I cant stop buying food (it is getting ridiculous)

dorry_2

elly,

what about a beef curry, use cubed beef , add curry paste, coconut milk and tin of tomatoes and beef stock cube. I would put it all in the slow cook and serve with rice, if you have any, chips or home made wedges. Will feed you, the teenagers and bf.

kazmeister

Hi elly2

Have PM'ed you as it was a long reply ! Hope it helps

Kaz

maddriver

I used to use Asda online shopping, it allowed me to set up a "monthly" list from which I could deduct items I already had plenty of. And as this is in the comfort of your own front room, its easy to run to the cupboard and see how much you already have.
Before I started working this way, I'd 'pop' into Asda almost everyday for something I'd forgotten the previous day. And of course grab the odd bargin. and maybe a pack of cookies. And the occasional bottle of beer....

Supermarkets are designed to get you to give them money. It's much easier to stick to budget if you can cut down the number of times you walk inside.

Fruball

OMG this thread is so funny ! I could have written your posts myself !

I am a food hoarder too - I just can't help myself.

For the last 4 weeks I have vowed just to get the bare minimum at Tescos but have come home with exactly the same spend as before :mad:

My cupboards have no room for what I bring home so it gets stashed in various other places. My freezer and fridge (both tall ones) are full to bursting and I just don't have room anywhere for any more food !

I also buy things I will never use like coconut milk - I made a curry once with it and it was vile but still I bought more :rolleyes: I have a tin of beetroot too - god knows why or what I will do with it. I have things at the back of the cupboard that I haven't even seen for months

I reckon if I got locked in for 6 months we wouldn't go hungry (there are 5 of us) - and it might well take that to shift this food mountain.

So glad I am not the only one !!!

jellycat40

Hi Elly - me too!
I have since May emptied my cupboards - we moved house and I was out of routine. I didn't feel comfy in the new supermarket. Now however, I am used to it and we are getting back to the situation, I have 12 tins of toms! 2 legs of lamb, 2 whole pork loins (why), watched britians best meals and got 4 belly pork joints coz it looked good - it was vile - why did I not buy just one?

I will try harder if you will and with the support here we can do it.
Louise

chardonnay_2

some basic meals you could do

all day breakfast - sausage, eggs, bacon, fried bread, eggy bread, fried tomatoes (you could use the tinned or fresh)

burger, egg & chips

burger, egg, sausage and chips

fish fingers, macaroni cheese & chips

steak pies with mash or roast tots and some of your frozen veg

omelettes filled with peppered ham / cheese etc

battered chicken steaks or turkey burgers could be sliced on the baguettes

beef joints roast dinner with veggies etc

pasta with hm pasta sauce (use your tomatoes and some of the extra veggies in the freezer- blitz with a blender hand blender and the kids won't know there are any veggies there)

lunches:

sandwiches filled with burger / sausage/ egg -fried or boiled/ peppered ham/fish fingers/ bacon/ cheese / turkey burgers / chicken steaks / tuna

toast topped with spaghetti/ poached egg/

soup and bread

rach

elly i am another one. there's only me here and i have enough food for an army! i do get panicky when there's not much in the cupboards, and i actually like wandering around the supermarket!

perhaps what you need to do is decide what level of stuff in the cupboards you can be comfortable with. what i mean is, don't aim to get down to bare cupboards but to have less than you have now. i actually don't like being at OH's parents where if they are out and we decide to cook there's never much to inspire me! OH actually said last night, 'if we were at yours we could just whip up a chilli but we can't do that here'....

think i'm waffling but hope it helps in some way!!!

waddy80

I love shopping for food and always have to have stuff in the cupboard.

I have cut down a lot recently (mainly due to the somerfields in the town centre where I work being burnt down). But before that I was exactly the same. My mum is the same aswell, we had a huge walk in pantry which was always full of tins, jars upon jars of lentil etc (no one in the house liked lentils!)
I believe it all stemmed from my gran who had hoarded food when rationing was in. She then just taught us. Anyway, I have saved probably £20 per week on my food shop and I am planning to menu plan more. Theres only the two of us so it may be a bit easier for me.

But I will never have just enough food for the week in etc, I always need enough to feed a small army. Stay with it, it will get easier.

freda

Atora 3 1/2 boxes great for making dumplings with casseroles/stews
stock cubes and oxo cubes (chicken (3 boxes) , veg (2) and beef (1)
condiments (sauces white wine vin brown vin mint sauce soy sauce etc etc)
tin of coconut milk
2 tins of condensed milk
stuffing x 3
curry paste
macaroni x 3 learn how to make cheese and tomato sauces, and use this as a pasta bake
pasta
gravy granuals (beef and chicken)
biscuits and treats for the kids

