Recommendations on how to eat well on a budget?

goldfinches

My top tips would be that everybody should eat the same food and that you should go vegetarian and batch cook and meal plan.
Do an inventory of all the edible food you have in at the moment and plan the maximum number of meals you can produce from your stores with the minimum additional purchases and see where that gets you.

What's your current level of spending and how many meals for each person do you need to provide daily?

Have a look at the Grocery Challenge and What are you cooking for dinner threads to see how others manage and you'll pick up lots of tips. There are people on GC budgeting £15 per person per week and managing to eat well so it can be done on a shoe string if necessary.

jon81uk

Depends if the priority is money-saving or eating nice meals.

We use Gousto meal boxes and while £35 for four meals for two people isn't really moneysaving, its got me cooking from scratch a lot more and trying new things. Once I've tried a recipe it then gives me the confidence to do it again.

London_1

I eat pretty well on my food budget ,but then I have had a great deal of practice at it My three month food only budget for Jan-Mar was £180.00 and I ended up with a surplus £68 odd which has been tucked away. So for 13 weeks it was under a tenner a week, but I did have a lot of left over stuff from Christmas from my DDs that they gave me as they know I will not bin food.

I am running down my freezer to defrost and have a bit of wriggle room in there, but when I did an inventory of it I still have about 4-5 weeks dinners available for me.

This afternoon I shall do a tinned cupboard inventory as I do have quite a bit of tinned stuff in stock. I have only been to the shops to buy fresh fruits and veg and some odds and ends so far this month and its come to around £38 odd and that is because I stocked up with 12 UHT cartons of milk as i don't use a great deal, but I know milk will be rising in price over the next few months so around £8.00 odd was just for milk alone.

Food prices are rising as I know roughly to the penny how much various stuff I buy regularly is going up. I have cut back on fresh meat and I do eat more veggie meals .I don't mind them but would never go completely veggie as I am keen on a sausage or two, or a chicken with bacon meal.

I don't buy or eat junk food or ready meals as I have the time and inclination to cook from scratch as I am long retired. I bake my own cakes and biscuits and enjoy HM soups (just had leek and potato for lunch today )

I don't waste food and my food caddy in the kitchen usually only has egg shells in it.I buy food to eat not throw away

As long as I have my good stock of herbs and spices even a tin of beans with a dash of chilli powder or curry powder tastes nice on top of toasted cheese  

Katiehound

One of the things I noticed when shopping yesterday was the difference in price between chicken thighs skin in compared with skin off.
If you like chicken then the skin on /bone in was £1.99 per kg whilst skinless boneless thighs were £4.99 per kg. (Aldi price) A huge difference for a bit of skin and some bones.  I have made some really delicious slow cooked meals with the cheap version. Dread to think how much chicken breasts are!

Wraithlady

Skin-off  and boned are more popular as it's less work, I suppose. 

YorksLass

Katiehound - We prefer chicken thighs to breast and once upon a time I did used to buy skinless/boned but soon changed to skin on/bone in - as you say, it's so much cheaper.  Mr S does a 2kg pack at £3.20 (£1.60 per kg) and they also do a 1kg tray of drumsticks for £1.65, both good value for money.

I'm a lot like London_1 when it comes to shopping and cooking.  We're of a similar age, both retired and have had plenty of practice in our lives at making every penny stretch until it squeaks.

Today I've made a big pan of celery & bacon soup (head of celery, some bits of bacon from a pack of cooking bacon, one onion, one potato for thickening, chicken stock from aforementioned chicken thighs, and seasoning) at a total cost of around 65p-70p for 6 portions.

My recommendations would be to start with a list of what you already have, then meal plan based around that for the week ahead, have a shopping list for what you need and haven't got, shop wisely for best value for money, store fresh foods correctly, batch cook and learn to turn leftovers into something else.  A freezer is also your friend as it can be used for home made ready meals as well as freezing any ys bargains you might come across.

Almost everything we eat is cooked from scratch but I do have a stock of staples plus some tinned/packet foods as a standby.  I buy one or two extras of these whenever I go shopping, especially if they're on promotion.

Obviously, how I work wouldn't be possible for everyone as individual circumstances vary so much and it has to be what's right for you bearing in mind size of family, finances, time available etc.

I have a monthly food budget (for two) of £124 and more often than not have some cash left at the end of the month.  Remember, a budget is a limit on what you spend - it's not a target!  

LailaSamaila

Hi, @GrumpyPuggy 
Firstly, I reccomend you make food plan for a week. It help you to save money and time. As for me, I have family of 2 person. We prefer to make joint budget and keep track of expenses. SaldoFinance is good tool for this task. Additionaly, I found variety of 

RAS

GrumpyPuggy said:

My partner and I are looking to eat healthier but are struggling to find ways to eat better that doesn't cost significantly more money and doesn't rob us of the little time we have after we get back from work.

Does anyone have any tips for eating well on a budget? 

How do you define "eat healthier" and "eat better"? What change are you seeking to make?

And what sort of budget do you have per month? For all meals or just evening meals?

jennystarpepper

Old thread, op not posted since April. 

thriftwizard

Do you have a street market near you, at weekends if you're 9-5ers? Because I've saved a fortune over the years, buying food from stallholders who, over time, have become friends; things like 3 avocados for £1, as opposed to 1 avo for £3 at our nearest supermarket. It doesn't matter that they're a little smaller or need to be eaten up fast, we're still quids in. Plus it's a lot more fun than trawling round a supermarket, and you'll often find things that supermarkets don't stock. It does mean that your plans need to be a) flexible, and b) more seasonal, though.