reducing monthly food spend

danlightbulb

I guess a trip to the butchers dragging the kids along is in order. Any tips on how much I should look to pay and what to ask for? Someone above mentioned rump steaks 3kg for £20 is that about the going rate?

If I ask for a rump joint as opposed to pre cut steaks is this something the butcher is likely to have / or sell me?

suki1964

Adding lentils to meals will increase your protein considerably

Eggs are a very cheap and efficient form of protein as well. Two boiled eggs and toast takes five mins in the morning, is cheap and keeps the hunger pains at bay

Chicken thighs are half the price of breast , full of protein and imo much more versatile to cook with.

Turkey mince is great, low fat, high protein and usually cheaper then beef mince. Makes a good a bolognaise as low fat beef mince

A jacket sweet potato is as easy to cook as opening a packet of wedges

If you have to keep having steak, look at different ways of cooking it to make it go further. We do a lot of Chinese cooking and use steak cut into fine strips. Our grandkids love Chinese cooking days, they get involved in chopping up the veg and measuring out the ingredients. It's also great way to cook pork which I find is rather flavourless and boring


Offal, another high protein cheap meat. We love liver and onions, seriously we do and would eat if every week if we could. I also love hearts and kidneys, not to everyone's tastes I know but find the right reciepe and they become delish

Hope that gives you some food for thought.

Pollycat

cyantist wrote: »

Rump steak is way tastier than sirloin. But I wouldn't cut a joint into steaks, it's unlikely to be the same cut of meat and may not be great once grilled/fried.

I agree with this ^^^.
I do buy the large roasting joints when they are half price but I cut them into slices or cubes to cook in the slow-cooker.

If I wanted steak and didn't have a decent local butcher (or didn't want to spend a fair amount of money for decent quality meat) I'd wait until one of the big supermarkets had an offer on rump steak and stock up my freezer.

springdreams wrote: »

I think if you really wanted to cut down on your grocery bill and cook tasty meals you could. You could get your kids to help with the cooking (think peeling potatoes, stirring gravy and the like) when they are visiting. You need to make time in your schedule for meal planning and possibly bulk cooking.

The OP's kids might like to make their own burgers using steak mince and some herbs, maybe a dollop of tomato ketchup.

Take some new potatoes, cut them into quarters, toss in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil & ground black pepper and cook in the oven.
You'll know they haven't got any additives in to make them keep longer like the wedges you buy.
Add a pinch of cayenne pepper or jerk seasoning.

I do them from raw in about 30 - 35 minutes but you could parboil them to quicken the process.

Feral_Moon

Where do some of you think rump steak actually comes from? Do you think the cow provides it ready sliced? Or do you think the butcher actually cuts it from that lovely large slab of meat in his window? You know, the same slab of meat you can have cut into a roasting joint size :rotfl:

Maybe some folks actually need to visit a butcher more often to see where neat actually comes from. It's not packaged up ready sliced in trays straight from the cow, you know

cyantist

danlightbulb wrote: »

I guess a trip to the butchers dragging the kids along is in order. Any tips on how much I should look to pay and what to ask for? Someone above mentioned rump steaks 3kg for £20 is that about the going rate?

If you just try to have an idea of what you want and what the supermarket charges per kg for these things, then you can see if it's cheaper. Sometimes if you go later on a Saturday afternoon they are trying to get rid of stuff so may be more likely to do you a better price.

suki1964 wrote: »

It's also great way to cook pork which I find is rather flavourless and boring


Offal, another high protein cheap meat. We love liver and onions, seriously we do and would eat if every week if we could. I also love hearts and kidneys, not to everyone's tastes I know but find the right reciepe and they become delish

Hope that gives you some food for thought.

Replacing steak/chicken with pork for some meals could save a lot as well. Pork is very cheap.

I hate offal, but as heart is a muscle I find it quite similar in taste and texture to proper meat and is very cheap (£3.50/kg in most supermarkets, cheaper in butchers).

Feral_Moon wrote: »

Where do some of you think rump steak actually comes from? Do you think the cow provides it ready sliced? Or do you think the butcher actually cuts it from that lovely large slab of meat in his window? You know, the same slab of meat you can have cut into a roasting joint size :rotfl:

Maybe some folks actually need to visit a butcher more often to see where neat actually comes from. It's not packaged up ready sliced in trays straight from the cow, you know

But it won't be any cheaper (which I think is more what OP was getting at) and he will have to portion it himself then, wasting time and probably doing nowhere near as good a job as a butcher would do.