Bread bin
4 baguettes
crumpets
buns
bread cakes

What a lot of bread! Any that goes stale, make into breadcrumbs and freeze. Breadcrumbs are used in: stuffing, home made chicken kievs, home made chicken nuggests, home made burgers, meatballs etc, treacle tart, add to cheese for a crunchy grilled topping for pasta dishes

tins
12 toms Use for all sorts: pasta sacue, bolognaise sauce, red meat casseroles, soups, meatball sauce, lasagne, shepherd's pie...the list is endless.
12 tuna
1 each of ravioli, spagetti, mc cheese
2 x corned beef
2 x chicken soup (condensed) If you're not going to eat this as soup, add to the next chicken casserole or pie you make
4 x other soup As above.
2 x peas

baking stuff
this is bad considering i dont bake (bf does when he is here)
caster sugar
brown sugar
plain flour x 4
sr flour x 5 Would suggest not buying more flour till you start baking! Make sure it is stored in a dry, dark place as occasionally if you store it too long you can get little wriggly bugs in it.

and everything else needed from golden syrup to walnuts vanilla essence to lemon juice herbs spices etc etc there is really too much to list

LEarn to bake! You can then replace all those biscuits and treats for the kids with home made ones - you know what is in what you're feeding them then.

Fridge
eggs (30) Blimey, thats a lot of eggs. Think of making things like: Omlettes, especially the frittatta type (that will keep well in the fridge and is nice cold for lunch), eggy bread, cakes, boiled/scrambled/pached/fried eggs
7 blocks of cheese (mature) If you're not going to eat all this up before it goes off, grate it and freeze it. You can then use it up in future dishes.
block of mild cheese
cheese triangles
toms
mayo
marge (3 kilo) for baking
marge for spreading (3 kilo)
lard x2
butter x 1
cooking choc (plain milk and white and cake covering)15 bars all in 15 bars? Good grief - learn to bake!!
and all the kids stuff yogurts choc biscuits etc etc

freezer
stork x 5
6 bags of frozen veg Use in home made pies, casseroles, stews etc as well (If using in casseroels and stews add right at the end or they'll disappear into mush)
bag peppers
78 sausages mmmm, sausage casserole. Great stuff. Also toad in the hole, sausage sarnies
pork joint
6 x huge lots of peppered ham Add some to the frittatta you're going to make with the eggs!
4 x bacon
mince x 1
6 chicken legs Mmm, chicken casserole. Add a bit of white wine into the liwuid, and at the end, chuck in some cream for a white wine creamy sauce.
4 x beef joint
4 boxes of fish fingers
cubed beef x 3 Beef casserole. Use up any left over casserole by turning into a pie - reheat in a pie dish with either mash or pastry lid on.
turkey burgers 2 x 4 packs
findus pancakes x 3
pastry Make pies with this
20 beef burgers If you're not ging to eat these as burgers before they run out of date, chop up and make into a stir fry, use as sarnie fillings etc.
2 x crab sticks
2 bags prawns
hm steak pie
shop bought steak pie
bag of cod Fish pie
30 battered chicken steaks
aprox 15 chicken breasts Learn to make your own kievs - cut the breast like a pitta bread, open up and whack flat with a rolling pin. Put some filling in the centre - make it up, i.e. garlic and cheese, ham and cheese, tom paste and ham, onion and cheese etc. Close them up (squeeze together but don't worry if it doesn't hold together 100%, it will stay togethe in the oven). Dip into the following: flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. (You can add herbs or garlic or cheese to breadcrumbs if you like). Bake for 20 mins or so. Yummmmmy.

Also, home made chicken nuggets. chop the breasts into nugget shapes, then do the dipping thing above. Bake for 10 mins or so.

3 deserts
3 x cooking bacon


You've got a great store cupboard there, you just seem to have gone overboard on some things. Have a look at your list, choose something tha tyou haven't a clue how you're going to use it all up, and look up a recipe on www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes or www.deliaonline.co.uk You've got all the essentials for a tasty casserole, stew - they are basics in our house. Also, the mince and tomato tins give you loads of meals, i.e. meatballs, spag bol, lasagne, shepherd's pie, burgers etc.

kizzykizzywizzy

You've got some great stuff there, perhaps a bit too much but............:rotfl: & you can save so much on your food budget, if you start using it all.
My cupboards on the other hand look like Old Mother Hubbards:p I really only buy what I need now.
I used to spend a lot on food shopping, but I think this was because I could afford to buy quite a lot of food, where as I couldn't afford to buy clothes, shoes etc. So I still got a buzz, but a cheaper one!!
As for all those sausages, I make sausages in onion gravy for my Nan, really easy
put sausages in caserole dish in the oven, on about 200, whilst softening some onions in butter/marg in a saucepan
mix up quite a lot of gravy granules with boiling water, enough to cover sausages, with some over
when sausages browned drain excess fat, add onions & gravy mix to sausages & leave about 5-10mins in oven, so onion flavours the gravy serve with mash. When I was really poor living in a bedsit I did once make sausage curry, it was ok mind you haven't made it since:rotfl: