Do I really spend to much on food?

misscousinitt

crux wrote: »

l suspect I started something here that I may regret, I have a feeling I'm going to, if not already do, look like a complete arrogant d**k . But anyhow, here is the weeks menu from memory, at least what I will eat, snacks vary for my wife and my daughter eats quite a few different things.

Monday
porridge/skim milk - buy the cheapest porride oats - they really don't taste any different
Parma ham & mozzarella salad - aldi do a italian style ham (tastes same as parma, 1/2 the price - same with mozarella only 49p a ball!)
tuna salad (1/2 tin of tuna)
salmon on spinach with crème fresh - buy a large fillet of salmon from fish counter, divide up and freeze
grapes, Clementine - look out for aldi super 6 or lidl for fruit
dried fruit - again aldi are cheap for things like this - or buy loose from some health food shops
cracker bread with hummus - could you make your own hummus - dried chick peas are really cheap - it would easily last a week in the fridge

Tuesday
porridge/skim milk
banana & fruit
Sweet potato & feta salad - again, aldi for feta or choose 'salad cheese' at the supermarket which is the same but much cheaper
slow cooked chicken thighs in a tomato, olive & rosemary sauce
quavers
dried fruit
pine nuts
cracker bread & cottage cheese - try value cottage cheese - can't see it would be any different

Wednesday
porridge/skim milk
banana & fruit
peppered mackerel salad - could you use tinned mackeral fillets instead and add some cracked black pepper
tuna salad (1/2 tin of tuna)
sticky pork loin with cabbage - could this be done with a cheap cut of pork - fat can always be cut off after cooking if you don't want to eat it
falafels - could you look at making your own? this would work out much cheaper
dried fruit

Thursday
porridge again
banana & fruit
Greek salad
halumi and lentil salad - halloumi is really expensive - nice for a treat only
slow cooked Chinese beef with Pak Choi
falafels or hummus
dried fruit or nuts

Friday
porridge
banana & fruit
egg & bacon salad - free range eggs are only 99p a half dozen in aldi, as the bacon is for a salad you could buy a pack of 'cooking bacon' freeze into portions and use for salads
halumi and lentil salad
slow cooked lamb & apricots - cheap cuts of lamb would be good for this, eg shoulder - I have had no problems with the quality of frozen lamb
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

Sunday
porridge
crab & chilli pasta - instead of using all crab, you could add some frozen prawns to bulk it out - crab is expensive, but a really nice treat
tuna salad
Kedgeree - frozen smoked fish is very acceptable for this dish and much cheaper than fresh
falafels

The ingredients for this shop cost £75 and I still need to buy the lamb and probably some more milk etc before the weeks out. Also I have loads of stuff in the store cupboard so £75 is artificially low. Mehh, I'll post the shop list when I get home.

just a few suggestions, we eat well and indeed have expensive tastes, but since I discovered aldi for cooked meats and cheese I refuse to spend more...

Good luck

PS Used to spend about £350ish on food a month for two of us and a cat!!!!! Average is about £200 ish now - even though we budget £260...

Winged_one

I'd agree with others - it's only over expenditure if you cannot afford it. I sometimes feel guilty for what looks like a large budget on the monthly challenge, but then I remind myself that it's still lower than it was, I CAN afford it (for now at least) and I do need a certain amount of conveniences (not ready meals but things like "Dunkers" for lunchboxes).

The food looks great, but there are things that can be done cheaper but still great. I think I saw spicy dishes - a lot of curries etc can be really cheap, especially long cooking ones.

If you are under time pressures, what about doing dishes the night before to eat quickly the following night. On a Sunday, for example, I am usually making a roast dinner for ourselves as we love that (or at least a proper family dinner). So as I am cooking anyway, I will also make Monday's dinner - a spag bol, a lamb rogan josh, lasagne, fish pie - I have a decent range of good options. All of which just need to reheat quickly while cooking some rice/pasta, or are ready due to preset oven when we get in.

And I usually do a double batch of that Monday dinner - putting the second half in the freezer. So later in the week, I'll have a batch of another easy prep dinner for after work (from a previous week so not overdosing on spag bol in one week). Whole meals (shepherd's pie, fish pie, lasagne) may be optimistic until you clear out some space, but "wet" meals (spag bol sauce, curries, chilli, etc) can be bagged up to use very little space once frozen - even if you have to use plastic tubs to freeze, remove from tub and put into a freezer bag once frozen to take up far less space and being more stackable.

