advice to cut down on food budget?

Fusspot

trailingspouse wrote: »

We talk a lot on here about meal planning, spending diaries and so on - but I think a waste diary might be a good idea for you. How much do you throw out? If you are regularly buying something and not finishing it before it goes off, stop buying it.


Also - portion control. Could you just be making too much food?


I do a roast chicken dinner every week (I live on my own) - then I use up the rest of the chicken during the week. I find it extremely economical.

Sorry to jump in here but I live on my own too and love chicken, I also need to eat more fish (lack of iron). How do you use the whole chicken for the full week, does it mean you are eating chicken every night, do you freeze it or reheat it?

jam2019

ceb1995 wrote: »

thank you for your reply
I get the biggest bag of mixed veg, peppers and onions and pre chop and freeze them and I get the 3kg pasta from asda every few months and i try to go for the biggest pack of meat. i used to try cashback apps but didn't tend to like what they had on offer but could try that again, my work benefits have everything but food discounts really, the asda and aldi are walking distance from there so it's easy to pop in.

this what's planned for this week and it tends to be similar most weeks in that we have one vegetarian meal and one junk meal like pizza, burgers or something. the roast dinner is a once a month thing.
saturday: enchilladas
Sunday: roast dinner
Monday: chicken and noodles
Tuesday: fish and chips
Wednesday: spag bol
Thursday: jacket potatoes with beans and a bit of cheese
(we're away on friday night)
lunches i make either veggie pasta for me or something like chicken and brocoli or have a mug pasta type thing with a pack of crisps. DH doesn't like carbs for lunch so we don't always have the same and he has fruit and cereal at work so uses their milk sometimes. so the only places i can think of to cut down is meat and snacks and drinks perhaps, snacks is about £3/4 a week including the fruit.

just a thought, but when you do things like enchiladas are you doing them from a kit or from scratch? It's a bit more effort but if you put your own spice mix together and even make your own fajitas it can work out much cheaper (and tastier!)

I've also found that it works out cheaper to get a 6 bags of asda's smartprice pasta than the 3kg bag, which is annoying as it's a lot more plastic

suki1964

Fusspot wrote: »

Sorry to jump in here but I live on my own too and love chicken, I also need to eat more fish (lack of iron). How do you use the whole chicken for the full week, does it mean you are eating chicken every night, do you freeze it or reheat it?

I leave it in the fridge if Im using it that week. And yes reheating chicken is fine as long as the chicken was cooked thoroughly in the first instance

We quite often eat chicken 3 or 4 times a week, or perhaps pork if thats whats on offer. Last week for example I bought a gammon that done two nights, I had pork pieces for a stir fry and pork sausages, so pork it was for 4 nights, but 4 completely different meals.

MandM90

I've just re-read your original post and one massive thing stands out for me, which I don't think has been mentioned: how are you managing to cook a full meal every night, and also make separate lunches for the next day?

Your life would be much easier if you took in leftovers! Or, if not possible to reheat at work, could you freeze half for another time?

If there's just the two of you are you definitely eating the right amount? Struggling to imagine how one could make enchiladas or a roast chicken dinner in amounts suitable for 2 and only 2!

