How do you manage to spend so little?!

clutterydrawer · 16 August 2009 at 10:21AM

clairelg88 wrote: »

thanks for all your replies.

I have an aldi quite close to me so will definately start shopping there more often!

I think i will have a go at baking my own bread and biscuits etc, do you just buy a bread mix or do this from scratch? And how long does the bread last?

I like the idea of getting plain yogurt and adding to that.

The reason for buying the frozen burgers and pizza is just for convienience really. If i cooked more and froze some, what could i use to freeze say a stew in for example? As i do use my slowcooker once a week and we always have loads left that ends up going in the bin!

To be honest i think i try and base my meals around meat too much, so does anyone have any non meat ideas?!

I bake things from scratch, it's not hard and it saves more pennies.

And it's great fun trying lots of recipes all in the name of research, to find out which ones you like.

I freeze stuff in tupperware or ice cream boxes. The odd bit of convenience food is no bad thing, I always have something like that tucked away in my freezer for the times I get home from work super late, can't face cooking, and haven't defrosted any of my batch cooked meals.Very rarely make use of them so the cost is negligible.

I think there's some threads of meat free meal ideas on the forum if you have a search

LilacPixie · 16 August 2009 at 10:34AM

clairelg88 wrote: »

thanks for all your replies.

I have an aldi quite close to me so will definately start shopping there more often!

I think i will have a go at baking my own bread and biscuits etc, do you just buy a bread mix or do this from scratch? And how long does the bread last?

I like the idea of getting plain yogurt and adding to that.

The reason for buying the frozen burgers and pizza is just for convienience really. If i cooked more and froze some, what could i use to freeze say a stew in for example? As i do use my slowcooker once a week and we always have loads left that ends up going in the bin!

To be honest i think i try and base my meals around meat too much, so does anyone have any non meat ideas?!

I have a breadmaker and a 1.5kg bag of strongbread flour (67p) makes 3 loaves. I find it lasts around 4 days but my lot tend to have it finishes in 3. I cook in bulk in the slow cooker and freeze portions in the zip lock freezer bags you get in lidl. Non meat ideas...vegetable frittata i use sliced potato, pepper, peas,onion,tomato and basically anything left over. Mac cheese, pasta with a veg sauce.

OrkneyStar · 16 August 2009 at 11:42AM

I think you are doing [STRIKE]ok[/STRIKE] pretty well

.
I'd echo trying to get yellow stickered stuff, maybe making own pizza bases, wraps, naans, tortillas, rolls etc (regarding making your own 'normal' bread, tbh we find breadmaker stuff is just not up to par, and end up wasting money trying to make that).
Have the odd treat on your list (if you can afford it) as making yourself stick to a really frugal list all the time can be soul destroying. TBH I find those who say they feed a family your size (similar to ourse except DS is 2) on anything less than about £40 per week are either spending all their time cooking and looking for bargains, vegans/veggies, eating crap or lying (of course the first two are acceptable if that floats your boat....no offence meant there!).

nodwah · 16 August 2009 at 11:50AM

It's all very well making double in order to freeze dinners - but my DH is so greedy he eats it all - eg last night I made a huge lasagne hoping it would do 3 dinners but he went back for seconds and thirds so now there's only a teeny bit left that will have to do me a lunch :mad:

Gigervamp · 16 August 2009 at 12:49PM

nodwah wrote: »

It's all very well making double in order to freeze dinners - but my DH is so greedy he eats it all - eg last night I made a huge lasagne hoping it would do 3 dinners but he went back for seconds and thirds so now there's only a teeny bit left that will have to do me a lunch :mad:

You need to hide it, or tell him that it's dinner for another day and if he eats it now, he'll go hungry the day you were going to use it again.

maman · 16 August 2009 at 2:20PM

nodwah wrote: »

It's all very well making double in order to freeze dinners - but my DH is so greedy he eats it all - eg last night I made a huge lasagne hoping it would do 3 dinners but he went back for seconds and thirds so now there's only a teeny bit left that will have to do me a lunch :mad:

This used to happen here but I've done two things to save money (and calories!):

I now put meal-size portions of bolognese in the freezer and decide nearer the time whether to make it into lasagne, on jackets or whatever. It takes up less space and if I want lasagne I usually do it the day before when I'm making cauliflower cheese so only one lot of sauce-making.
I've got some smaller oven dishes for making up dauphinois potatoes or crumbles etc otherwise I would make a family size one and OH and I would just pig out!

Soubrette · 16 August 2009 at 2:24PM

nodwah wrote: »

It's all very well making double in order to freeze dinners - but my DH is so greedy he eats it all - eg last night I made a huge lasagne hoping it would do 3 dinners but he went back for seconds and thirds so now there's only a teeny bit left that will have to do me a lunch :mad:

Is he overweight? If yes then you could divide it up and pack it ready for freezing before serving up the meal.

If he is not overweight and has a job which takes a lot of energy then he might need the extra calories - could you fill him up on bread served with the lasagne?

It's nice that he loves your food though

Sou

nodwah · 16 August 2009 at 7:57PM

i do tell him but he still sneaks in there!

and he has got a massive belly too!

Years ago he had a very heavy job and ate a good 4000 cals a day but he's had a desk job for years and hasn't really cut down on the food and no amount of moaning from me works!

mind you he's the one that goes on about bills being too high- and I point out how much he eats (esp biscuits)

foxgloves · 16 August 2009 at 10:20PM

I used to have the same problem.....living with a big guy with even bigger appetite. I knew he'd really joined in with the spirit of my household money saving campaign when one Sunday lunch, he took a slice of beef off his plate & said he didn't reckon he needed that much as it as it was big enough to make a decent sandwich for lunch the next day. After I'd picked myself off the floor and all that......and today he's done some cooking with some of the veg we've grown and doubled up the recipe so that there was some for the freezer too, when before it would probably have been eaten. Definitely easier to do if both partners enter the spirit of it & stops you feeling like you're being the stingy one! I think we're now both enjoying seeing some of our bills come down & debts getting smaller.

valk_scot · 16 August 2009 at 11:46PM

Don't forget to pick that chicken carcase down for scraps of chicken meat (I can get enough slivers off a chicken to make a stir-fry) and boil up the bones and skin for stock. If I don't have time to do this at the time I freeze the bones then when I have three chicken carcasses I do one big pot of stock. You can use veg trimmings and onion skins etc for flavour too. Obviously you can use this for soup but it's also great for gravy (who needs granules?) and for things like risotto. My kids' favourite soup is chicken noodle, using a pack of these ubercheap 3 min noodles (dump the flavour powder sachet), a few shreds of spring onion and a spoonful of tinned sweetcorn.

If you're baking bread make extra dough and freeze in portions big enough to make a pizza base. Defrost, roll out and add toppings. If you're making a batch of tomato sauce for pasta, freeze some of it in portions to top the pizza. If you take out the dough and sauce from the freezer in the morning and put it in the fridge it will be ready to use by teatime.

What are the dried apricots and prunes on the list for? Just wondering if we can suggest alternatives or recipies to make them go further.

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How do you manage to spend so little?!

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