There are dishes where I specifically try to have leftovers - like making a curry or chilli one night and keeping a single portion of rice. Which is turned into a Nasi Goreng the following night with a tin of tuna in oil (I use the oil one for this as I cook the dish in the tuna-y oil for cost but mainly flavour reasons), an onion, garlic, a bunch of veggies (usually range of pepper, mushroom, courgette, peas, french beans, mangetout, shredded cabbage or brussels sprouts, brocolli sprouts etc), half a tin of sweetcorn, and a fistful of frozen prawns, with a couple of tablespoons of curry powder (mild). I often use frozen veg for this (between shop and HG ones frozen in summer gluts) and certainly veg that are quite "droopy" are fine.

I will try and, when I have time like a Sunday afternoon, or an evening I am relaxing by cooking (or destressing by cooking!! LOL!), to do a batch of basic tomato sauce (onion, garlic, tomatoes, dash wine etc) to have in fridge for a week or freeze. Defrosts quickly and can have diced meat/chick/prawns with chopped veggies added for a quick pasta dinner. Even a handful of frozen prawns from a large bag is sufficient (making what looks like a luxury actually very frugal indeed), or Lidl do 2 portion packs of bacon pieces which are great for dishes like this - I usually buy a few packs when I am there as they last ages. (I also buy a couple of chorizo sausages and a few packs of their parma/black forest hams, as they are great value and also last ages - so worth a trip maybe once a month/6 weeks for certain things to stock up - and their cheese is excellent.)

If you can find a local butcher or fishmonger (the friday van does sound like its worth investigating), they really are worth it.

And DO try to plan meals before shopping (allowing flexibility if you do see "whoopsies"), so you can not only work deals into the plan, but also make sure you have what you need so you don't need to go again until the following week.

~Chameleon~

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I am the eternal student, no doubt you will note the healthcare theme. Many of my posts have been contracts so I go with the flow and see what comes up next that interests me! I have never laid claim to being a dietician as that is four years to state-registration. :rotfl: I am qualified to give nutritional advice, as some of the modules I have taken confer additional registration categories for our professional body.

First was ONC 'Pharmaceutical sciences' to take me to qualified dispensing technician, then worked as a research technician completing an HNC in 'Applied biology' plus some additional modules ... dissertation hijacked by protracted illness ... Retrained as a PT; currently reaching the end of my third degree level qualification in physical activity (health not sports) during which I am electing to take all the nutrition modules. :j

My own health permitting, I have been offered an unconditional place to top up in 'Health sciences'. I also do all sorts of random stuff for CPD - smoking cessation, partnership working ... ??!! :eek:

Well thanks for finally clearing this up, although I note you don't actually have a degree yet, but your current qualifications would certainly count as admissible to apply to uni

Not having a dig, but many of your posts start with "I am a qualified ......." "I'm educated to degree level in ........" before going on to give people a lecture about what they're doing right or wrong, as if you are the ultimate authority on the subject.

You may have studied some of these subjects but you appear to have very little hands on working experience in a lot of these areas (your own admission of unemployment) and studying a module won't give you that experience. You even appointed yourself as expert feline nutritionist on the pets board, yet have no prior experience or qualifications in animal science or related subjects, just what you've picked up on reading internet forums!

Your attitude often comes across as "I have studied this subject therefore I know better than you or anyone else about it" which possibly isn't how you intend it, but a lot of people see it that way. Anyway, now I've got that off my chance I won't ever mention it again

Apologies to the OP for going off-topic

crux

misscousinitt thanks for the tips, I will have to check out aldi for sure.

Already make the hummus etc from scratch, it's so easy and taste's fab compared to shop brought versions.

lol, your so right about porridge oat, the ones I have atm are boxed organic things, I'm sure there is no difference between them and value in a bag oats apart from about £1 :P

crux

Right I have to get some work done!, or this forum could turn into an expensive hobby rather than a money saving tool :eek:

Will check back later in the day.

Winged_one

Sorry just realised you said Aldi near you, not Lidl. But I think their versions of stuff are quite good too (its only near MIL so I tend to get "Super 6" F&V, but not a lot else as car always full).