Feral_Moon

cyantist wrote: »

But it won't be any cheaper (which I think is more what OP was getting at) and he will have to portion it himself then, wasting time and probably doing nowhere near as good a job as a butcher would do.

But it almost always is cheaper than buying individual steaks in the same way buying a whole chicken is cheaper than buying jointed pieces. I picked up some top rump/sirloin joints (approx 2kg each) for less than £10 each over Easter.

One joint has given me 8 good size steaks (250g each) which would have cost me upwards of £30 to buy as separate steaks, so a saving of more than £20.

Today in Waitrose you can buy a top rump joint of beef for around £10 and get 4 decent steaks from it (220g each) but to buy them individually would cost you £3.69 each so a total of £14.76 giving a saving of almost £5.

I know which option I'd rather take!

cyantist

In a supermarket I agree that will almost always be the case. But in every butchers near me they have a huge rump joint with a sign saying £x/kg. If you want the whole joint it will be exactly the same cost per kg as if you ask them to cut 3 slices off for you.

If you can get a decent rump/sirloin joint on offer it may be better to do it the way you suggest (for me it wouldn't be as supermarket joints are never as fatty as I like my steak), but often the beef joints you get on offer are silverside or an unspecified cut which probably won't make decent steaks.

But even those joints would be fine for using in a stew or something, and would work out cheaper than braising steak.

Feral_Moon

Yes, you have to make sure it's the right cut of beef. Someone mentioned one earlier but it was unspecified so I would only ever use something like or silverside to cut into braising steaks, diced stewing beef or slow cook the whole joint as a pot roast in wine/gravy.

Kanichen

Bulking isn't just about calories - otherwise you could bulk just by eating chocolate. You need to be eating the right sort of calories in the right proportions. For starters, crisp and biscuits are not going to help. You need to be eating things like nuts, avocado etc. Are you using something like MFP to track what you are eating?

If you are buying the microwave packs of rice etc then that is a quick way to cut costs - go and buy a kg pack and cook it yourself - will be a few minutes longer but unless you have meat that cooks in 3 minutes that's hardly an issue. For a quick carb you can't beat couscous. Pour boiling water from kettle on it and wait approx 3 mins. Add stock cubes or herbs/spices for flavour. I always have a bag in the cupboard and a packet of the ready seasoned ones in the changing bag for those moments when my toddler announces that she is dying with hunger and must eat right now!

I make wedges several times a week - cut potato/sweet potato into wedges (I don't even peel the potatoes), put in bowl, stir over a teaspoon of oil, stir until coated, add seasoning (you can buy jars of cajun seasoning - check the sugar contents though, some are obscene!), stir until evenly coated. Put on tray in hot oven. Sweet potato ones take less than 20 mins -they are my toddler's favourite!

If time is an issue, start making bigger batches. Ie make a curry that will feed 6, portion it up and throw in the freezer.

A quick favourite meal of mine is spicy turkey mince. Season raw turkey mince with cajun spices, fry, pour on Thai Red curry sauce. Meanwhile cook your favourite greens (kale or broccoli for me). 10 mins start to finish. Serve with avocado and sour cream. You've got your greens in there for fibre and nutrients, turkey mince for your lean protein and avocado and sour cream for your healthy fats.

I agree with a previous poster - you need to decided what the priority is here:
1) Bulking (in which case you need to be eating cleaner)
2) Cutting costs

Both of these can be done together but you need to put in the effort.

danlightbulb

I think the first step for me is just gaining an understanding of what i can do to increase my variety of foods. I eat a very limited menu which stems from childhood food issues. I do want to make sure what i buy is value for money but what i desire most is some nice meals that fit within my fussy palette! I just seem to eat the same stuff oven food over and over and it is making it difficult to motivate myself probably because of the limited variety.

I really like rump steak so if i can find a way of buying it at a reasonable price that would be ideal. The only reason i dont buy it now is the cost. I dont think ive ever seen a rump joint for sale in a supermarket though. If i can get this for £5 to £8 per kg that would be great and i can have a go at cutting off my own steaks.

I also like pork chops, loin steaks, chicken breasts and thighs. My dad used to eat heart all the time i have to admit to never trying it. If i had something to look forward to im sure the main item accompanyment would improve also.