Topher

I'm unsure as to what you're counting as a Food Budget. A weekly grocery bill could be taken from looking at the total from a supermarket shop which could include cleaning products, (laundry, cleaning etc) sundries (all the temptations in your particular supermarket). Or you could have separated out your food, including top up shoppping (extra milk for example).
However, when I was a beginner, I looked to Shirley Goode (a lady who rose to fame in the early 1980s and appeared on a budgeting TV show called Bazaar, and who had feature articles in Family Circle magazine, as well as producing her own books (I have spares as I snap them up second hand wherever I see them)). In her book "The Goode Kitchen" she starts by outlining her method for controlling her food budget. (Unlike some modern blogs, this chapter is packed with useful information rather than being a fame seeking preamble). I started with this book, then went on to buy her "Have a Goode Year" book, then clipped out a brilliant article in which she outlined a plan for a week's meals (Breakfasts, lunches and evening meals) "Feed your family on £21 per week"
From her information I did my own crash course in food budget management which formed a sound basis for surviving The miner's strike, single parenthood, single parenthood while living on a student loan for four years, living on benefits as a single parent, supporting unemployed children, supporting a child and his partner and child living in our 7ft x 5ft bedroom etc. (This brings to mind someone who's lived off benefits their whole life, I didn't). What I'm saying is, budgeting put me in control and stopped me and my family falling into the poverty traps that were pertinent at the time.
Meal planning can be a good idea for reining in the spending and knowing how you're going to eke out the money you've allocated to food, but can also constrict you if you spot a genuine deal on something you know you will capitalise on. (These happen once you're fully aware of what you will and won't uses not in the early stages of household management).
Aldi and Lidl are great, not just because of their competitive pricing, but because they are simply laid out and limit the choice, but if you have the advantage (as I do) of having a choice of several supermarkets, then you can mount a military style campaign (maybe even start a price book) so your shopping trips may be less frequent, but coordinated between the different supermarkets you have available.

maisie_cat

kerri_gt wrote: »

Do check some of these cheaper coconut milks out for actual coconut content though, you'd be surprised how much it can vary and some are mostly other 'stuff' in them. The Aldi and Lidl coconut milks are reasonably priced I find, and have a decent coconut content (or last time I checked)

I have coconut milk powder, lasts for a long time and you can make it as dilute or concentrated as you wish. We've never noticed it being different taste wise.

Topher

One roasting + one boiling can equal at least five meals:
Roast the whole chicken, put an onion in the cavity (which you have checked in case any giblets have been left behind with too speedy-a gutting process, a cooked bladder taints the smell and flavour of a finished bird) and make a small tray of the stuffing to cook at the same time but not in direct contact with the cooking chicken (stuffing accidentally put into the stock mix later can be fairly appalling). In another separate tray roast (for half the chicken cooking time, but at the same temperature) some sausages, approx. 8 large / 12 small chipolatas.
Carve off some breast meat and serve with 2 sausages (or 3 small) per person making the total amount of meat on a plate (sausages and chicken) a normal meat portion. Serve onto plates rather than letting diners help themselves.
When cool, strip the chicken and separate out, meat, skin and bones + gristley bits.
Turn the chicken over and strip again (if you are learning, this shows you how much meat there is underneath the bird, teaches you where to look). Stripping the bird with your fingers as the tool helps you feel each bit of meat for the tendons that need pulling off rather than either serving accidentally or discarding valuable meat pieces because you think they’re entirely tendon, they are not.
The cold chicken meat can split into at least two more meals, more if you’re sparing.
Chicken in white sauce, (on jacket potatoes, or toast, or as a meat portion), chicken curry, chicken & mushroom (in white sauce) in a pie, Chicken, leek and potato (in a pie), some chicken pieces to add back in to the soup once made, etc.
Put the cooked onion, bones & bits (but not the skin unless you want to skim off the fat later for home made dog biscuits/dog food or have thought of another use for the chicken fat that rises to the top of the stock. Add a fresh onion chopped in half (leaving the skin on helps add a lovely golden colour to the stock you are making), add any vegetable tops/cuttings you have saved, but not any of the cabbage family - (sprouts & cabbage); cauliflower leaves are fine. If you haven’t saved your cleaned peelings, scrubbed carrot tops etc for the stock, put in a scrubbed carrot (sliced down the centre to expose centre “flesh” for speedier transfer of flavour into the stock). A Leek (likewise). DO NOT put in any dried pulses or potatoes! add water and simmer for at least an hour, a pressure cooker book will have instructions on how to pressure cook the bones for stock (more fuel efficient), the ingredients are as above).
At the same time in a separate pan you could boil some pearl Barley & save the water to make a lemon Barley syrup (to make a dilute drink of your own). The cooked pearl Barley could then be added to your home made chicken soup later.
When your liquid attains a good flavour, drain through a sieve into a large bowl and allow to cool.
You are not saving the vegetables that cooked in this stock (manky), and you have not added any stuffing to the initial stock. If there’s only a small amount of fat that rises to the surface, keep it with the stock, or you can skim it off once the whole bowlful is cold. You now have a stock base. Finely chopped & fried onion, with some fchopped carrots and potatoes could be boiled then simmered in the Stockport 20 minutes to cook the carrots, then ad some cooked pearl barley, frozen peas etc. for a hearty chicken soup. You’ll need to work out for yourself length of boiling time, amounts of water, vegetables that enhance flavour & those that add bitterness -that’s experience and mistakes by the way, no amount of Delia can prevent a learning curve.
Now you have some spare sausages from the first chicken meal, (reheated in baked beans for a cooked breakfast or small meal?)
If you scrubbed your roast dinner potatoes before peeling them, you have some potato skin peelings to roast either in the same oven you had your chicken, stuffing and sausages in, or to have roasted in the skimmed chicken fat, deep fried, or roasted another day as a crisp snack.
If you doubled the amount of potato you prepared for the first roast chicken dinner, you have some leftover cooked potato to add to that cooked breakfast (with the sausages and beans I mentioned) or to make a potato based dish on its own.

