as stewed apple for pies etc - if you want cheap fruit - otherwise try Lidl and Aldi where its fixed price.

BW

Trin

zarazara

yes mine, definately esecially since i've started to loose weight. all those delicious fruits!

bellaquidsin

I always did find my food bill went up in the summer, with new potatoes, salads and all that lovely soft fruit. In preparation for DH retirement I planted loads of leaves for salad, along with peas, carrots (which have been lovely on salad) and new potatoes. The leaves have helped the food bill tremendously, we tend to just have a salad of leaves with only the occasional tomato until my tomato plants yield. This has helped the budget enormously, especially now that DH is at home as we have a salad every lunchtime, but we still have a cooked meal at night but I perhaps don't put so much protien into it as we have had some at lunchtime.

The last sack of new potaoes is waiting for 'cracking' and I'm hoping the leaves will keep us going until holiday in 4 week's time, if not it will be sprouted seeds and grated carrot for the last few days and the same when we come home until I get into production again.

Bella.

clutterydrawer

nope, I haven't eaten for three days cos it is too hot.

PasturesNew

I don't buy summer food. I've just had a baked spud topped with cheese, same as ever.

I don't buy salad stuff because it's expensive, and it's all just water really. I'd rather have a spud.