Advice on reducing food bill?

moving_forward

Good looking recipes on that site @Exodi thank you.
What kind of meals do you make @kimwp as we are trying to cut down our meat and dairy whilst maintaining protein levels. I can't eat too many pulses because of IBS but love them. My faves are chickpeas and puy lentils. Never tried quinoa.
Interesting that brocolli is high protein where do you find the nutritional info @Exodi ?

Exodi

Nutritional information is on the packaging of most products and often shown online.

You can also use an app like 'Myfitnesspal' which, if you scan the barcode, tells you the nutritional information of most foods (it's correct most of the time!)

moving_forward

Thank you. 

kimwp

moving_forward said:

Good looking recipes on that site @Exodi thank you.
What kind of meals do you make @kimwp as we are trying to cut down our meat and dairy whilst maintaining protein levels. I can't eat too many pulses because of IBS but love them. My faves are chickpeas and puy lentils. Never tried quinoa.
Interesting that brocolli is high protein where do you find the nutritional info @Exodi ?

At the moment, a favourite is roasting chopped veg (aubergine, courgette, Cauliflower), mixing it with quinoa as a big batch for the fridge, then adding sweet chilli sauce when I eat it.

Veg (broccolli, red pepper, mushroom), eggs and/or edamame stir fry with rice or rice noodles or bean vermicceli. I love the Lee Kum kee peanut, tofu and kohlrabi sauce so I usually stir that in or make a black bean sauce with the black beans used for it so that adds protein too 

Anything with tofu, though I admit I'm a little bit suspicious of it, no reason why!

Peanut butter and other nut butters- obviously on toast is an option, but in overnight oats (which has protein) is nice.

Thick tomato-y, carrot and red lentil soup is yum and mushroom, carrots and celery soup with chickpeas (stock, tomato puree, 1tsp each of paprika, Turmeric and cumin). 

Carrots and other crudités with hummus or other dips (pea dip?)

Dahl and rice - there are loads of recipes online. I use the ktc Chan's dal rather than lentils

Black bean and green pepper stew with rice

Avocado salad dressing - although I'm trying to not eat them for environment reasons

There's an article online about a green lentil stew that a nurse ate everyday which is delicious:
https://www-thegazette-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thegazette.com/food-drink/lentil-soup-so-good-nurse-has-eaten-it-for-lunch-every-workday-for-17-years/

"Fancy" baked beans (normal low sugar baked beans with smoked paprika, powdered garlic and chopped up preserved lemon) and sweet potato.

Refried beans and/or black beans, avocado and veg with or without the wraps (and cheese makes it extra tasty)

I read that quinoa is a whole protein and so is lentils and rice together. Also that needing to eat loads of protein is a bit of a myth generated by people who want to sell protein shakes. Apparently even bodybuilders can get the protein they need from a fairly normal diet so the rest of us should be fine. (But I haven't checked the numbers)

I've just written them as I thought of them, I'll try to add in the links. I think there's a vegan thread on this site somewhere which might be helpful. 

kimwp

I think buckwheat is high in protein, though I've not really got to grips with it yet.

Ebe_Scrooge

Lots of good advice given so far.  Definitely use Aldi/Lidl in preference to the "big 4".  Shop close to closing time if possible - loads of reductions to be had.  Just last night I got a 650g box of mushrooms (what's that, a pound and a half in real money?) for 20p.  Best before 10th March, but they are absolutely fine.  That's soup sorted for the next few nights, out of what I didn't use to bulk out the spag bol.  Pasta - again, the standard pasta in Aldi & Lidl is 40p a pack.

Meat - I've had some cracking bargains by shopping just before closing.  500g of minced beef for 70p - again, "best before today", but it either gets cooked that night or goes in the freezer.  Bulked out with my 20p mushrooms, loads of onions and other veg, kidney beans at 27p a tin, served with rice at 45p a kilogram ..... you get the idea.  No idea what the cost per serving is, but it makes a lot of servings.

Of course, a lot of this does reply on having a freezer.  Really, if you are able to find space for a freezer (bought second hand from a BHF shop!), it's well worth while.  Snap up the bargains when you see them, also do batch cooking.

