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Hello :D
We are a family of six and my monthly food shopping usually comes to about £350. I'm sure I'm spending too much but I've concluded that this is because I'm buying too many convenience type foods due to my lack of cooking ability. Soooo, does anyone have any good words of advice or easy recipes to get me started on a more frugal way of feeding everyone. Must stress, my cooking ability is extremely limited! :D
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  • rosieben
    rosieben Posts: 5,010 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 22 August 2011 at 12:52PM
    there are lots of useful ideas on How to get started

    I think one of the biggest steps is control of your budget, keep your reciepts for a month to see where your money goes. Knowing what you have in your cupboards and freezer, meal planning and shopping lists are all useful habits too.

    How about joining us on the Grocery Challenge? :)
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  • GeorgieFTB
    GeorgieFTB Posts: 437 Forumite
    pdd

    When it comes to cooking the best advice I ever got, and my kids live by it, is... give it a go, if it all goes wrong cover it with ketchup! (or if its sweet, custard!)

    Start slowly, if you normally buy pizzas, make pizzas out of pitta breads, then the next time try to make the sauce, then before you know it you will be making everything from scratch. Building up a store cupboard takes a little time and money in the beginning.

    Good luck
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  • rosieben, that sounds great! I'll take a look :)

    GeorgieFTB, I'd already given some thought to building up a store cupboard. I'm the kind of person who rarely cooks anything from scratch so when I look at a receipe, I tend to freak out a little bit when I realise I need to buy 18234 different things in order to make it!:rotfl:

    Thanks to both of you for your advice :D
    Thanks to everyone who posts comps, I love winning prizes big and small
    :A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A
  • rosieben
    rosieben Posts: 5,010 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I don't like recipes that need more than 5 ingredients and at least 3 of those must be in my cupboard! :D

    If you start slowly as George suggested, you'll find that you build up your store of baking supplies, spices etc gradually rather than buying all 18234 ingredients at once. :D
    ... don't throw the string away. You always need string! :D

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  • Maitane
    Maitane Posts: 360 Forumite
    Try starting with things that are quite easy anyway, you'll be surprised how you're not actually that bad with a little bit of perseverence.

    Stew is quite hard to mess up as it's stuff in a pan and you just add whatever bits you like.
    I like using any reduced meat, if it has a bone in - even better. Brown that and put it to one side, cook some onion, celery and carrots diced up until they're soft. Add the meat back in and pour some stock in. Then add any kind of root veg like potato or parsnip to bulk it out or some kind of lentils instead. Chicken and lamb take pearl barley quite well and that's quite comforting if the weather is bad. Beef goes nice with potatoes. You can even add dumplings if you're feeling brave. I use 50g of plain flour (I've used self raising before and it's been fine), added two tablespoons of oil, some salt, some herbs and enough water to make it a kind of dough. Then roll it into balls and pop them on the top of the stew.

    Pasta bake is quite easy - precooked pasta, protein, vegetable and some sauce. My favourite is pasta with left over chicken, some leftover veg like peas, sweetcorn and carrots and a creamy sauce (even a jar would so) with a bit of cheese melted on the top.
    Or it could be pasta with some bacon bits and onion fried, a tomato sauce made from a tim of tomatoes, some crushed garlic, a few dried mixed herbs sprinkled in and cheese on top.

    Have a look through the weekly meal planner threads, there's always a wealth of ideas and being a friendly bunch, if there's something there that takes your fancy, they'll give you the recipe and sometimes even explain how to make it simple.
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  • rosieben, I will do that...otherwise my only other option will be to find recipes where the only additional ingredient is mixed herbs! Everyone always has a jar don't they? ;)

    Maitane, that's absolutely fab, thank you so much for taking the time to post. I think the problem with me is that I probably COULD cook but I've never really tried - I just tend to rely on the few simple things that I can do. Stew sounds pretty foolproof, I might try that as my first OS MSE meal! :)
    Thanks to everyone who posts comps, I love winning prizes big and small
    :A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A
  • Maitane
    Maitane Posts: 360 Forumite
    No worries Poodle. If you already can cook some stuff, you have what us sales vipers call "transferable skills".
    Plus, there are always left overs with stew that you can heat until it's less liquid-y and put into some pastry to make either a pie or pasties. Or just to have with bread as a lunch... yummy and OS :p
    "We always find something, hey Didi, to give us the impression we exist?" Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot.
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  • SpikyHedgehog
    SpikyHedgehog Posts: 1,011 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I find student cook books quite good at explaining everything & not assuming that one knows how to make bechamel sauce for example...

    I think I'd try to start with meals that you know your family will eat - I'm doing weekly meal plans based mainly around things I know the boys & I will eat & adding in 1 new meal or one that wasn't a big hit last time I did it, and posting it up so when DS2 says 'I hate this dinner! Why do you never cook nice food!', I can point out what we'll have the next day ;)

    Don't know how old your children are but I find I have to be clear with my boys about what they can have & when... I don't like coming home from work & doing dinner early as they've got Beavers, only to find they've had cheese sandwiches & glasses of milk when they got in from school so aren't hungry now!

    There's a collection of menu plans here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/346932 - though it looks a bit overwhelming! I think it's something to browse at, not try to read or do everything.
  • A recipe is just a simple set of instructions

    Try to get a copy of Jamie's Ministry of Food it really is a great book for newbie cooks
    or there are these sites with step by step instructions and pictures
    http://step-by-step-cook.co.uk/

    http://www.cookuk.co.uk/techniques/techniques.htm
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  • quintwins
    quintwins Posts: 5,179 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    i think the best thing for people who can't cook is a slow cooker, you can wing pretty much anything in and it comes out lovely, i have spag bol in mine at the mo, all i need was throw in some mince, 2 jars of pasta sauce (i usually make my own with tinned tomatoes but i still have loads of the 20p jars) some frozen pre sliced carrots, frozen peas and frozen sweetcorn and sliced an onion, so really all the work i did was slice and onion and throw everything in, and i'll boil some pasta and throw a garlic bread in the oven later, will add tin of beans and chilli flakes to the leftovers to make chilli so 2 meals with very little work, in a few days i'll be cooking a pork roast in it aswell which i'll just throw in with some honey, mustard, salt and pepper
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