I am spending a fortune on food!

[sojourner]

Give us some suggestions for easy cheap meals? Trying to reduce my meat meals.

Also, I am very happy to email you a load of cheap, easy veggie options

 

[Karl Masks]

I'll just mention again that all Lidl stores do a 'Waste Not' scheme. 5kg of fruit and veg for £1.50. You have to get there early to get them, but well worth it. You can even get avocados in there sometimes

Too Good To Waste - Lidl Great Britain

Too Good To Waste

corporate.lidl.co.uk

We spend about £250 a month on food for 2 adults and 1 cat, but the humans don't eat meat. I buy lots of dried pulses/legumes etc and pressure-cook them, and make sure my herbs and spices are stocked up. I always buy fruit and veg from Lidl because they are cheaper than everywhere else. Asda regularly offer 1kg Skyr for £2, which is a massive saving. Tesco are only really good for their own-brand ginger beer, and cheeses such as halloumi, feta and paneer.

Which is great if you live near a Lidl. If they delivered that 'd be great

 

[sojourner]

Which is great if you live near a Lidl. If they delivered that 'd be great

Lidl don't do deliveries. There are lots of things they don't do that the big 4 do, but that's one of the reasons why they' re so cheap.

So do you live in the middle of nowhere with no means of accessing shops then?

 

[Karl Masks]

Avocados are treats not daily staples! Also summon a host of moral dilemmas - they're likely to be fuelling either Israeli settlements or Mexican narco-and-deforesting cartels, and sucking agricultural water away from other food crops where they're grown. (I'm not as much of a killjoy as I sound, honest - and still eat 'em myself now and then - but really, they are a luxury item on many levels)

I check to see where the avos come from.

Sure I don't NEED them to live, the point is getting enough healthy nutrition and fibre and among those I find avos do the job. I cn't do the high carb foods like beans and lentils. I've tried and as much as I like them, I just can't process them so I have to eat what I can. It's not like my menu is faberge eggs and swan pie followed by caviar sorbet and tax cuts

Buying in bulk is great if you have somewhere to store that much food. Can't freeze everything.

 

[Karl Masks]

Lidl don't do deliveries. There are lots of things they don't do that the big 4 do, but that's one of the reasons why they' re so cheap.

So do you live in the middle of nowhere with no means of accessing shops then?

No means of accessing some shops, such as Lidl and Aldi which clearly would be ideal. The shops we do have are expensive and so I rely on deliveries. Coop are 3x the price on average while Tesco Express shops seem to sell the same stuff but at a higher price. Again, I've no idea as to the thinking behind it but it's deliberate. That's just how it is.

 

[Epona]

No means of accessing some shops, such as Lidl and Aldi which clearly would be ideal. The shops we do have are expensive and so I rely on deliveries. Coop are 3x the price on average while Tesco Express shops seem to sell the same stuff but at a higher price. Again, I've no idea as to the thinking behind it but it's deliberate. That's just how it is.

I'd recommend seeing if Asda can deliver to where you are, they are definitely on the cheaper end of the supermarket price scale, do deliveries, and have a very good "Essentials" range which is their own brand budget range, can save quite a bit of money.
I'm going to give them a try once I've used my current lot of Morrisons vouchers, but haven't used them yet for deliveries (although I do go to our nearest one occasionally, it's a bit of a hike on the bus and yeah I can't carry much either so deliveries are really useful for us!)

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I find it hard to work out how to cut back. We think about cutting back on some luxuries, like we buy salmon most weeks. But if we didn't buy salmon for 4.50 we'd buy basa or some other cheap fish for 2.50. So we can save £2 a week and never buy salmon but it hardly seems worth it. Where we could save is in ready-made or almost-full meals we buy, like quiches or pizzas or pies, but the reality is we buy those because some days we literally don't have the energy to cook, and they are much cheaper than takeaway. So not being in a phase where we can cook from scratch every meal, it feels really hard to meaningfully cut back at the moment. We could definitely cut £10 from the budget with less luxuries, but it's not the difference between £100 and £110 pw that's making us feel poor, it's that a few years ago it was £60.

As sojourner says, batch cooking is the way. I've bought a load of plastic takeaway containers from ebay that can be reused many times and the majority of my weeknight meals come from the freezer. I'll cook the rice/pasta/spuds and veggies fresh to go with it, so it doesn't just feel like reheated food, but that's only 10-15 mins.

Pork can be really good value when doing this, recently blew loads of people away with my slow cooked pork shoulder curry, but the main reason I use it is because it's cheap.

 

[Monte]

Give us some suggestions for easy cheap meals? Trying to reduce my meat meals.

Green lentils make a good substitute for minced beef in things like cottage pie, lasagne, Bolognese, moussaka etc.
Indian food is generally cheap to make if you stick to the more basic ingredients. Beans and pulses are cheap in Lidl. Chick pea and potato curry is pretty straightforward , tasty and filling.
Veg stew and dumplings using things like onions, leeks, celery, carrots, parsnips, mushrooms. Very tasty and you can turn leftovers into a curry, pasta sauce, chilli etc the next day.

