How do you manage to spend so little?!

mrsrc_2

clairelg88 wrote: »

thanks for all your replies.

To be honest i think i try and base my meals around meat too much, so does anyone have any non meat ideas?!

Eating on a budget does'nt mean you have to cut out a food group. To have a healthy well balanced diet you need meat, as well as fruit, veg, pulses etc. plus cooking from scratch.
My husband could not go with out meat, he loves it where as I can take or leave it. So all our meals have meat. The trick is to down size the portion and how you use it. Our main meats are Chicken, mince beef, fish and pork. I plan our meals week by week, and shop for what we need for those meals, lunches, breakfast and some snacks. I do one big shop a month which generally cost £80-£90 then top up with fresh fruit and veg bread and milk on a weekly shop approx £25-30 (family of 2 adults and 2 children under 6 years). On the monthly shop I buy meat for the month. large packs of mince, chicken, fish and pork split up into meal sized portions and put into freezer bags, Plus any bits I pick up from from the reduced section. I always have some back up quick meals just in case.i.e chicken nuggets, chips.
My last bit of advice is never throw food away unless you have too. If food is left over, and it would make a small meal for our boys or one of us it is put into a container (free with your take out chinese!! once a month treat) and pop it in the freezer. The last week of the months food plan is always left open for what we call left over week. Which is exactly that. Make each meal up of what is left in the cupboards. You will be amazed at what lovely meals you will be able to make. The real challenge is to do it with out having to buy any additional ingredients. There's a real sense of achievement.
Well I think I have rambled on enough, so good luck with your shopping.
:beer:

Gigervamp

mrsrc wrote: »

To have a healthy well balanced diet you need meat

I think you'll find that millions of healthy vegetarians and vegans will disagree with you!

helyg

You need protein, not necessarily meat...

Quick question, having read through this and a few other threads at how much meat people buy: does anyone know how much meat you are *supposed* to have as one serving? It's just I'm starting to worry that I'm staving my family! I will often use one chicken breast from a roast to make a stir fry or pasta bake the following day, and that is to feed 2 adults and 3 kids. If I am making a curry or tagine or similar I would only use 2 chicken breasts or the equivalent in thighs. I use 250g of mince or stewing beef for a meal. Obviously there are lots of veggies in the meal, sometimes pulses too depending on what it is, and it is served with rice/potatoes/pasta etc so quite filling.

Help!

thriftlady_2

helyg wrote: »

does anyone know how much meat you are *supposed* to have as one serving? .

Somebody mentioned this on the Economy Gastronomy Thread- Scot Valk I think it was. It is 3-4oz or 100g or a piece the size of a pack of playing cards.

However, I take issue with it (as I do with any govt guidelines about diet:D), because it doesn't take into account how much meat one is eating through the week. If for example you only serve meat at weekends surely you can have more at those meals because you aren't eating it on other days. In fact if you can have 3oz meat per meal can you save it all up and eat 21oz in one meal? And does it mean 3oz at lunch and supper?

helyg

thriftlady wrote: »

Somebody mentioned this on the Economy Gastronomy Thread- Scot Valk I think it was. It is 3-4oz or 100g or a piece the size of a pack of playing cards.

However, I take issue with it (as I do with any govt guidelines about diet:D), because it doesn't take into account how much meat one is eating through the week. If for example you only serve meat at weekends surely you can have more at those meals because you aren't eating it on other days. In fact if you can have 3oz meat per meal can you save it all up and eat 21oz in one meal? And does it mean 3oz at lunch and supper?

I knew I'd seen something on here somewhere, just couldn't remember where...

Am now wondering whether my meat loving husband would think it was worth being veggie all week if he could have a 21oz mixed grill every Saturday :rotfl:

IlonaRN

I think I've heard that the body can only process about 30g of protein at any one time, so anything over that is "wasted". Would mean it's better to eat smaller amounts, but more often. Think this was info the bf found when researching which protein supplement to take (so I've no idea how true it is).

helyg

Kind of answering my own question, have found this:

How much protein do we need?

Our protein needs depend on our age, size, and activity level. The standard method used by nutritionists to estimate our minimum daily protein requirement is to multiply the body weight in kilograms by .8, or weight in pounds by .37. This is the number of grams of protein that should be the daily minimum. According to this method, a person weighing 150 lbs. should eat 55 grams of protein per day, a 200-pound person should get 74 grams, and a 250-pound person, 92 grams

from here: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/protein.htm

wonder if it's the same for kids?

frugallily

This is not the correct place for this but i don't follow how to open a new thread!!! How do I do it please???

clutterydrawer

go to the main board here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33


and click the button (left, near top) that says "New Thread."

valk_scot

helyg wrote: »

Kind of answering my own question, have found this:

How much protein do we need?

Our protein needs depend on our age, size, and activity level. The standard method used by nutritionists to estimate our minimum daily protein requirement is to multiply the body weight in kilograms by .8, or weight in pounds by .37. This is the number of grams of protein that should be the daily minimum. According to this method, a person weighing 150 lbs. should eat 55 grams of protein per day, a 200-pound person should get 74 grams, and a 250-pound person, 92 grams

from here: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/protein.htm

wonder if it's the same for kids?

Kids need proportionately more as they need the protein to actually build body tissue rather than just for repair. I don't know the figures though. (And no time to Google.) I would think though as your figures give less than 4 oz of protein for a very large 250 pound person then it's still less than you might think by way of actual protein based food for a child, especially if they're still drinking lots of milk.

Eggs, cheese, milk are all good sources of first class "complete" proteins, as I used to learn in Food & Nutrition at school a few decades back. (Think the terminology has changed a bit!) Beans and pulses are incomplete proteins but if you eat them with carbohydrate then the missing part is added in. Beans on toast is the classic example here! I don't know about things like tofu and quorn because I'm not a veggie and we didn't have much of that stuff in the '70s, lol. But they'll be high in protein and if you're eating a good variety of foods then they'll be balanced somewhere.

I think the key really is a good balance and variety of foods. No-one needs to eat meat three times a day, but it's not good to eat nothing but vegetables and exclude meat, dairy and carbohydrates totally for example unless you've got some medical problem and very good dietry advice!

As to 21oz of meat at the weekend and nothing during the week, well, our ancestors only ate meat on the days they caught an animal and that wouldn't be every day. Chinese pesants traditionally only ate meat when they slaughtered the annual pig! So once a week would be fine...but you know, 21 oz of sausages and bacon isn't actually a huge amount either on a plate, lol!

Just remember guidelines are just that, not absolutes. They've changed a lot over the 40 years since I first learned them at school! Use common sense...everyone knows that the first things to cut out is extra fat, sugar and processed stuff, not the good stuff like protein.