Having trouble making groceries stretch

lynzpower

Personally I agree. I pretty much only buy butchers meat now ( although I do like the lidl frozen unboned breasts as well) and sometimes even the M&S 3 for a 10er meats are good ( massive chickens, huge packs of sausages) I much prefer vegetarian option sausages to cheap sausages and at least I dont need to be concerned by husbandry issues with a linda M sausage and I get 6 for 99p!

Again "cheaper" meats like stewing beef, liver chicken thighs go a lot further than breasts in any "format".

I am also fortunate to have a great market where you can get bags of onions for £1 ( sacks) or even 10 peppers for £1 but obviously not everyone is so lucky.

nuttybabe

How about spag bol. Mince is quite cheap (99p at lidl this weekend) and will make a 3 family meal batch for us as i bulk it out with lentils and veg and if you puree the sauce before adding mince the kids wont know there is veg in it (and i add a handful of oats as it makes it creamy and kids love it). I freeze 2 family meal portions. 17p pasta (500g) should do more than the 4 of you for 1 family meal. when we have a chicken we have the leftovers for the next day or 2 depending on size of chicken and thats for 5 of us.

Horace

Another one recommending you use a local butcher (the best ones have a queue on a Saturday morning). I went last week and got a 2lb bag of bacon bits for £1.50 (used in a quiche and for bacon sandwiches) and half a dozen large eggs for 99p. My butcher often has offers on e.g 2lb of lean steak mince for a fiver (and he will bag it as 2 x 1lb bags), a pack of chicken thighs for £2.99 (there will be around 6 large ones or 8 small ones), I can buy a cooked chicken or a whole chicken for around about £2 (admittedly they are small ones) which I then use for roast dinner, left overs get turned into my own tv dinners which I freeze and the carcass is turned into soup. I know that I can eat extremely well for £20 in my local butcher. I tend to use greengrocers as well as their veg is cheaper than the supermarket and hasn't always travelled as far.

It is possible to still eat well on a budget.

vennypenny

OP - I know you you say your wife & kids are fussy and won't eat veggies, but there are lots out there and different things you can try. I hate boiled carrots, but slice them thinly and stir fry them in some margerine with a bit of garlic and I love them - a sliced white onion in there as well is good too. When first married, my husband would only eat sweet corn. I brought him round by making cheese sauce to put on the veggies (cauli, broccoli, etc) - he likes cheese a lot and initially the cheese helped hide the veggie flavour. Then as he got used to eating the veg, reduced the sauce down to a sprinkle of grated cheese, then no cheese at all. Anything you can do to encourage them to eat veggies is good, and better for long term health. Frozen veg can so easily be overcooked, and sometimes the 'mushyness' is the problem.

I hate to sound as if I'm preaching, but if you can make the meal a little more varied and interesting, it helps the feeling of satisfaction to last longer. And I totally agree with other folks who have posted - the hungry feeling that you get when coming down off the carb/sugar rush from processed foods can be just miserable. So if you can either avoid those combinations or add something else to the meal to reduce them (something that takes longer to digest and helps smooth it out) then it saves on the temptation to snack later or have kids that are moaning because they feel hungry all the time.

If you have any other supermarkets that are available, hitting the reduced sections on a regular basis can be a great way to find bargains, but even at full price, there are some 'in season' fresh veggie bargains to be had.

schmucker

vennypenny wrote: »

OP - I know you you say your wife & kids are fussy and won't eat veggies, but there are lots out there and different things you can try. I hate boiled carrots, but slice them thinly and stir fry them in some margerine with a bit of garlic and I love them - a sliced white onion in there as well is good too. When first married, my husband would only eat sweet corn. I brought him round by making cheese sauce to put on the veggies (cauli, broccoli, etc) - he likes cheese a lot and initially the cheese helped hide the veggie flavour. Then as he got used to eating the veg, reduced the sauce down to a sprinkle of grated cheese, then no cheese at all. Anything you can do to encourage them to eat veggies is good, and better for long term health. Frozen veg can so easily be overcooked, and sometimes the 'mushyness' is the problem.

I hate to sound as if I'm preaching, but if you can make the meal a little more varied and interesting, it helps the feeling of satisfaction to last longer. And I totally agree with other folks who have posted - the hungry feeling that you get when coming down off the carb/sugar rush from processed foods can be just miserable. So if you can either avoid those combinations or add something else to the meal to reduce them (something that takes longer to digest and helps smooth it out) then it saves on the temptation to snack later or have kids that are moaning because they feel hungry all the time.

If you have any other supermarkets that are available, hitting the reduced sections on a regular basis can be a great way to find bargains, but even at full price, there are some 'in season' fresh veggie bargains to be had.

The issue really is a lack of knowledge on my part, I can't really cook, well I can cook sausages, dippers and even a roast dinner but thats really as far as I can go, I don't know really how to make a decent meal, and my wife is queen of the deep fat fryer, everything goes in there, so its safe to say she can't really cook either.

Butterfly_Brain

Can your wife cook? I ask this because she seems to buy a lot of processed foods, which are not healthy.

