Being frugal isn't working anymore

[BruhWhy]

The next step for us is to eat less. I know other people have already reached this point but for us it's been put off by our cooking habits, eating less meat and cooking from scratch with cheap ingredients.

This morning I popped into Morrisons for a quick top-up shop, to make dinner and lunch for the kids today, before my shopping arrives tomorrow morning and it cost nearly £20. I don't do top-up shops often, we have a 10% staff discount that we can only use online so I do all our shopping that way.

It was a handful of ingredients; a pack of chicken thighs, bananas, milk, flour, natural yoghurt, a cabbage and some canned peaches and custard from the essentials range to make a quick peach crumble for after dinner, which will be chicken thigh kebabs with homemade flatbread and pickled cabbage/salad I already I have.

Nearly £20. Two years ago that was nearly half my entire weekly food budget for the week for two adults and three children. I'm really good at making food stretch and cooking creatively... It's not going to be enough soon.

I'm so worried for people in worse situations than us. This winter is going to be really bad.

We will have to do what famous chefs do. Find an inexpensive ingredient and base a meal around it.

I do a basic French onion soup and use reduced French stick (as you need slightly stale bread) and cheese. Makes a nice supper. The most expensive bit is decent stock but I still use cubes.

I've found adding a whole packet of bean sprouts fried into a stir fry means I need much less meat. That's £0.71p rather than adding another packet of meat.

Padding out with veg or beans is much cheaper.

Tonight in our house is macaroni cheese. My tip is to use half the Cheddar and two big tablespoons of fortified yeast flakes along with mustard powder. This is cheaper, halves the cholesterol, and contains B vitamins. It's a cheese amplifier and a lot cheaper than the real thing.

Everything has shot up. I'm really noticing it. I can just about feed 4 adults on £60 a week including breakfast, lunches, snacks and tea. It's tight but I can do it.