Then there's cheese dishes. Gratins, macaroni cheese, spinach and cream cheese, mushroom and blue cheese.
Endless egg dishes like quiches, omelettes, egg fried rice, egg curries.

Plus, of course, jacket potatoes, beans and cheese. Just make sure you don't put the beans on first...

 

[Epona]

As sojourner says, batch cooking is the way. I've bought a load of plastic takeaway containers from ebay that can be reused many times and the majority of my weeknight meals come from the freezer. I'll cook the rice/pasta/spuds and veggies fresh to go with it, so it doesn't just feel like reheated food, but that's only 10-15 mins.

Pork can be really good value when doing this, recently blew loads of people away with my slow cooked pork shoulder curry, but the main reason I use it is because it's cheap.

Just to add to this, as a meat eater, I tend to get chicken thigh fillets - or some supermarkets have now started doing chicken drumstick meat without the bones, which is even cheaper and both are excellent and convenient to cut up for stir fries, bone in tends to be even cheaper and works really well for curries and stews, Pork is cheap, even pork chops or pork loin steaks for frying/grilling are not too pricey if you want a cheaper alternative to a steak, and shoulder is cheap and great for slow cooking (Cuban pork with rice and black beans is fucking lush as an alternative to a Sunday roast). Beef shin or cheek are both good affordable options for stewing.
Bulk out stews with plenty of root veg and if you can eat them (I know the OP already said they can't eat some of these things, but I'm adding it for info/ideas for others) stuff like lentils, pearl barley, bulgur wheat, pulses etc. is a good and cost effective way of making a meat stew go further.

 

[mwgdrwg]

Thanks for the recipe ideas!

 

[Monte]

Anyone else noticed the horrendous hike in the price of cat food?

Our two refugees (which we didn't have the heart to tell to bugger off) started off eating anything, but now seemingly, only the very expensive end of the range meets their needs. I'm talking Purina and Sheba here.

I sympathise, I started out with one cat who got pampered with Sheba and Whiskers but got invaded by a gold digging feral cat who then had two kittens.
Poor old Raedwald ended up having to share own brand Tesco's tins of meat and cheap biscuits with his unexpected family.
Plus he lost his furry little balls earlier than expected.

 

[iona]

I imagine this is exceptionally rare but there's a CIC near me that grows fresh food exclusively for local food banks. No idea how they funded.

Lack of fridge space at the food bank is usually the limiting factor here. I've been involved with several CSA and community growing schemes that wanted to use some of their growing space for this, but couldn't find a local food bank that would take large amounts of fresh fruit & veg.

 

[dessiato]

I know it's easy for me to say because I have the time, but really there's no cheaper alternative than going to the shops yourself. As convenient as delivery is, it is expensive.

 

[Epona]

I know it's easy for me to say because I have the time, but really there's no cheaper alternative than going to the shops yourself. As convenient as delivery is, it is expensive.

Absolutely zero use to suggest this to people who don't drive, don't have a car, and can't carry much.

If I get on the bus regularly to go to a supermarket in person and do the maximum amount of shopping I can carry (both N and I have disabilities), the bus fares are massively increasing the cost of shopping so as to not make it worthwhile - as well as being time consuming, exhausting, painful, and stressful.
I can book a delivery for 3x the amount of stuff that I can carry for less than the cost of a return bus fare.

 

[Saul Goodman]

I know it's easy for me to say because I have the time, but really there's no cheaper alternative than going to the shops yourself. As convenient as delivery is, it is expensive.

Paying the shop €3 to deliver it, Vs a fiver in petrol, and that's before all the shite that's involved in shopping.

 

[Sue]

I know it's easy for me to say because I have the time, but really there's no cheaper alternative than going to the shops yourself. As convenient as delivery is, it is expensive.

Nah. If I get a delivery at 11am on a Tuesday (or whatever -- possible if I'm working from home), I can typically get delivery for free or 99p. Also means I can bulk buy things that are too heavy to carry given i haven't a car.

 

[Karl Masks]

Just to add to this, as a meat eater, I tend to get chicken thigh fillets - or some supermarkets have now started doing chicken drumstick meat without the bones, which is even cheaper and both are excellent and convenient to cut up for stir fries, bone in tends to be even cheaper and works really well for curries and stews, Pork is cheap, even pork chops or pork loin steaks for frying/grilling are not too pricey if you want a cheaper alternative to a steak, and shoulder is cheap and great for slow cooking (Cuban pork with rice and black beans is fucking lush as an alternative to a Sunday roast). Beef shin or cheek are both good affordable options for stewing.
Bulk out stews with plenty of root veg and if you can eat them (I know the OP already said they can't eat some of these things, but I'm adding it for info/ideas for others) stuff like lentils, pearl barley, bulgur wheat, pulses etc. is a good and cost effective way of making a meat stew go further.

root veg is fine, it's the high carb stuff like lentils and beans. For some reason eating this stuff just leaves me hungry. I guess i'm wired for lower carbs. Some people seem to be. Shame really, I quite like lentils and wholewhat past and kidney beans

 

[Elpenor]

Get some chickens if you have them and use the eggs. It’s a hobby as well as food.