Batch cooking has another advantage I find, quite apart from the direct cost saving.  If you've got individual portions of soup, stew, curry, spag bol, chilli, whatever floats your boat, sat in the freezer ... come in from work, can't be bothered to cook ... instead of reaching for the takeaway menu, stick a Tupperware of the meal of your choice in the microwave.  Boil up a few potatoes or rice or pasta or whatever to go with it.  Bingo, a tasty hot meal for far less cost - and probably quite a lot less time - than a takeaway.

kimwp

Just a point about yellow stickers - it's only money saving if you are going to use it. If you'll never get round to thinking of a way of using it, it's money wasting, not saving.

moving_forward

kimwp said:

moving_forward said:

Good looking recipes on that site @Exodi thank you.
What kind of meals do you make @kimwp as we are trying to cut down our meat and dairy whilst maintaining protein levels. I can't eat too many pulses because of IBS but love them. My faves are chickpeas and puy lentils. Never tried quinoa.
Interesting that brocolli is high protein where do you find the nutritional info @Exodi ?

At the moment, a favourite is roasting chopped veg (aubergine, courgette, Cauliflower), mixing it with quinoa as a big batch for the fridge, then adding sweet chilli sauce when I eat it.

Veg (broccolli, red pepper, mushroom), eggs and/or edamame stir fry with rice or rice noodles or bean vermicceli. I love the Lee Kum kee peanut, tofu and kohlrabi sauce so I usually stir that in or make a black bean sauce with the black beans used for it so that adds protein too 

Anything with tofu, though I admit I'm a little bit suspicious of it, no reason why!

Peanut butter and other nut butters- obviously on toast is an option, but in overnight oats (which has protein) is nice.

Thick tomato-y, carrot and red lentil soup is yum and mushroom, carrots and celery soup with chickpeas (stock, tomato puree, 1tsp each of paprika, Turmeric and cumin). 

Carrots and other crudités with hummus or other dips (pea dip?)

Dahl and rice - there are loads of recipes online. I use the ktc Chan's dal rather than lentils

Black bean and green pepper stew with rice

Avocado salad dressing - although I'm trying to not eat them for environment reasons

There's an article online about a green lentil stew that a nurse ate everyday which is delicious:
https://www-thegazette-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thegazette.com/food-drink/lentil-soup-so-good-nurse-has-eaten-it-for-lunch-every-workday-for-17-years/

"Fancy" baked beans (normal low sugar baked beans with smoked paprika, powdered garlic and chopped up preserved lemon) and sweet potato.

Refried beans and/or black beans, avocado and veg with or without the wraps (and cheese makes it extra tasty)

I read that quinoa is a whole protein and so is lentils and rice together. Also that needing to eat loads of protein is a bit of a myth generated by people who want to sell protein shakes. Apparently even bodybuilders can get the protein they need from a fairly normal diet so the rest of us should be fine. (But I haven't checked the numbers)

I've just written them as I thought of them, I'll try to add in the links. I think there's a vegan thread on this site somewhere which might be helpful. 

You are wonderful ❤️🌟

Brie

My money saving has come from stopping buying coffee at work (previously about £4 a day) as well as stopping buying breakfast and lunch at work as well (£2 & £4 each).  It's one of the blessings of the last 2 years where not being able to go to work (i.e. working from home) has made me realise how very much this all adds up to. 

I also know that if I have an easy alternative - whether at work or at home - then eating expensively is less likely.  Having a box of cuppa soup & crackers or oat cakes means you can have a lunch for under 50p.  I also found that one of our local Polish shops had cuppa soup in a jar - so you could make as much or little as you wanted each time and while a box of 4 packet servings might cost £1 their jar of soup mix would give me 20 servings for £1.20.  Of course it helps that I love borscht!

Now that i'm back in the office a couple of times a week I've tried to ensure I have muesli bars or fruity oat cakes available to stop me going for a bacon bun.  And leftovers, my cuppa soup or a home made sandwich are all a fraction of the premade sandwiches I could buy for £3+ and I don't have to worry if there's some nasty cucumber lurking under the tuna mayo!

wmp92

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Batch cooking has another advantage I find, quite apart from the direct cost saving.  If you've got individual portions of soup, stew, curry, spag bol, chilli, whatever floats your boat, sat in the freezer ... come in from work, can't be bothered to cook ... instead of reaching for the takeaway menu, stick a Tupperware of the meal of your choice in the microwave.  Boil up a few potatoes or rice or pasta or whatever to go with it.  Bingo, a tasty hot meal for far less cost - and probably quite a lot less time - than a takeaway.

Yes absolutely! I find living (mostly) alone, I’ll cook a big meal and end up eating it for 4 nights which is rather boring. Work is very chaotic and I am often home late so being able to just microwave a pre (home) made meal is really handy, but would be better to have options rather than the same thing night after night. 

I am also a big fan of the “fakeaway” so do save on takeaway in that regard.