Grocery Bills

vl2588

That's very good! I 'allow' myself £100 a month and am often under but I doubt I get to £60. I know full well I can feed myself for less but I like treats such as wine too much!

Linda32

becky4131 wrote: »

Was thinking about getting a slow cooker and cooking a batch of stew to have with vedge or rice, how long will stew freeze for?

Where is the best place to buy meat from? i tend to get most things at the supermarket but fresh meat seems so expensive. What are prices at butchers like in comparison?

Sorry for long post, i am clueless but very eager to learn

Hi, I don't feel these any need to buy a slow cooker, a stew cooks in the oven in 2 hours. If you get two oven proof dishes. (Wilkinsons/Sainsburys/Tesco - £4.00 each or there abouts)

This is what I do. Make two stews at the same time, then portion it up in plastic boxes. These can then be frozen and will keep for at least a year, probably longer.

Then, say if you want one for tea on Thursday, take out Wednesday tea time and it will be defrosted in the fridge. This way you have you own made ready meal.

You can judge your own portions for yourself and have it with spuds and veg.

You can usually get a couple of packets of stewing steak from Tesco/Sainsburys for £5.00-£6.00 and this would make around 8 portions. (If you compare this to ready meals it does work out cheaper)

You can use whatever veggies you like with the stew. I usually go for roots like carrots/parsnips but its up to you. Mushrooms would be nice as well.

Realbairn

arm yourself with a good few plastic containers and individual oven proof dishes. I have a family but i still make things in bulk batches. things like soup, which i make depending on whats on offer etc, so it could be lentil or leek and potato etc, depending on offers and whoopsies at end of day. things like shephards pie can be made in batches and frozen, e.g. 1Ib of mince can make about 3/4 depending how you make it, with potatoes comes in at less than £1 a meal - i realise you can buy some frozen ones a bit cheaper but homemade ones are bigger, more filling and you know what goes into them.

catlovin_gal11

I have told so many friends about this site as I was amazed to find they many didn't realise how much it can save you thanks to all the helpful people posting.
I often read without posting, but for all those who like to save on their groceries, thanks for reminding me about the Indian shops for things like rice pasta, herbs and lentils. I think my order for shop-hoping as one user calls it, will be Indian shop, Poundstretcher(Really cheap T-rolls and PG T bags,sugar and some cereal bars)/Home Bargains, Aldi(Great for veg and fruit,tins and frozen)/Lidl. I'm veering away from Tesco, particularly as I saw today that bread flour has gone up from 70p mid last year to £1.29 now (decided to get my bread-maker back in action now too!) I understand Asda and Lidl do bread flour for 50p! Wish I'd known before I bought a bag! Serve me right for not checking here first!
I am definately going to try to cut back even further on food. I do cook a lot from scratch. I just need to find somewhere reasonable for meat. Local Market might be an idea, but it's just having to go into town and find parking. Anyone else got any priority order for shopping? Thanks again all.