Do I really spend to much on food?

rachbc

I've not had time to read this allso apologise if this has been asnwered already but to me it looks like 5 meals to me

Sat
porridge
scrambled eggs & bacon
tuna salad
tomato & mozzarella salad
balsamic pork with orange & apple salad
cracker bread with hummus
dried fruit or nuts

Sat
porridge
scrambled eggs & bacon
tuna salad
tomato & mozzarella salad
balsamic pork with orange & apple salad
cracker bread with hummus
dried fruit or nuts

So on a day I'd eat either porridge or bacon and egg, lunch would be mozarella salad or tuna not both, the main meal would have carbs (to bulk out and because personally I think its healthier) in and I'd have 1(if any) snack not both.

Though you say you work out so maybe you need all this food in which case I'm not sure what the asnwer is

floss2

crux wrote: »

Agreed on the expensive ingredients, one thing I can do is explore buying a bigger un-cut piece of meat and cutting into what I need rather than getting a pre packed 300gm of braising steak etc....

Find a butcher, farm shop or farmers market to buy your meat - maybe when your freezer is empty you can bulk buy. Use their skills & knowledge.

Do the same for fish - I can buy a whole salmon, cleaned & filleted from Tesco for £10-£12 complete with a bag of bones. This will be cut into 10-14 fillets, a bigger piece for salmon en croute and then the tails for use in risottos. The bones will be made into stock for risottos or sauces.

Travel to your nearest fishmonger / market with fish stall, and buy in bulk - they will clean & fillet for you at no charge, and will descale fish like seabass too. Again, use their skills & knowledge.

crux wrote: »

....I eat 5-6 meals a day plus a few snacks

My list pretty much breaks down to:

breakfast
Snack
Lunch
home time meal
Dinner
Snack
supper

What are your portion sizes like that you need to have 7 meals a day?

Personally I would suggest eating more slow-release, low G.I. foods - unless you are eating breakfast at 5-6am, lunch at 1pm and dinner at 8pm, i.e. long gaps between, you shouldn't need snacks - you are not a growing child or developing teenager. TBH, even my 2 hollow-legged sons don't eat this frequently!!

I tend to go with the "breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dine like a pauper" principle - with no eating inbetween meals! I find it suits my digestive system and my weight-management.

Kimitatsu

crux wrote: »

We do like veggie stuff, I made Falafels last night, 12 from a can of chickpeas ( going to buy dried and soak in future ) and by nights end they were gone :S

Mind you I had 5!

:rotfl:thats the only issue with HM stuff - it tastes too good lol!



I'm going to start growing my own cut and come again salad leaves in containers ( not sure if it will be cheaper but it will be fresh! )
Have a look on the greenfingered money saving board and the freebies and low spend boards there are always seed offers on there, and they do come up cheaper than buying washed salads.


My budget does include cleaning/household and pet food in it. I will take time to check for bulk savings and offers, anyone know where to get iams cat food cheap? (even our cats eat expensive stuff! )

If you have a B&M bargains near you then they often have the 3kilo bags in cheaper, otherwise pets at home often run buy one get one half price offers (check out the discount board for free delivery codes)


Going to look for a source of quick frozen fish, I find if it was flash frozen at sea I can make it taste as good as fresh and it probably is better for you than 2 week old supermarket so called fresh fish. Hmm, there is a fish monger van that comes to the market on Friday's, I will have to steal out of work to check there prices.

Do you live within driving distance of the coast? Pop along to the dockside during the week (you can ring the fish market to work out the best day) and buy it in bulk - doesnt get any fresher than having just come off the ship as it is frozen on landing on deck. You will need a bigger freezer though!


Although we have one of those American style fridge freezers, the freezer part is actually quite small and full of stuff, I found chicken breast, turkey, venison, veggie mince and a ton of veggies in there, I think a weeks worth of store cupboard eating may be coming soon

We have one night a week where we have a "fridge dinner" anyone can have anything they like as long as it comes out of the fridge - saves throwing anything away at all!



Lets see how it goes.

Good luck - you can obviously cook so you will probably enjoy the challenge.

missychrissy

I think your diet is wonderful but not everyone can afford the food you are buying. I have my supermarket shop down to £10 per week. I usually shop in Aldi (in my opinion they are very good and most of their food is good quality though I don't always like their fruit) and occasionally Asda for their whoopsies or special offers.

I live on my own with visiting sons and families.

