To do a cheaper, crappier food shop some weeks?

[Greatexpectations77]

To afford other things?
Does anyone else do this/have to do this?
This upcoming week for example (I do the main food shop on a Monday for the week) we’re fairly low on weekly cash, it’s pouring down tomorrow where we are and we have a (very) active 3 year old to entertain. When the weather’s ok, we can get out for free activities-playground, beach, long dog walks, picnics etc.
We’re thinking of the cinema & lunch, therefore my plan is to buy *Less good food in the food shop-enough for two portions of fruit a day for Dd, basics like butter, bread, milk eggs etc, but simple, cheaper meals like pasta with veg, cheesy beans on toast and so on.
Last week I spent a fair bit more on *Better meals for the family-homemade pie & veg, fish, chicken dishes, lasagna etc -all still fairly basic, but more expensive.

Does anyone else do this? Cut back on food to enjoy/pay for other things? It does give me an element of guilt that I’m not feeding Dd properly

Sounds fine. My 4yo's favourite meal is cheesy pasta with veggies. Much more popular than baked fish, chilli, a roast, fajitas or any of the 'proper' meals I normally do. Since I'm extremely nauseous at the moment (pregnant), that's what DC is getting at least 3 or 4 times a week while I chew on some plain, boiled pasta to keep myself alive.

If you want something a bit more exciting, I'd do a chilli. Mince isn't particularly expensive and if you add kidney beans and veg, it usually morphs into a huge potful that lasts around 3-4 days in our house. We have it firstly with rice, and then in jacket potatoes and finally in tacos or tortillas with lettuce and salsa if there is any left.

Beans on toast is a cheap nutritious meal. My kids loved it when it was bean night, once a week, with scrambled eggs or omelette

Plenty of cheaper meals that are nice! Tbh I tend to do a mixture anyway. There are some meals we like that are cheap and some foods we happily swap out for the economy versions, for other things we get stuff we know we really like, it usually balances out well.

I like to get ideas from www.budgetbytes.com - lots of tasty stuff with cheap ingredients. Nothing wrong with beans on toast though!

Are you in a position where you can shop around? I know not everyone can but if you have a couple of supermarkets nearby, check prices and split your shop.

Another thing (which I appreciate isn't possible for everyone) you could think about is buying a couple of extra items of they are on offer. Again, you can check websites before you go.

BTW, cheesy beans on toast is one of the finest meals in existence! Can I come for tea please?

@DuckyNoMates

My default is the cheaper shop then once every couple of months I do a fancy shop

I do this too.

@DuckyNoMates Yes, it seems to be becoming my default shop more and more recently, never used to be

Cheap doesn't have to mean crappy.

We buy a lot of lentils, beans and chickpeas to bulk things out.
Frozen mixed berries from Farmfoods to add to porridge or yoghurt, much cheaper than fresh.
Bags of the super cheap cubed, frozen mixed veg (again farm foods) which you can boil, whiz, season and turn into a super cheap veggie soup...or chuck in a slow cooker with chicken for a cheap and easy casserole.

Thanks all 😊
Some really good ideas, definitely going to make sure I mix the week up a bit with a couple of cheaper meals with the others and maybe takeaway/treat at the weekend

The thing is, your treat is expensive.

Cinema/lunch is a lot. The cinema these days is an absolute rip off! I would (and have) let the kids choose a film to buy on Amazon video or similar and do a "movie night" with the lights off, bags of popcorn from the supermarket, hot dogs, nachos etc. It will come in for less than the price of the cinema alone, never mind lunch too.

Joe Wicks lockdown stuff is still on Youtube so maybe offer your 3 year old a reward for doing one of his work outs to wear him out!

Vegetarian food cooked from scratch is usually quite cheap - tonight I made dhaal, roasted curried cauliflower and brown rice - cauliflower was 80p, dhaal about £1.80 as I put some fresh spinach in it (would otherwise have been half that) and even the microwave rice was only 70p so 80p a head and there is enough dhaal plus the cauliflower stalks and leaves left over to make soup another night to go with a mushroom omlette so another cheap meal.

I have been doing this for a while, I’m trying to put some money by for the price rises this year and get used to being very careful again. My son hasn’t noticed, his favourite meal has always been jacket cheese and beans so he thinks he’s really lucky because he’s been having it a couple of times a week. I also swapped his meatball pasta for chopped up sausage pasta this month and he thinks it’s great.

Any mince based dish can be bulked out with red lentils - they disintegrate so nobody who’s likely to turn their nose up will even notice. Finely chopped carrots are another good ‘bulker’ for such dishes.

Pearl barley and/or red lentils plus seasonal local veg, inc. relatively cheap roots like swede, celeriac and turnip, can make a very tasty and filling soup. Some grated cheese on top can add protein.
Those root veg also keep very well - you can use a bit and save the rest.

@londonmummy1966 I made dhaal, roasted curried cauliflower that sounds lovely , do you have a recipe please?

I shop in Lidl first thing in the morning. Started doing this during lockdown and found that they have lots of marked down items on the shelves. Sometimes I cook the stuff straight away other times I freeze it to cook another day. I save a lot doing this and most importantly we eat healthily.