And if they’re not laying, neck ‘em for the pot

 

[ska invita]

I don't know if you have a local food pantry... Home

They tend to be community run and you get a decent amount of shopping for around a fiver generally. Anyone can use them as well, so you don't need to be referred, just rock up when they're open

Pantry Listings

View details of all the Pantry in our network across the UK.

www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk

whats the range of items like that you can get? Is it you put a fiver in and get whatever you're given?

(there is one near me but its only open when im at work so not going to happen
also i dont think that list is incomplete as i know of a similar scheme on an estate in islington and its not on the map)

 

[Epona]

Get some chickens if you have them and use the eggs. It’s a hobby as well as food.

And if they’re not laying, neck ‘em for the pot

No outdoor space here and I think having them indoors would be messy, smelly, unfair to the chucks, and upset the cat

 

[Elpenor]

No outdoor space here and I think having them indoors would be messy, smelly, unfair to the chucks, and upset the cat

That was aimed at the OP, definitely not ones to have inside

 

[Epona]

That was aimed at the OP, definitely not ones to have inside

They are very messy though, and need fox-proof housing, food, potentially veterinary care etc.
It's not necessarily as easy as buy a few chickens and get free eggs

 

[Brainaddict]

Batch cook? If you make veggie soups, dhals, stuff like that, you can just take them straight out of the freezer and microwave them if you have a microwave, or warm up in a pan on a low light. I have two big stock/soup pans because I have always cooked big and frozen portions.

Yes, that would help, though it only really works for veggie stuff, and I don't want to live on beans alone. It's also hard to find the time to batch cook. We're usually trying to cook as quickly as possible and with the best will the in the world a big batch cook will take quite a bit longer than one meal. But I probably should work out a way to do it.

Edit: I should add that we have complicated dietary requirements at the moment. No dairy, no soya, no red meat, but fish is okay.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Yes, that would help, though it only really works for veggie stuff, and I don't want to live on beans alone. It's also hard to find the time to batch cook. We're usually trying to cook as quickly as possible and with the best will the in the world a big batch cook will take quite a bit longer than one meal. But I probably should work out a way to do it.

Edit: I should add that we have complicated dietary requirements at the moment. No dairy, no soya, no red meat, but fish is okay.

Chilli, Curries (lots of varities), Stews, Bolognaise all contain meat and I batch cook frequently. I does take a bit longer, but not loads of extra time to chop up a few extra onions, carrots, etc.

 

[nogojones]

whats the range of items like that you can get? Is it you put a fiver in and get whatever you're given?

(there is one near me but its only open when im at work so not going to happen
also i dont think that list is incomplete as i know of a similar scheme on an estate in islington and its not on the map)

You get a choice of items and the way the food is delivered means some weeks are better than others, but its well worth while

 

[sojourner]

Yes, that would help, though it only really works for veggie stuff, and I don't want to live on beans alone. It's also hard to find the time to batch cook. We're usually trying to cook as quickly as possible and with the best will the in the world a big batch cook will take quite a bit longer than one meal. But I probably should work out a way to do it.

Edit: I should add that we have complicated dietary requirements at the moment. No dairy, no soya, no red meat, but fish is okay.

Batch cooking a soup or dhal will take the same amount of time to make one meal of it. 45 mins MAX from start to finish. A weekend job perhaps?

 

[sojourner]

root veg is fine, it's the high carb stuff like lentils and beans. For some reason eating this stuff just leaves me hungry. I guess i'm wired for lower carbs. Some people seem to be. Shame really, I quite like lentils and wholewhat past and kidney beans

Are you only eating tiny amounts or something? Beans and lentils are chockful of protein AND carbs - they should definitely be filling you up, unless you're eating dolly portions.

 

[dessiato]

Absolutely zero use to suggest this to people who don't drive, don't have a car, and can't carry much.

If I get on the bus regularly to go to a supermarket in person and do the maximum amount of shopping I can carry (both N and I have disabilities), the bus fares are massively increasing the cost of shopping so as to not make it worthwhile - as well as being time consuming, exhausting, painful, and stressful.
I can book a delivery for 3x the amount of stuff that I can carry for less than the cost of a return bus fare.

As I said in the first part of my post, "I know it's easy for me to say because I have the time, "

 

[iona]

No outdoor space here and I think having them indoors would be messy, smelly, unfair to the chucks, and upset the cat

None of the cats here can ever be arsed to object when a chicken sneaks into the kitchen to nick some cat food

 

[Epona]

None of the cats here can ever be arsed to object when a chicken sneaks into the kitchen to nick some cat food

I bet your chickens are either around the same size or a bit bigger than the cats - so that's in potential lunch if cat finds one incapacitated bracket