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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Why o fecking why is decent food so bloody expensive???

192 replies

mamadiva · 01/02/2009 14:56

Trying to get more into the mode of cooking from scratch but would rather use free range food although am on vey limited budget

Bloody cheaper buying frozen shite ARGH have to feed 3 adults and a toddler for about £50 a week how the hell am I meant to o that...

Sorry but Tesco has pissed me off now

OP posts:
ChiefMangosuthuButhelezi · 01/02/2009 15:09

I'd love to be able to cook on a budget. I was watching that woman cooking that pig on Victorian farm the other night and she is amazing, although I don't think I could eat Brawn. Then she made that dress and it looked great. She was making cleaning products out of brick dust and tea.
So, all you need are a few bricks and some pigs eyeballs and hey presto, you're budgeting brilliantly.

PaulaMummyKnowsBest · 01/02/2009 15:10

i am feeding 3 adults and 3 children and if i buy good quality food, my shopping bill is £150 - £200 a week

Maybe i should pour loads of rubbish into my children.

I can buy sausage, chips and an arctic roll so cheap but it is crap food!

Ivykaty44 · 01/02/2009 15:13

What meals are you trying to cook?

Have you tryed shopping in other places rather than a supermarket (which can be rather more expensive) Local butchers, fishmongers, corner shops and markets can be far cheaper and better food than tesco.

Or could you have a vegtable box delivered? This can work out far cheaper as it is only seasanale vegtables, sometimes they will deliver meat aswell (although I found that this was more expensisive)

ChiefMangosuthuButhelezi · 01/02/2009 15:14

can you still buy arctic roll? we used to have that at primary school, and rissoles and those burgers from a tin covered in gravy.

CarGirl · 01/02/2009 15:14

Hmmmm

Jacket potatoes & baked beans with a bit of grated cheese is a cheap organic meal.

BoffinMum · 01/02/2009 15:15

Do you want my spring menu plans for suppers and linked shopping lists? If you shop around and visit the occasional market, you could probably do it for £75 a week for 5-6 people. I'm at boffinmum at hotmail dot co dot uk.

Desiderata · 01/02/2009 15:18

I think you need to steer away from the supermarkets, who make enormous profits from selling shite very cheaply, and good stuff very dearly.

Get off-cuts from your local butcher, cheap fish from your local fishmonger, and haggle at your local greengrocers. The smaller enterprises need a quicker turnover of stock, and are much more open to offers.

Plan your menus each week, and don't be too ambitious. It's true enough that a jacket potato is a very fine thing indeed!

BoffinMum · 01/02/2009 15:20

If people are interested I will revise the menus and introduce a bit more variety and puddings as well, btw. I knocked these ones off in an evening so I could easily cut and paste the shopping lists into the Tesco Express Shopper function.

bronze · 01/02/2009 15:22

boffinmum I'm interested.
I'm always interested in ideas to save money and introduce different meals. When I read your first post I was going to ask you if I could you mail too

ProfYaffle · 01/02/2009 15:24

I went to my local butcher last weekend, got £3.60 worth of shin beef, put it in the slow cooker with a bottle of Adnams, some onion and carrot. Served it with mash, it fed 4 adults and 2 kids for a total cost of about £5.50.

This week (inspired by Jamie!) I got 3 porks neck steaks for £2.60 from the farm shop on a local rare breed farm.

It is possible to eat well on a budget but I think you have to treat even cheap cuts of meat as an occasional treat.

luckylady74 · 01/02/2009 15:25

I shop at asda or tesco and if you avoid free range chicken breasts I don't think it's too bad. Tesco usually do 2 packs of outdoor reared sausages for £4 or I got that in M&S today and have in the coop before. I buy 12 free range eggs every week and a chicken or mince and I can still do 2 adults and 3 children for about £60.
However I do buy value or smart price oats, wash powder,own brand nappies, toilet roll,muesli,apples,plain yoghurt, ready salted crisps, potatoes, wholemeal bread, white fish, cream cheese -anything that's not over processed- all my shopping has the same coloured labels!
I stuggle with fair trade as I feel I should - I always buy the instant coffee and bananas, but got the smart price grapes as it was pounds difference.
£50 is hard though - I hope you've not got food allergies or fussy eaters!