Tannith

It depends how well you want to eat. You could buy a sack of rice and a pot of vitamin pills. Or you could aim to get what you like to eat at the cheapest price eg use 3/4 different supermarkets and buy at each what each does cheapest out of the stuff you use.And evict the cat.

PipneyJane

Topher wrote: »

One roasting + one boiling can equal at least five meals:
Roast the whole chicken, put an onion in the cavity (which you have checked in case any giblets have been left behind with too speedy-a gutting process, a cooked bladder taints the smell and flavour of a finished bird) and make a small tray of the stuffing to cook at the same time but not in direct contact with the cooking chicken (stuffing accidentally put into the stock mix later can be fairly appalling). In another separate tray roast (for half the chicken cooking time, but at the same temperature) some sausages, approx. 8 large / 12 small chipolatas.
Carve off some breast meat and serve with 2 sausages (or 3 small) per person making the total amount of meat on a plate (sausages and chicken) a normal meat portion. Serve onto plates rather than letting diners help themselves.
When cool, strip the chicken and separate out, meat, skin and bones + gristley bits.
Turn the chicken over and strip again (if you are learning, this shows you how much meat there is underneath the bird, teaches you where to look). Stripping the bird with your fingers as the tool helps you feel each bit of meat for the tendons that need pulling off rather than either serving accidentally or discarding valuable meat pieces because you think they’re entirely tendon, they are not.
The cold chicken meat can split into at least two more meals, more if you’re sparing.
Chicken in white sauce, (on jacket potatoes, or toast, or as a meat portion), chicken curry, chicken & mushroom (in white sauce) in a pie, Chicken, leek and potato (in a pie), some chicken pieces to add back in to the soup once made, etc.
Put the cooked onion, bones & bits (but not the skin unless you want to skim off the fat later for home made dog biscuits/dog food or have thought of another use for the chicken fat that rises to the top of the stock. Add a fresh onion chopped in half (leaving the skin on helps add a lovely golden colour to the stock you are making), add any vegetable tops/cuttings you have saved, but not any of the cabbage family - (sprouts & cabbage); cauliflower leaves are fine. If you haven’t saved your cleaned peelings, scrubbed carrot tops etc for the stock, put in a scrubbed carrot (sliced down the centre to expose centre “flesh” for speedier transfer of flavour into the stock). A Leek (likewise). DO NOT put in any dried pulses or potatoes! add water and simmer for at least an hour, a pressure cooker book will have instructions on how to pressure cook the bones for stock (more fuel efficient), the ingredients are as above).
At the same time in a separate pan you could boil some pearl Barley & save the water to make a lemon Barley syrup (to make a dilute drink of your own). The cooked pearl Barley could then be added to your home made chicken soup later.
When your liquid attains a good flavour, drain through a sieve into a large bowl and allow to cool.
You are not saving the vegetables that cooked in this stock (manky), and you have not added any stuffing to the initial stock. If there’s only a small amount of fat that rises to the surface, keep it with the stock, or you can skim it off once the whole bowlful is cold. You now have a stock base. Finely chopped & fried onion, with some fchopped carrots and potatoes could be boiled then simmered in the Stockport 20 minutes to cook the carrots, then ad some cooked pearl barley, frozen peas etc. for a hearty chicken soup. You’ll need to work out for yourself length of boiling time, amounts of water, vegetables that enhance flavour & those that add bitterness -that’s experience and mistakes by the way, no amount of Delia can prevent a learning curve.
Now you have some spare sausages from the first chicken meal, (reheated in baked beans for a cooked breakfast or small meal?)
If you scrubbed your roast dinner potatoes before peeling them, you have some potato skin peelings to roast either in the same oven you had your chicken, stuffing and sausages in, or to have roasted in the skimmed chicken fat, deep fried, or roasted another day as a crisp snack.
If you doubled the amount of potato you prepared for the first roast chicken dinner, you have some leftover cooked potato to add to that cooked breakfast (with the sausages and beans I mentioned) or to make a potato based dish on its own.

