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

Cheeselady

babyshoes wrote: »

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.

The only problem with growing veg in the garden is we have a dog and I'm thinking he would dig it all up! :eek: How do others get on who have dogs?

Cheeselady

MrsRogers wrote: »

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

Thanks for the mysupermarket idea, will give that a try.

jackieglasgow

My dog likes to try and dig up the spuds, but I have given her a box full of last year's spud soil and she happily uses that for burying her dinner and general making a messness, and my spuds are now safe!

DrDaz

Hi Cheeselady, homemade soups can be quite cheap to make and are miles
better than the tinned versions.

Here is my recipe for Lentil Soup. The colour is a little washed out compared to a
tin (I guess they use lots of colouring) but the taste is fabulous).

Should feed 4 (or 2 really hungry people), serve with crusty bread.

200g red lentils
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 litre vegetable stock
juice & rind of 1 lemon
½ teaspoon ground coriander seeds
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil

Method

1. Peel the onion and chop in half. Slice finely. Peel and crush the garlic.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan and add the onion and garlic. Saute gently
for 5 minutes, until softening.
3. Crush the peppercorns in a pestle and mortar (or grind coarsely in a
pepper grinder).
4. Add the pepper, cumin and coriander to the pan and cook for a further
2 minutes.
5. Add the lentils, lemon juice & rind and vegetable stock. Cover and simmer
gently for 25 minutes, until the lentils are soft. Stir regularly, to stop
the soup from burning to the bottom of the pan. You might need to add more
water, if it gets too thick.
6. Season with salt to taste.


Is there a farmfoods store near you? They normally have bread and milk on offer
£1.50 for two 4 pint bottles and two loaves (brown or white) for £1

missychrissy

Eggs are cheap and nutricious and also versatile. I pay 96p in my local village store for 6 Free Range - cheaper than the supermarkets. They can be made into omelettes/frittata/quiche etc as well as poached fried or boiled.

I make lots of soups/stews/curries in large batches using veg and pulses and they freeze well.

I agree with the others that the slow cooker is useful for creating cheap meals using cheaper cuts of meat. I always added lots of veg and pulses to the sc along with the meat. I find that lentils in pacticular thicken the liquid as well.

Cheese is very versatile. Buy on special offer and then grate and keep in the freezer. That way there is no waste and it is quick and easy to use. I add mine to whatever I'm cooking straight out of the freezer. I like a bit sprinkled over pasta and veg stir fry and adds some daily protein. Macaroni cheese and cauliflower or broccoli cheese is also very good.

Pasta is cheap and filling and versatile - pasta bakes/pasta with homemade tomato or basil sauces. Also noodles can be found very cheaply.

I try to buy as much as possible on special offer especially things like tins of tomatoes, tinned tuna, beans etc. I will buy a year's supply of something if I get the chance. I know this is more difficult when you have no slack in your budget.

I've recently discovered Farmfoods. 2kg of sugar for £1 and 2 cartons of fruit juice for £1 is the cheapest I've found for home brewing. They also have lots of other bargains such as very large packs of frozen veg for £1.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

ALIBOBSY

MrsRogers wrote: »

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

Mysupermarket is good, but it doesn't include all the shops. For me I find Aldi/lidl and morrisons are better on the pocket and shouldn't be written off. Just depends what you have near you and whoose products you prefer.

ali x

Cheeselady

jackieglasgow wrote: »

Oh BB thanks for the hint about the mixes at Asda, I only go there for them, so will pop down seeing as they are on offer.

They are fab mixes, the sausage mix makes great sausagerolls, sausages for breakfast or lunch, and I also make a kind of veggie stuffing mix with onion, sweetcorn, chopped mixed nuts and some herbs and spices, My lot love it for Sunday Dinner. The burgermix makes really nice meatballs, and sometimes if I have made pizza and have some mozarella left over, I put a piece in the middle of a burger, which is delicious, I also make it into pastie fillings with whatever bottom of the fridge veg I have too.

UPDATE on the mixes. I decided to go to ASDA today and get some, as tomorrow's appointment is cancelled. I checked online and they were still on offer 2 for £1, but when we got to the store, there was no offer on the shelves.

So, I found a store assistant, and she went to a checkout to check if the offer was on them, came back and said it wasn't but said she could let me have 2 for a £1. I explained I wanted 10 packs, as I came purposely to stock up on them, and she said she couldn't do that, and did I want to see the manager, so I said yes.

The manager came along and after I explained he said that any offers online for delivery were exclusive to that, and separate from store offers, and that meant the offer wasn't available instore. I explained again that we'd made a special journey for it, and that there was nothing on the website saying that prices were for delivery only, and could he let me have the 10 packs for £5 as a one off? He must have been fed up of me at that point, as he agreed to do that, so I did get the offer but not without a lot of hassle, we must have been on that aisle for about half an hour in all, so definitely know where to find them next time, it's imprinted on my brain! :rotfl:

So for anyone who's bought these mixes, did you buy them instore at the offer price, or was it an online order? Just wondering, and also for future reference thanks.

Going to use the bolognese one tonight, with some mushrooms to stretch one pack to serve 3, will report back on what whether we liked it or not!

Butterfly_Brain

Cheeselady I am proud of your OSness :T Good for you, and there was nothing on the web site to say that they were an exclusive offer for Home Delivery.

Cheeselady

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Cheeselady I am proud of your OSness :T Good for you, and there was nothing on the web site to say that they were an exclusive offer for Home Delivery.

Thanks, lol, DH was with me just standing there in the background, I said to him at the end are you proud of me or just totally embarrassed! :rotfl: I've learnt that there is no harm in asking, if you stay polite and smile, especially if it's a man, you MAY get what you're asking for!

Primrose

If you live near any Asian ethnic stores, these are the best places for buying pulses, lentils, dried beans, spices, etc. They are usually sold in bigger packs and are often far cheaper than in the average supermarket.