Eat Well For Less Series 3

Pollycat

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

We do meal plan!

Then I can't understand how you over-buy.

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

Anyway, my big problem is waste. Over buying and over cooking. That's what I would love to see them tackle. How to get cooks brain basically.

I don't buy prepped, I don't buy jars, I shop in Lidl in the main. Meat from butcher in bulk, and Makro for a few things.

Oh and that's serving two adults and two under fives.
Xxx

I buy a family pack of mushrooms and same of peppers because my meal plan is built around using them all.

Do you do a shopping list or are you impulse buying?

HOWMUCH

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

Anyway, my big problem is waste. Over buying and over cooking.

Freeze your over buying and over cooking.

AnnieO1234

I'll try and post some pics in a bit of my meal plan and grocery lists, xxx

Butterfly_Brain

She said that she didn't know how to cook with ginger but knew the trick about peeling it with a spoon hmmmm.

I love watching it only to smirk and say I can do better than the "experts" . There are 5 adults in my house and one is a vegetarian and in the main I manage to spend on average £60 a week and sometimes even less if we have had to spend out on the car or another weighty bill.

This week it was a new lawn mower because ours gave up the ghost, but that was a flymo, originally £100 and we got it for £50 because it was the last one in the shop :T

But thanks to a full freezer, Home Grown fruit and veg and store cupboard this week's shopping came to £11.89
Next week the car has got to have the power steering belt renewed, heaven knows how much that will cost us :eek:
So another week eating from stock next week.:cool: which is a good thing because I have to use up the 2016 stuff.

Save

candygirl

I watched last night's programme, n was shocked at how pampered the girls were! Did they really need their cereal poured out by Daddy every morning?:eek:
The parents spending habits were way OTT , as per the programme ethos, but I was glad they learned to cook a few veggie meals.Not sure if they will stick to the new regime though

suki1964

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

We do meal plan!

Obviously not even you have food waste and over buying

I meal plan very loosely. That is until I know what its value for money when I'm getting the weeks shop, I have no idea of what we are going to be eating that week

Example, I'm doing my shop in Lidl. Let's say the best value for money meat and fish wise is a gammon joint for £3 and 800gr mince for £2.50 that's what goes in my basket as right away I have enough there to feed 3 adults for four or even five nights

The gammon will do a roast dinner, then egg, chips( or bubble ) and beans and if I can I will also get a quiche from it

The mince, well that will also depend on what veg is at a good price and what I have in the house already but it may be cottage pie one day and bolognaise another, a curry, or meatballs

Then I look at veg and I look at only buying what I'm actually going to use. This week cabbage was good value, so we ate a lot of it, buttered with a roast, left overs turned into a bubble, some made into a coleslaw. I needed spinich for a recipe, the rest of the bag is in tonight's curry.i needed filo pastry, the rest is in the freezer. I needed cream, the dregs of the tub are in tonight's curry as well Peppers I use a lot of, salad veg is always used as well. I also use a lot of frozen peas and sweet corn and tinned carrots ( until ours are ready to pull)

I always have onions,garlic and ginger in the house. I grow some herbs, use some dried and always have a good selection of spices

The biggest waste of food in this house, and now that doesn't get binned either now cos of the hens , is fresh fruit. Neither me or he eat it, well he will take either a banana or an apple for lunch and that's it. But mum has it in her head we need fruit and she buys it. And it sits there until it starts to grow because she then realises it not ripe and its tasteless. We eat frozen fruit and tinned fruit so it's there when required but not rotting and being wasted

I don't buy a thing that I'm not going to use. If I don't need a whole packet or carton of something I plan to use it another way that week
I substitute where I can and if I see some fantastic value ys item I'm happy to whip out my phone in store and Google recipes to make sure I can use it without spending a fortune on ingredients I don't already have

So that's my way of meal planning. Plan around the bargain protein and make sure I'm not buying single use ingredients.

Sometimes things go wrong when I'm cooking, my pavlova this week collapsed so we had eaton mess, and will be having it again at least twice more before its all done. I also made a type of pizza tear and share bread to use up odds and Sod's, and there was a lot of it. It's fine sliced, fried an a pan with an egg so not wasted


My shopping bill on average over a year is £35

[Deleted User]

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Or home economics.

Bring back domestic science. That'll learn 'em.

I agree! We just had food technology at school and all we did was make cakes and an apple pie with tinned pie filling :eek:
I had been a young carer for my Mum while I was a teen so I had to cook meals and do the washing! I went to uni able to cook and whilst in halls I made things like stir frys and baked potatoes for dinner. Never eaten a pot noodle and never will! I am not perfect though I do buy frozen garlic and frozen chopped onions as well as some jar sauces but no one is fault free

Prinzessilein

Oh I just love this show! It never fails to make me laugh out loud!

Breakfast time...the teenagers eat premium brand chocolate cereal! Way to start the day by throwing money away!...Personally I love my oaty breakfast...mixed flakes of grain (cheap enough, I buy a nice big bag to save even more pennies) and soak a few tablespoons of them overnight in milk or water, then all I need to do is add some fruit in the morning (berries at the moment - delicious, local and not too pricey!)...and then they switch to bargain brand malted wheat without a murmur! Had no one thought of switching before?

And I could feed myself for a week quite happily on the food some of these families are seen chucking out. Thet REALLY need to learn to plan meals. I had a few bits of veggies left over, so cooked them this evening...I ate half this evening, the rest are cooling on the kitchen counter before going into the fridge..tomorrow I will add the last slice of ham I know is in the fridge and will cut into small pieces, and with the addition of a large egg will become an Aufluf (sort of omelette/veggie bake hybrid) for a tasty leftovers lunch tomorrow.....And talking of tomorrow, the plan is to have a chickpea/mushroom curry...packed with protein and costs pennies compared to what the local takeaway rooks you for! (I am not veggie, bit often eat veggie meals)

I would love to see a show where Chris and Greg came to the houses of some of the Old-Stylers here...those boys would learn a few tricks I'm sure!

Tinned soup???? Please, soup has to be one of the simplest things to make....and the families on the TV show are ALWAYS financially secure enough to be able to invest in a slowcooker and handblender which would make the job super-easy.

suzybloo

Just watched this on iplayer. I just can't get my head round how some can spend over £300 a week on food! There are two in our house plus my grandson three days per week and my maximum spend would be around £250 a month, for everything. That's for every meal as none of us eat out, OH has a sandwich box with him for the full day, abd Dgs has packed lunches most days. We don't have any waste, everything left over is frozen and used up.
Definitely menu planning and writing out an ingredient list crossing off what you already have in the cupboard makes a big difference, along with allocating what fresh ingredients you can use up to save waste.
TBH, I think there are many on this board who could save them another £50 no bother!

VfM4meplse

Just catching up in full now.

Prinzessilein wrote: »

Oh I just love this show! It never fails to make me laugh out loud!

Breakfast time...the teenagers eat premium brand chocolate cereal! Way to start the day by throwing money away!...

I see it more as flushing it down the toilet. I can't understand why they were so keen to spend on food, it was burning holes in their pockets! Perhaps not getting much enjoyment from food explains in part my reluctance to overspend in this area. Shopping at Aldi and Lidl helps a lot though, it's all fresh as the processed and brands just don't register.

I did pick up some tips, though. For some reason I never considered sticking sesame seeds into fried rice! And it has been a while since I bought spinach, I've stuck to lettuce lately.

Eta: I'd like to see a still of the protein table, don't see it on the site though.

Eta 2: just got to the end. The mum makes me sick, is she completely stupid or just pretending?