Changing Our Spending On Food

thriftywannabe92

Hi all.
Basically, last month, my Mum and I (I live with my Mum, it's just us and a cat and my Dad comes round for his dinners 3 or 4 times per week) way overspent on our grocery shopping, leaving us currently with the very bare essentials to last for next week.

On payday, we'll be doing our grocery shop again and we want to stock up on meat, veggies, store cupboard basics and things that we can make to freeze for meals later in the month.
We live very close (as in, walking distance) from a Farmfoods, a co-op and there is a Sainsburys, Aldi and Lidl about a 10 minute drive away.

Does anyone have any tips on the best places from those I listed above to get the best deals on meat, veg, store cupboard items and is it worth shopping in Farmfoods for some items and then popping to say, Sainsburys to get rest?

Just wanted to see what peoples advice would be knowing these are the supermarkets I have available to me?

Bearing in mind, we're looking at about £70 per week, less if possible.

Thanks in advance

EstherH

Hi THRIFTYWANNABE, It depends on what you like to eat and how much you are prepared to compromise.

I think Aldi is really good and would buy a whole chicken and a gammon joint from there. Also I would buy their turkey mince and use in place of beef mince in cottage pie, bolognaise/lasagne and chilli.

With the chicken, you can do a roast meal one night and take all the meat off and then use in a curry, stew or with rice or pasta for at least one other meal. The trick is to slice the meat up thin and then it looks like more on the plate. Also in rice and pasta bakes you only need a little meat. This week I have managed to get sixteen portions out of one chicken and also used the carcas to make soup with added chopped vegetables and pulse mix.

The gammon joint can be used in the same way. Makes cheaper sandwich filling than meat from the deli counter and again you only need a little to add to pasta bake or you can make quich or frittata with a little of it.

Add grated carrot, onions, any other veg plus a handful of oats and a handful of red lentils to bulk out the mince and you will get double the number of portions out of a pack.

The fruit and veg are well priced especially the super six.

Farmfoods is good for frozen veg. You can get three bags for £2 on quite a number of them. They are smaller bags than usual (I think 750g instead of 1kg but it still works out cheaper. Nicky toilet roll is really good value there. It helps to know the price of the things you want so that you can spot a bargain. They usually have 7.5kg sacks of potatoes for a good price, I got one for £2 last week but think it is usually a bit more than that. They usually have grapes for a £1 which is really cheap. Carrots and onions are a good price too.

Try to meal plan so that you aren't going out randomly buying food.
Then go with you list but be prepared to change if you see a good bargain.

You can make up a big batch of basic savoury mince with the ingredients I mentioned above and then split and add gravy to one lot for shepherds pie, tomato and tom pur!e to another lot for bolognaise and then add chilli powder and some kidney or baked beans to the bolognaise to make chilli. Sorry if that isn't too clear.

HTH

Esther

thriftywannabe92

Thanks so much EstherH!!

They are some great tips and I'll be definitely doing those tricks to make our joints last longer. Especially cooking up a batch of savoury mince for three different dishes, that's brill.

From browsing Farmfoods a fair few times, they sure do have some great bargains so will be sure to stock up on things that we need.

I've just started on a meal plan of things we all like so I shall try and fit in some of those meals mentioned, too.

Thanks again.

EstherH

We get Farmfoods leaflet though the door and it has money off coupons on the back. £2.50 off a £25 spend. £5.00 off £50 spend etc. I have read on here that you can print the coupons off if you don't get them. I've never looked but would try the coupon board or just google. Also, Aldi usually do a £5 off £40 spend coupon in the Daily Mirror on the last Thursday of the month so may be worth buying that. If you plan out your buys between to two you would save about £7 when you take off the price of the newspaper. If it is in next Thursday you would have up to the following Wednesday to spend it.

There is a what's good at Aldi and Lidl thread on here so you can get an idea of what others think are worth buying.

Homemade veg soups are really cheap. As I said before, a pack of pulse mix will go a long way with some chopped veg that you have getting near to its end. I use carrots, onions and potatoes diced and that is enough with the pulses but anything can go in. You only need a couple of handfuls of the pulse mix for each pan of soup.

Or try an onion, carrot, 100g of lentils, couple of tins of tomatoes, some rosemary or mixed herbs and a stock cube. Boil and simmer for thirty minutes and blitz with a hand blender.

Esther