And if you can find any kind of ethnic shop near you, they really are the business for spices etc, and tins are usually very good value (like a tin of chickpeas to make your hummus, or a tin of cannellini beans to make a slow cooker lamb shanks dish).

And definitely, the slow cooker is great for using cheaper cuts and making them yum!!

One thing which I remember about Morrisons from when we were in UK last summer was that meat was great and they had some different cuts to the usual supermarket basics. Like, we got breast of lamb for pennies (well, compared to lamb prices here), which had loads of meat and was really really tasty when slow roasted (we got 2 and tied them together with HM stuffing between). Sunday roast dinner for less than half the price of a much smaller joint here.

[Deleted User]

I'm a lifelong vegetarian but your menus still look good! It seems very expensive to me for although we don't eat meat I buy ethically (Fair trade and a Fair amount of organic) and spend considerably less.

I calculated that you are spending about £14 a day on food (allowing £80/month for pet food and cleaning products) which seems a lot when some of the meals (breakfast) are quite inexpensive. I don't know if anyone has mentioned waste. Do you throw anything away? Nothing gets thrown in our household and many others I am sure. Soup and bread or curry and rice use up leftoveer veg for example.

Speaking as a vegetarian the price of dried fruit and nuts varies a great deal. You need to look carefully at the prices. In a supermarket it is usually cheapest on the baking section. Julian Graves can be cheap but you have to check.

Salad ingredients can be expensive and street markets are often cheaper.

In the end how you spend your money is a pesonal choice but I think SA holiday is a possibility if you consider your housekeeping budget.

cooking-mama

I wrote a massive big reply then lost it?..The abbreviated version is...Avoid Aldi,(except for their weekly fruit/veg specials)a daily newspaper reprted it to be consistently the 2nd most expensive supermarket for basics(beaten only by waitrose)
Good quality food is expensive,I could save a fortune if I sent my girls to school with crisps and cheap sausage rolls in their packed lunch..but how unhealthy is that!,also how do people make a chicken go so far?I feel inadequate reading some posts on OS,there is no way i could turn a standard £5 chicken into 5 main meals (for a family),and soup,and sandwiches...we get,1main meal,some sandwiches and scraps of skin etc for the dog...Also I live 10min drive to a local farm with shop and even its own butchers...it is very very expensive,they have a fortnightly farmers market,I got stung for just under a fiver for 1 sourdough loaf and 2 croissants!! I now bulk buy my meat from Costo,butchers quality at supermarket prices,I then bag and freeze in 400gm portions(gonna try reducing to 375gm,see if anyone notices)I used to buy 500gm prepacked diced steak etc,so doing it this way saves money..I have a "thing" about cheap meat/food,like most things we get what we pay for,years ago as a student nurse i got a cows eyelash in a frozen meat pie..!,makes you wonder what these cheap cuts of meat,or the contents of sausage rolls/pies etc actualy are...so my plan is to try quality rather than quantity...will be reading your replies with interest,thanks for posting..previous "feed your family for £50 a month etc",always put me off,made me feel i was doing something terribly wrong..I think at the moment i spend £500 a month for a family of 4 plus dog and guinea pig,im not sure,so the first tip im pinching is the one about keeping receipts for a month.
PS,I agree our Tesco is way more expensive than Morrisons,our butchers are far too expensive(same for independant greengrocers)..im turning my hand to £grow your own)its worth a try,we do get through a lot of fruit n veg.sadly its true that a multipack of walkers crisps is cheaper than a pack of gala apples

eleanor73

Do you waste any food? Your list looks lovely by the way but I can't see many leftovers on there. Maybe you don't have any but for me it's a really important part of moneysaving!

crux

eleanor73 wrote: »

Do you waste any food? Your list looks lovely by the way but I can't see many leftovers on there. Maybe you don't have any but for me it's a really important part of moneysaving!

Little in the way of left over's I almost always scoff them

Besides I try and buy for the meals I plan to make. There is occasionally dairy stuff like crème fresh and plain yoghurt wasted, although last night I also scoffed a bit of plain yog with my fruit to polish it off rather than bin it.

Last week I binned, 1 leek (forgot what I brought it for and it went bad), half a small tub of Greek yog, half a lot of HM hummus that had been in the fridge too long and a couple of oranges that had sat too long, so we do waste a bit and I will try to stop it. But mostly it's things that can't be frozen well.

Hehe, not getting much work done today!