I cook from scratch and a chicken can provide us (two adults) with two dinners, a lunch and a big pot of meaty chicken soup. So I roast the chicken on a bed of onions, carrots, celery and sweet potato serve with green veg and/or salad and Yorkshire pudding one day, chicken fried rice with peppers, onions, peas and corn another, chicken salad or sandwiches with lots of salad another day and the carcass slow cooked then picked clean of meat which I add back into the stock with vegetables.

Marked down pork mince has finely chopped onions, peppers, celery and grated carrot mixed in with powdered garlic, beaten egg and oatmeal. While the mini meatballs cook in the oven I make a tomato sauce with onions a tin of tomatoes, garlic and mushrooms. This gives me enough for two meals with pasta and broccoli or other green veg.

Today we had pulled pork which was a joint cooked on a bed of onions and celery in the slow cooker with a pack of slow cooker sauce (cheating but at £1 it gives a lot of flavour). It will do at least two dinners with red cabbage and apples and spinach and a lunch of sandwiches with salad.

Minced beef with onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes and chilli powder simmered in the slow cooker with a tin of red beans added in towards the end gives another two dinners served with rice.

Lots of veg and a tin of chick peas make a great curry. I fry the curry powder, add onions and garlic then whatever other veg I have to hand. Sweet potato, ordinary potato, carrot and spinach or frozen green peas works well plus sweet peppers for colour.

Marked down sausages can make a great stew or bangers and mash with mixed veg. One pack does us two meals.

By freezing the second and third day portions I vary our meals so it’s not the same thing two days in a row.

Eggs make a great frittata incorporating bits of all the veg you have available. Lidl sell a box of mixed reduced veg.

You can eat really well for a week for the cost of a couple of expensive nutritionally awful pizzas.

Vegetarian meals.
Pasta with tinned tomatoes, basil, parmesan.
Melanzane- tinned tomatoes, aubergine, bechamel
Macaroni cheese

Fruit can vary so much depending on what type. If you're buying grapes, strawberries, mango, raspberries, it will be more. Whereas you can get apples, bananas, tangerines, plums for much less. You can also get super cheap tinned fruit.

Totally normal in my experience. Some weeks we have chicken breast, strawvberries and salad. Some weeks we have sausages, cheap fruit like apples and bananas only and lots of potatoes/pasta

In fact I will stick my neck out and say that only the comfortably off eat the same sort of meals consistently through the month. Almost everyone I know shops a bit more leanly towards payday

Crustless quiche is my go to cheap meal. With 6 slices of bacon and an onion you can make one that will last 2 dinners and 2 lunches (and DD is greedy for "breakfast cake" as she calls it!) for me and ten year old DD. I buy reduced eggs as, something I only learned since working for a supermarket, they are reduced when the "sell by" date is reached but they still have a week left on the the "use by" date. So a pack of eggs from work will be at least half the normal cost but will still have a week left on them.

Check out the dates on reduced eggs, they are an absolute bargain!

You don't have to feel bad for feeding your kids apples and bananas instead of mangos and passion fruit. They're just as healthy. I know we are all made to think we have to offer loads of variety all the time but that's not how humans have ever lived. Locally grown fruit and veg might not be as exciting but it provides everything you need. Kids are getting heavier too and simple teas like eggs on toast or pasta and broccoli are a perfect way of giving them a balanced, nutritious meal that's in the right ballpark for what children should be eating.

I find it cut most by

• reducing meat/fish quantities
• cutting out any pre-prepared foods
• removing stuff we absolutely just dont need like crisps
• swapping breakfast cereals for oats which are healthier anyway.

My little ones have recently gotten into enjoying pasta and sweetcorn. A real savings

@MyDcAreMarvel - it was delicious...

Curried cauliflower - put a big slug of olive oil in a large bowl. Add 2 tsp tumeric, 2 tsp cumin and 1 tsp garam masala. Whisk together. Cut cauliflower into bite sized florets (stalks and leaves can be put in fridge for soup later in the week). Toss in the spiced oil until coated. Spread on a baking sheet and bake in medium oven for 25 minutes, turning after 15.

Spinach Dhaal - finely slice and onion and soften in olive oil for 5 minutes, add 2 cloves chopped garlic, grated ginger (a thumb sized piece) 2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp dried chilli and 1 tsp cumin. Stir together for 1 minute. Add 2 tsp tomato puree and 2 cups red lentils. Stir to coat for minute. Add 8 cups water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes then add a bag of fresh spinach. Stir until the spinach wilts and then cover and simmer for another 5 minutes or so until lentils are cooked. You can use frozen spinach for this - if so cut the water to 7.5 cups. I sometimes use kale if I have some left over but then I blitz it in the food processor before adding to the dhaal.

As the lentils are quite starchy I find 1 sachet of brown rice is enough for four. I usually have some dhaal left over so I'll make a curried cauliflower soup in the soup maker with the stalks and leaves and an onion and stir in the left over dhaal at the end - the soup maker makes it so boiling hot the dhaal brings it down to the right temperature....

That sounds lovely. Will try those recipes this week!