Try this site it really is good http://thirty-quid.blogspot.com/

Have you an Aldi near to you? Their super 6 is really good every week, this week it is iceberg lettuce 39p, cucumber 39p, spring onions 39p, peppers 3pk 69p, corn on the cob 2 large 69p, large vine tomatoes 69p, 4 jacket potatoes are 49p and a bag of new potatoes 39p, black or white grapes are 99p, apples and satsumas are 99p a bag
4 frozen pork chops £1.99, A chicken is £2.99 or £3.99 for a larger one, stewing steak is £2.49, and we got 8 large(BBQ size) cumberland sausages for 49p last week.

I am another one who prefers to go to a proper butchers.
I buy joints of beef or pork and roast it then slice it thinly and usually end up with enough meat for at least three roasts per joint, I then freeze the meat in meal size portions and then reheat thoroughly in gravy.

We eat veggie twice a week with things such as macaroni cheese,( I use straight spaghetti) and if you want meat just buy some bacon bits and sprinkle a few in the MC or we have a HM pizza, quiche, risotto, HM soup with HM bread or frittatas.

Grow your own veg and go foraging, this year we have picked lots of blackberries so I will make some blackberry cordial (great for colds) and I have frozen a lot and will make crumbles or sponge puddings with them for the winter.

I batch bake cakes, cookies and cheese straws so that there is always something to add to a lunch box.
If I am cooking a bolognaise, shepherds pie, casserole I do double the amount and then freeze one so that I have a good stock of HM ready meals in the freezer so if I don't feel well I always have a meal that can be bunged in the oven.
If you go to the market last thing on a Saturday you can pick up a few bargains, because a lot of the stall holders wan't to get rid of stuff so that they don't have to throw it away.

I am available to give lessons if you haven't got a relative nearby who can help
HTH

schmucker

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Can your wife cook? I ask this because she seems to buy a lot of processed foods, which are not healthy.

Try this site it really is good http://thirty-quid.blogspot.com/

Have you an Aldi near to you? Their super 6 is really good every week, this week it is iceberg lettuce 39p, cucumber 39p, spring onions 39p, peppers 3pk 69p, corn on the cob 2 large 69p, large vine tomatoes 69p, 4 jacket potatoes are 49p and a bag of new potatoes 39p, black or white grapes are 99p, apples and satsumas are 99p a bag
4 frozen pork chops £1.99, A chicken is £2.99 or £3.99 for a larger one, stewing steak is £2.49, and we got 8 large(BBQ size) cumberland sausages for 49p last week.

I am another one who prefers to go to a proper butchers.
I buy joints of beef or pork and roast it then slice it thinly and usually end up with enough meat for at least three roasts per joint, I then freeze the meat in meal size portions and then reheat thoroughly in gravy.

We eat veggie twice a week with things such as macaroni cheese,( I use straight spaghetti) and if you want meat just buy some bacon bits and sprinkle a few in the MC or we have a HM pizza, quiche or frittatas.

Grow your own veg and go foraging, this year we have picked lots of blackberries so I will make some blackberry cordial (great for colds) and I have frozen a lot and will make crumbles or sponge puddings with them for the winter.

I batch bake cakes, cookies and cheese straws so that there is always something to add to a lunch box.
If I am cooking a bolognaise, shepherds pie, casserole I do double the amount and then freeze one so that I have a good stock of HM ready meals in the freezer so if I don't feel well I always have a meal that can be bunged in the oven.
If you go to the market last thing on a Saturday you can pick up a few bargains, because a lot of the stall holders wan't to get rid of stuff so that they don't have to throw it away.
HTH

Well my wife can work the deepfat fryer and microwave if you call that cooking.

Thanks for that site, some really tasty looking recipes on there:D

Butterfly_Brain

Just caught the bit that neither of you are great cooks ........No problem everyone has to learn and it took me a few years and I bet all of us have had a disaster or two in the kitchen, and mine always happened when the outlaws were coming for dinner :eek: :rotfl::rotfl:

Try to get a copy of Jamie's Ministry of food from the library it has step by step instructions with pictures and is a brilliant book if you are just starting out.

Another great book is River Cottage Everyday.

But to start you off here are some links to sites that have step by step recipes with pictures

http://www.cookuk.co.uk/

http://step-by-step-cook.co.uk/mains/bolognese/

http://www.reallynicerecipes.com/

A recipe is only a set of instructions and if you follow them to the letter you shouldn't go far wrong

McKneff

schmucker wrote: »

The issue really is a lack of knowledge on my part, I can't really cook, well I can cook sausages, dippers and even a roast dinner but thats really as far as I can go, I don't know really how to make a decent meal, and my wife is queen of the deep fat fryer, everything goes in there, so its safe to say she can't really cook either.

There are so many basic recipes about, (on line) and I understand where youre coming from so please dont be offended but I always say if you can read, you can cook.

lynzpower

also OP if you have not seen it you can search for "videojug" which involves making recipes - videos instead of text if this is easier?