Excellent ideas. Thank you, Topher.

Here's what I did to stretch a chicken to several meals, earlier this week. (NB: There's only two of us.) In the heat on Monday, I put a roasting chicken in the slow cooker, together with the last of the carrots, an onion, a chicken stock cube and approximately two glasses of white wine. Several hours later, I served the legs with oven roasted veggies (onion, peppers and the last of the mushrooms, tossed in olive oil, scattered with "BBQ Seasoning" and baked at 220C for 40 minutes), plus Bulgar wheat (cooked absorption method: 1.5 cups plus 3 cups boiling water plus a chicken stock cube).

For the following two days' lunches (i.e. 4 portions), I combined the leftover Bulgar wheat, the leftover roasted veg - plus any juices - a tin of sweetcorn and the meat from one chicken breast. Drizzled over some Balsamic vinegar. (It could really have done with something peppery like rocket, but we only had £1.95 left in the August Grocery Challenge purse and I wasn't spending that if I could help it.)

Tuesday night's dinner, I made a basic risotto with the liquid from the slow cooker, an onion, a clove of garlic and the rest of the chicken. That made five generous portions, including 3 for lunches. I debated whether to save half the meat and use it in a stir-fry on Wednesday but, at that point, almost the only fresh veg we had in the house were onions and garlic, so the meat was needed to add bulk and flavouring to the rice. (Normally, I'd add mushrooms to my chicken risotto and fennel, if I can get any.)

ETA: I didn't save the bones for stock because I find that most of their goodness dissolves into the broth made during the slow cooking process, resulting in "self-carving chicken" and very little meat is left behind.

- Pip (one chicken, 11 portions)

purpleivy

I've just been scanning through the replies as eggs seemed to be missing.
we try to have egg beans and toast once a week. Every Sunday I make an 8 portion fritatta with loads and loads of veg. No cheese as I'm off dairy. I just use whatever is left over after preparing salads and other meals. Leeks, onions, courgettes, celery, spinach (frozen is fine) mushrooms (don't need to be first quality), peppers if you have them. It really can help avoid waste. YOu can slice a half dead tomato onto the top as well! If you have scrag ends of cheese, use them. End of yogurt or cream can go in with the eggs. ( I use 10 if they are Large or 12 if smaller).

Once it's cooled, I cut into slices and put into separate little boxes. I microwave mine for 1:30 no idea what hub does! I like a spot of something with it, so ketchup is nice. They really don't seem to vary much in taste considering how each batch is so very different.

This would be great for lunch too. Better than pasta, as it's low carb and won't spike your blood sugar, so will keep you full till dinner.