How I cut my food expenses by 50%

spidersandsprinkles

maman wrote: »

Don't say that on here!!! ;)

You need to do a meal plan and just buy what you need. DH and I don't have vegetarian meals as such but many of our meals are very light on meat and heavy on healthy veg. Examples would be a stir-fry with a matchbox sized piece of beef or a small chicken breast between us (slice it thinly when almost frozen) or a chicken casserole made with a couple of chicken thighs each or a sausage casserole with perhaps 3 sausages (cut into chunks) between us.

Ha its not my fault. I would love to do a meal plan but my partner seems to hate planning meals and likes to buy things as and when which is frustrating. I have tried to make him understand that it certainly costs more and means we're constantly in the supermarket but he just loves food shopping.
I try my best to use up everything we buy but hes not as concerned and thinks I'm just making a fuss. Gonna have to keep fighting my case I guess!

MandM90

*miaomiao* wrote: »

By coincidence with this post, it's now 12 months since I became a vegan for health reasons. My partner eats almost all the same meals as I do. We have noticed that our bills for food cost less than when we ate meat and dairy, and we have noticed that we eat a much better range of food. We even think our cooking and imaginative cooking skills have improved, despite us being foodies before!

It might not work for everyone, but we are happy and saving money!

Us too! Our meals are much more exciting than they were before - we eat foods from all around the world and our food is much, much cheaper. But the best part is we feel fantastic, are at our optimum weights and are doing something good for the planet :T

BitterAndTwisted

I don't want to appear completely unhelpful but buying foods from all around the world could be more damaging to the planet than eating a few chickens and their eggs produced up the road.

Out of season luxury foodstuffs flown in from a country where the majority of the locals can't even afford to buy the basics is guaranteed to get my dander up.

quintwins

I thought she meant a good varitey of world foods, as in recipes ect not acually imported food could be wrong tho.

My hubby would leave me if i went veggie so i do a few reduced meat meals a month.

MandM90

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I don't want to appear completely unhelpful but buying foods from all around the world could be more damaging to the planet than eating a few chickens and their eggs produced up the road.

Out of season luxury foodstuffs flown in from a country where the majority of the locals can't even afford to buy the basics is guaranteed to get my dander up.

I didn't mean out of season foodstuffs, I meant cooking different cuisines, which shouldn't involve expensive imported food if you cook from scratch and use your imagination! Anyway, buying out of season isn't cheap at all and a lot of my veg comes from my parent's garden

(also, according to my Chemistry lecturer, the damage to the environment by the meat and dairy industry is actually larger than the entire transportation industry, but I don't want to get into a debate here!)

ragz_2

quintwins wrote: »

My hubby would leave me if i went veggie so i do a few reduced meat meals a month.

Ditto (and he has meat in his packed lunch too). I have found I can just about get away with things like quiche and macaroni cheese if I put chopped up ham/bacon in, because then it's not 'meat free'.

I would be more than happy with veggie meals but DH is a carnivore!

MandM90

ragz wrote: »

Ditto (and he has meat in his packed lunch too). I have found I can just about get away with things like quiche and macaroni cheese if I put chopped up ham/bacon in, because then it's not 'meat free'.

I would be more than happy with veggie meals but DH is a carnivore!

Haha, that sounds like my stepdad. My mum has banned bacon from the house and last time I visited I saw an empty packet of bacon bits in his van. Old habits die hard :rotfl:

Justamum

LIB3RTY wrote: »

Another way to keep food is to "can it". Search for "Food Canning" and you'll find plenty of survivalist websites with detailed explanations and instructions on how to do it. I do it with rice, beans and cereals. It extends the shelf life massively.

Rice keeps for ages in its dried state and cooks quickly so I wouldn't bother canning it - safety issues would also put me off.

Cereals keep for ages in their dried state too.

Bean I buy 500g bags then cook it all and freeze. When I need one tin of beans I weigh out 8oz (the drained weight of a bought tin) and use that. It's really quick. The only ones I don't cook and freeze are lentils as they cook so quickly anyway.

BitterAndTwisted

MandM90 wrote: »

I didn't mean out of season foodstuffs, I meant cooking different cuisines, which shouldn't involve expensive imported food if you cook from scratch and use your imagination! Anyway, buying out of season isn't cheap at all and a lot of my veg comes from my parent's garden

(also, according to my Chemistry lecturer, the damage to the environment by the meat and dairy industry is actually larger than the entire transportation industry, but I don't want to get into a debate here!)

Whyever not? Most of us enjoy a sensible debate and a bit of adult discourse now and then. Hearing other people's views which don't necessarily accord with our own is one of the things which makes life interesting.

I would also like to say that reading the objective (or implied) truth in someone else's posts rarely stops me from having a good pontificate or a nice little rant, especially when it involves one of my many hobby-horses, so thanks for unwittingly giving me the opportunity to sound like the pub bore.......

Slinky_Malinky

I am really to keen to eat more meat free meals. I love beans and pulses so I would love to be nosy and ask what sort of meals you are all enjoying. You don`t need to post whole recipes ( I am happy to google for those) but just some starting points of what is good, ( or bad ones to avoid lol), would be really helpful.

At the moment I tend to just throw some beans into my pot of stew or soup, but would love to try out some new meals. Especially the world wide type - I see folk talk of middle eastern cuisine etc and spices like ras el hanout but have not yet been brave enough to try them.