My food budget has halved! Need lots of help please, including veggie recipes!

SailorSam

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Asda do a range of dried soya mixes such as burger, mince and sausage and they are on special this week get 2 for £1 I have stocked up for veggie DD

Butterfly where abouts on the shelves will i find those soya nixes, i think i'm going Asda tomorrow.
Thanks.

jackieglasgow

Sam in my Asda they are next to the boxes of dried peas and near the flavoured Couscous sachets. They look like this There is also a falafel mix which is OK, I put extra chickpeas in the time I bought it.

Cheeselady

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Porridge for Breakfast or Smart price/basic cornflakes make your own granola try thriftlady's home page she has lots of recipes and ideas
Asda do a range of dried soya mixes such as burger, mince and sausage and they are on special this week get 2 for £1 I have stocked up for veggie DD I have used the mince in a Bolognaise, chilli and curry sauces and even DH carnivorus likes it. I used it a lot when DH was made redundant 2 years ago
Rissotto (You can use Short Grain Rice instead of the expensive rissotto rice - if you get the SG rice in the ethnic aisle it works out a lot cheaper)
Quiches
Make your own biscuits, cakes and bread
Home made soups are cheap and filling
Home Made pizza
Pasta with Tomatoes and veg sprinkled with cheese
Cauliflower Cheese
Curry
Egg and Chips
Macaroni Cheese

Put thrift or frugal living on google search and you will be surprised just how many sites there are

Most Sainsburys have an extensive range of basic priced goods and in the main they are very good but the museli in Asda is better

Most of all remember you are not alone and most of us have been there and will happily try to help x

Wow, thanks so much for telling me about those mixes, I found them on the ASDA website, what a great selection, info here for anyone else interested:
http://groceries.asda.com/asda-estore/search/searchcontainer.jsp;jsessionid=INGv0HOUcycbBi0NKOsBnw**.oses4067-atg05?trailSize=1&searchString=soya&domainName=Products&headerVersion=v1&_requestid=208079

They are on the aisle with dried veg/pulses

Cheeselady

Farway wrote: »

Now is the time for free foraging, blackberries of course, and depending where you live maybe apples / plums

You could use Value flour and make pies etc for freezing, or just cook the fruit and freeze it for use later

We do have an apple tree in the garden, so I want to make the most of that, does anyone have a crumble recipe that's not too high in fat or sugar?

Butterfly_Brain

Quick note the offer is only valid until tomorrow so get down to Asda quickly x

Cheeselady

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Quick note the offer is only valid until tomorrow so get down to Asda quickly x

Oh no, I can't get there until Wednesday! I am going to town where the ASDA is for an eye test, and can't justify the petrol to go up there again tomorrow, oh bummer.

Nichelette

jackieglasgow wrote: »

Sam in my Asda they are next to the boxes of dried peas and near the flavoured Couscous sachets. They look like this There is also a falafel mix which is OK, I put extra chickpeas in the time I bought it.

Thanks so much for this, I've been trying to find where they'd hidden the falafel mix for ages!

babyshoes

Cheeselady wrote: »

We do have an apple tree in the garden, so I want to make the most of that, does anyone have a crumble recipe that's not too high in fat or sugar?

Apparently you can add oats to your crumble to make it a bit healthier, and presumably crumblier. You could probably also subsitute some of the sugar with splenda, or that 'half and half' type sugar.

You say you have a garden - do you grow any of your own food? Things like lettuce and radishes are rediculously easy and quick to grow, you could get a good crop before winter. If you put a pre-grown courgette plant in the ground NOW you might just get a few before winter. Next year, consider growing crops from the pumpkin family such as courgettes, squashes, patty pans etc. They always seem to give a glut of crops. Two courgette plants last year produced slightly more than a two person, courgette loving, household could use up without getting sick of them!

Also, berries and other fruit can be expensive in the shops, but things like raspberries will keep going for years, after the initial outlay.

Loulou2010

not really sure if this is any help but we find that we save money by doing a big shop and stocking up with things like meat/sauces etc when they are on special offer, also tinned things. (tomatoes are essential!!) we tend to only need to buy bread/milk etc weekly. also shopping online or if we go into the store, go later in the evening as you get things marked down that can be frozen before their use by date.

with bread we buy a loaf and freeze it and only take a few slices out as we need them as we were wasting loads as it was going stale/off. also with milk, we buy two 6 pints for £3 (i think) and freeze one for a few days. we go through 12 pints in a week :eek:

we also freeze any leftovers of dinner for lunches...

MrsRogers

Firstly ... You can do it.. it just takes a little imagination and a frugal attitude :T

Try and meal plan - I have found it works wonders and its also not so daunting looking through the cupboards wondering what on earth to make for dinner!! or worse coming back from the supermarket after spending a fortune and realizing you havent anything for supper (done that a few times before meal planning)

Have you thought of bulk cooking and freezing?

Another big thing for me is shopping via mysupermarket.com it has all the big name supermarkets .. you fill your trolley and if there is a cheaper alternative it gives you a swap and save option.. you also get to see how much your total trolley costs in eachsupermarket :T:T You can then send the trolley to the atual supermarket or print out the items for a ready made shopping list ... I love it and would be lost without it now:j

Read all these forums ... My husband and I are trying to tighten our belts with risk of redundancy looming and i have picked up some fab ideas

Good Luck