Wanting to lower our food spend, any tips? And toying with idea of a slow cooker.....

flubdub

So, I did a little adding up the other day, and it looks as though we are spending roughly £550-£570 a month on food/toilet rolls etc, for a family of 2 adults and three kids (youngest is only 1 yr old so doesnt eat much really). Me and the kids are veggies (OH isnt) so we buy a lot of Quorn which is expensive. We do buy own brand meat substitues if available though (although some are AWFUL).
We do eat a lot of frozen food I have to say, also a lot of pasta based dishes. I make my own cleaning sprays so they dont cost anything.
I think we are spending waaay too much tbh. I would like to see this brought down to at least £350. Is that unreasonable?
I just put a few things in my online Asda basket, and when I looked through it all, there was a lot of veg, and then the rest is frozen things like veggie burgers etc, and things for the kids lunchboxes which is all really expensive!

Also, I am thinking of getting a slow cooker. Would it be any use for us, as my mum told me that it is mainly for meat eaters?

Cheers!

oh, and Im breasfeeding, and we use reusable nappies, so they arent included in the shopping bill

Linz4383

hi you could try joinin the grocery challenge?! alot of people do seem to have cut there budget from a similar one to wot you had to lower than you want,
slow cookers can be used for a lot of things which if your using quorn you can still do alot of things like what people do with meat and you can do soups ... there is a slow cooker forum on here which you could perhaps look at and find more recipes that are suitable, ive found on the grocery challenge alot of people try to eat vegetarian meals to cut out the meat so you may find quite a few tips on there

http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/slow-cooker-recipes.php

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/everyday-cooking/vegetarian/slow-cooker/

kittycat204

read the packed lunch thread too, there are some great ideas. no reason the pack ups needs to cost a fortune.

sillyinthepast

Do you have a market near you? I find that the veg is so much chaeaper.

mytimetoshine2012

flubdub wrote: »

So, I did a little adding up the other day, and it looks as though we are spending roughly £550-£570 a month on food/toilet rolls etc, for a family of 2 adults and three kids (youngest is only 1 yr old so doesnt eat much really). Me and the kids are veggies (OH isnt) so we buy a lot of Quorn which is expensive. We do buy own brand meat substitues if available though (although some are AWFUL).
We do eat a lot of frozen food I have to say, also a lot of pasta based dishes. I make my own cleaning sprays so they dont cost anything.
I think we are spending waaay too much tbh. I would like to see this brought down to at least £350. Is that unreasonable?
I just put a few things in my online Asda basket, and when I looked through it all, there was a lot of veg, and then the rest is frozen things like veggie burgers etc, and things for the kids lunchboxes which is all really expensive!

Also, I am thinking of getting a slow cooker. Would it be any use for us, as my mum told me that it is mainly for meat eaters?

Cheers!

Hi Flubdub,

We are veggies too and it can make things expensive. We love quorn or LM and agree that the rest is hit and miss to say the least have taken to buying the mince/ pieces and fillets etc when they are on offer and stocking up. Between the big supermarkets someone has them for £1 every few months or so (At the minute I think it is sainsbury's). Morrisons usually have one thing a month (quorn nuggets at the mo).

We have stopped buying the quorn ham/chicken/turkey slices from the chilled department because it is too expensive. nstead we buy the quorn roasts (on offer for £2 at Christmas in Asda & Morrisons), cook them for a roast and have the rest in pack ups/pasta etc in the week.

We buy our veg from A*di and local greengrocers and it is way cheaper than A*DA (for example 3 leeks in A*di = 69p A*DA over £1) and again if there is an offer we chop some and freeze it.
Al*di are great for bits that I imagine kids would like in packed lunch so they are worth investigating. Also fozen things too we buy chips, onion rings (69p), icecream (99p for vanilla), peas (99p and comparable to BE in our opinion) so there is perhaps a saving to be made there too?

Pasta we always buy the cheapest dried avaiable and make our own sauces again A*di are cheapest for passata and tom puree too.;)

Ideas: we sometimes cover use frozen fillets pieces defrost them a bit then use 1tsp of a mix of oil/ soy sauce and a cajun seasoning (or whatever you want) - microwave again to heat through slice thinly and use win a sarnie with salad (taste better than the quorn fridge filler things which are a rip off!)


I can't answer re the slow cooker but I am innterested in replys as we have one but couldn't for the life of us decide what to cook so it has spent 6 years in the loft!

Sorry for the long reply but I hope something helps.
MTTS

flubdub

Thanks everyone

Silly - we do have a market near us, but its a teeny little stand and only on twice a week I think. We are quite unfortunate that we live in a tiny town and are about 10-13 miles away from any big supermarkets. The nearest is Asda, and Aldi.

Thanks timetoshine - some great ideas there thanks. We actually did that exact same thing for the first time with a Quorn roast this weekend.

rosie383

If you are thinking of a slow cooker, especially if you don't know how much use you will get from it, look out at car boot sales ( I got mine for £2!!) or even ask on Freecycle. There are probably others in your area, who, like mytimetoshine have one hanging around in the loft.
It's great for veg soups/ stews/ curries etc.

Broomstick

We have been using Quorn mince for a long time and I tend to stretch it by adding extra veg, eg fry onions and leeks, add diced or grated carrot when cooking etc. I suppose it might be possible to stretch it even further with lentils like people do with meat mince but I haven't tried that.

A packet of Quorn mince cooked with veg and tomatoes will normally do us two main meals (me plus two older extra hungry teenagers who both do lots of sport). It's usually two out of: one meal as a bolognese type sauce with pasta and cheese on top, one meal with mash on top as Shep-pie, or one meal used to stuff courgettes (I add the courgette inners to bulk out the mince even further) baked in the oven with grated cheese on top.

However, I'm now just starting to experiment with soya mince and cooking the same kinds of meals. You have to try a bit harder at getting it to taste interesting though!

B x

cheeswright

there are lots of vege foods you can cook in a slow cooker

but you need to make everything much drier than you might expect initially as they give off a lot of water which dosnt evaporate

there are also lots of puddings you can cook in it - but not ones that will stop your arteries clogging up

I have tried a wide range of vege meals - but generally have stopped using it for fresh veg as the flavour deteriorates too much I also found that quorn dosnt improve for long cooking either

soups are ok...ish.. but not fab
and tomatoes and peppers tend to become slightly bitter if cooked like this in stews without the fat from the meat to enrich the dish

so even though I have two...(and you can often pick them up in tescos for a tenner) I wouldnt for purely vege cooking

kim107

I've been a veggie for 14 years and have only just discovered how easy lentils are to cook with (thanks to this forum). The brown lentils are very cheap and good for you. OH eats meat but doesn't seem to mind having a combination of lentils and meat in stews etc. and it helps the meat go further.

Definitely try Ald! for the basics and also if you have any ethnic food shops near you they can be much cheaper than the supermarkets for spices and dried foods.

Broomstick

kim107 wrote: »

I've been a veggie for 14 years and have only just discovered how easy lentils are to cook with (thanks to this forum). The brown lentils are very cheap and good for you.

Thanks very much for this reminder Kim. I cook soup etc with red lentils but I'd forgotten about brown ones.:o I'll have a go at the shep-pie recipe with brown lentils next week instead of soya mince and see how my DSs like it. I've decided to give the soya mince a miss this week and am trying them on tofu again (which I love and they were iffy about but that was ages ago so I think a retrial may be in order!):D

B x