I use a lot of the frozen Aldi meat joints that cost under £5 eg beef and lamb. I do them in the slow cooker with lots of veg and pulses. I do grow some of my own veg as well as make my own wine so I can make my casseroles/stews a bit more special with a glug of wine.

I brought up a family of 4 sons on my own since they were 8 10 15 and 17 and we had to budget very carefully. I could make a large chicken last 3 to 4 days: roasted with meat and veg on the first day; either a stir fry or curry on the second day; a sandwich for me for lunch on the third day and then a soup with lots of veg using the carcass on the third/fourth day. Eggs are a very cheap meal option. I used to do two egg omelettes with cheese, with potatoes and a couple of veg on a regular basis or a quiche using eggs bacon and cheese.

You need to read Weazel's threads as she worked out how to live on a nutritiously sound diet on as little as possible. I do the same - I always get at least my 5 a day, a decent amount of protein (it doesn't have to be meat or fish) and have an occasional glass of home made wine to boot.

MrsE_2

crux wrote: »

There have been a lot of good ideas and tips on this thread, for sure things I would not have considered left to my own devices.

I'm going to root out some veggie meal plans and cut back the meat, especially the red meat. Trying to do that in a low carb way may be a challenge but I'll figure something tasty out

We do like veggie stuff, I made Falafels last night, 12 from a can of chickpeas ( going to buy dried and soak in future ) and by nights end they were gone :S

Mind you I had 5!
I'm always saying I'm going to do more veggie meals but I never seem to get around to it:o

Going to compare prices on fruit & veg in the supermarket compared to the local market stall.
For me I find Waitrose cheapest for fruit & veg because it lasts all week easily so I don't waste any, I did buy some fruit from a market a few months ago but I found it went off much quicker.

Going to compare buying a big joint of meat from the local butcher, cutting it to what I need and freezing batches rather than buying a pack each time from the supermarket.
I always buy large beef joints when on offer & cut & freeze them. Waitrose do theirs a third off quite often & M&S do their half price occasionally:)
If fresh chickens are on offer (happy ones) I buy them & throw them in the freezer too.

I'm going to start growing my own cut and come again salad leaves in containers ( not sure if it will be cheaper but it will be fresh! )
I keep planning to do that with herbs, a few railway sleepers to make big troughs & have a little herb garden.

My budget does include cleaning/household and pet food in it. I will take time to check for bulk savings and offers, anyone know where to get iams cat food cheap? (even our cats eat expensive stuff! )
I feed mine Royal Canin (even more expensive than Iams at normal price) but you get offers come around & I stock up on a load of bags then.

Going to look for a source of quick frozen fish, I find if it was flash frozen at sea I can make it taste as good as fresh and it probably is better for you than 2 week old supermarket so called fresh fish. Hmm, there is a fish monger van that comes to the market on Friday's, I will have to steal out of work to check there prices.

Although we have one of those American style fridge freezers, the freezer part is actually quite small and full of stuff, I found chicken breast, turkey, venison, veggie mince and a ton of veggies in there, I think a weeks worth of store cupboard eating may be coming soon
I'm on my second US fridge, the old one had quite a small freezer section, but this new one is fab. The ice maker is in the door rather than to top of the freezer & the walls are super thin so more room inside, its a beast:rotfl:
Its also susposed to keep fresh food fresher than a normal fridge & I think it actually does:money:

So I set my budget at £500 per month, but this includes, pet food, household, Caitlin's school dinner money £2/school day (reason I give her dinner money is she does not then ask for pocket money) and the odd spurge by wifey at Tesco's ( I was scary accurate last night in guessing at £50 and it was all crap! LoL). My being better will hopefully offset her buying junk now and again.

Lets see how it goes.

Mine is nearly £500 without petfood (I buy online) or dinner money, I need tips from you:o
But seriously if you enjoy cooking & good food then why not look on it as your hobby, its certainly cheaper to indulge in a little extra at the supermarket than it would if bingo or the pub was what floated you boat;)

vpb23

Hi,

There are 5 of us, 2 adults 2 school children and a baby and my shopping never goes over £240 per month. I buy all my meat out of the butchers and found it to be way better quality, locally sourced and most importantly cheaper. Once a month I go and buy all my meat including breakfast stuff and it cost me about £50, then I go to aldi for their fruit and veg as way cheaper than other supermarkets and then tesco for the other bits and pieces. We eat lots of goodies such as chocolate and crisps and our meals can include things such as steak, chilli, etc so it can be done , its just that people seem to think that supermarkets are the cheapest for meat but they really arent. The price of 2 very very large chicken breasts at my butcher costs about the same price as tesco value small chicken breasts!

MrsE_2

rachbc wrote: »

I've not had time to read this allso apologise if this has been asnwered already but to me it looks like 5 meals to me

Sat
porridge
scrambled eggs & bacon
tuna salad
tomato & mozzarella salad
balsamic pork with orange & apple salad
cracker bread with hummus
dried fruit or nuts

Sat
porridge
scrambled eggs & bacon
tuna salad
tomato & mozzarella salad
balsamic pork with orange & apple salad
cracker bread with hummus
dried fruit or nuts

So on a day I'd eat either porridge or bacon and egg, lunch would be mozarella salad or tuna not both, the main meal would have carbs (to bulk out and because personally I think its healthier) in and I'd have 1(if any) snack not both.

Though you say you work out so maybe you need all this food in which case I'm not sure what the asnwer is

I thought it was three meals a day & a couple of snacks?

Sat
porridge - breakfast
scrambled eggs & bacon - breakfast (having a cereal & cooked because it was the weekend).
tuna salad - lunch
tomato & mozzarella salad - dinner starter
balsamic pork with orange & apple salad - dinner
cracker bread with hummus - snack
dried fruit or nuts - snack

I sometimes have a two course evening meal at home, more so at the weekend.
DH will have cereal & a cooked breakfast at the weekend too.
But we both just have cereal mid week.

HariboJunkie

crux wrote: »

Going to look for a source of quick frozen fish, I find if it was flash frozen at sea I can make it taste as good as fresh and it probably is better for you than 2 week old supermarket so called fresh fish. Hmm, there is a fish monger van that comes to the market on Friday's, I will have to steal out of work to check there prices.

.

Alot of people are very snobbish about it but I get my frozen fish from Farmfoods and the quality is fantastic.

I am like your wife and guilty of popping into supermarkets and spending too much on "bargains" When I do this though I try to do a storecupboard challenge the next week to use up everything I have bought.

I think you know your areas of over expenditure but please remember it is only overexpenditure if you can't afford it. OS is not a competition. I consider myself frugal and thrifty with food and despise waste. I shop as ethically as I can with great consideration given to the environmental impact of the food we eat. I also grow my own veg, keep hens and cook from scratch but we still spend more in a week than some people on OS claim to be spemding in a month. While we can afford it and my children are eating healthily I won't beat myself up over it.

crux

HariboJunkie wrote: »

I think you know your areas of over expenditure but please remember it is only overexpenditure if you can't afford it. OS is not a competition. I consider myself frugal and thrifty with food and despise waste. I shop as ethically as I can with great consideration given to the environmental impact of the food we eat. I also grow my own veg, keep hens and cook from scratch but we still spend more in a week than some people on OS claim to be spemding in a month. While we can afford it and my children are eating healthily I won't beat myself up over it.

I need to make some cut backs for sure, but I guess knocking the golf membership and the gym on the head would enable me to eat like a king.

In the end I will have to decide what I sacrifice.

I'm still very new to the realization that I can't spend like I did so there are many avenues to explore and knowledge to gain. I will not go from one extreme to the other on food, just try and cut out the obvious over spend.

But boy have we been over spending, about a grand a month for the past 6! It's got to stop and fast. Wifey wants to go to South Africa on hols next year and I would love to as well, but at this rate there's no chance..... :rotfl:

crux

MrsE wrote: »

I thought it was three meals a day & a couple of snacks?

Sat
porridge - breakfast
scrambled eggs & bacon - breakfast (having a cereal & cooked because it was the weekend).
tuna salad - lunch
tomato & mozzarella salad - dinner starter
balsamic pork with orange & apple salad - dinner
cracker bread with hummus - snack
dried fruit or nuts - snack

I sometimes have a two course evening meal at home, more so at the weekend.
DH will have cereal & a cooked breakfast at the weekend too.
But we both just have cereal mid week.

Nope, it is 5-6 meals per day + snacks and no I'm not overweight.

My diet plan is roughly:


coffee's 100
breakfast 500
fruit/pre work out250
lunch 500
home time 300
dinner 500
supper 200
snacks 150

Total Cals = 2500

Break fast at 7am, lunch 13:30, dinner at 8-8:30 supper at 10:30 then bed.


On this I'm actually losing weight so I will have to increase soon (probably by adding more carbs back), calculations tell me I am burning roughly 3000 calories per day average at the moment.


If I only eat 3 meals a day I have to gorge myself and I don't like it, so I spread them out little and often is the way for me.