Anglepoise · 01/02/2009 15:25

Presumably by "food" you mean "meat" (unless they're battery-farming veg now)?

So either eat less meat (a few times a week rather than every night) or use the cheaper cuts (chicken thighs instead of breasts, or buy a whole chicken and make it last two meals).

Well done for bothering though

LoveMyLapTop · 01/02/2009 15:26

Buy from Aldi , they do some organic veg there, I bought a huge bag of spuds there for a pound, cauli and broccoli for 49p
Also buy meat from local buthcher far cheaper and better quality

Original poster
mamadiva · 01/02/2009 15:36

I have 2 very fussy eaters by which I mean no veg will go near their lips am trying to sneak in some hidden veg, just fed up with te same old crap and must admit I'm not much of a cooker so need to get round to learning basically until now have been on half decent but still processed meals

OP posts:
Original poster
mamadiva · 01/02/2009 15:38

Oh also meant to say regarding butchers etc, w have a butchers nearby but seems to be expensive although might try nipping in once a week and spending say £12 would this be achievable for all of us?

No greengrocers near here and the arket is only on once a week but stuff is not too great.

OP posts:
eekamoose · 01/02/2009 15:42

I am shocked that you have so little to spend on food.

ProfYaffle · 01/02/2009 15:42

Sometimes you have to ask the butcher specially for cheaper cuts, they're not out on display. I tend to go in and just ask what's cheap and will benefit from longer cooking.

bronze · 01/02/2009 15:43

now I'm thinking of Jamies shoulder of pork and practically dribbling.

I buy in bulk a lot which helps in the long run. flour by the sack etc. I have a pile of four stacking crates that I store the excess in

Molesworth · 01/02/2009 15:43

Agree with everyone about cheap cuts. I also view meat as a treat now rather than an everyday occurrence!

Ivykaty44 · 01/02/2009 15:45

dalh - red lentils and curry spices with a tin of tomatos, serve with rice and pitta bread to dunk - cost bag of lentils 85p tin of tomato 35p packet of pitta bread 45p and stock 5p, add that to the rice a whole bag costs £1.20 = £2.85 total

If you want make some bombay potatos to go with it and so will cost around another £1.50 for the potato, spices.

Pearl barley - excellent for bulking out and thickening stew/casserole. Get shin beef and put in the slow cooker with tin tomato, worcester sauce, a good few varied chopped winter vegtables and a couple of handfuls of pearl barley - let this cook for at least 8-10 hours cost around £5

Have you got a bread machine - if so make your own pizza base and use tomato for base, sweetcorn, pepper, mushrooms, and mozz cheese for topping. A pound of flour will make two pizza base which will be enough for four people. Serve with potato wedges.

Make your own bread and rools.

Veggie chilli using the root vegtables that you all like and add tin tomato chilli and kidney beans.

ProfYaffle · 01/02/2009 15:46

The week I went in for the shin beef, I also bought 12 rashers of his cured on site happy pig bacon and 12 of his own recipe top range sausages. Spent a total of £11.

Out of that we got 2 good breakfasts over the weekend and the beef casserole for 6 of us. Then later in the week for 2 adults and 2 children we had bacon and lentil casserole, toad in the hole and kiddy sized sausage and mash.

ilovemydogandMrObama · 01/02/2009 15:55

I know what you mean. I got a cheap chicken last week and was slightly smug at how little I had spent on groceries for the week. DP said, 'don't ever buy that again' It truly tasted of rubber....

So, this week got a free range chicken. OK, it was about £4.00 but false economy to get budget in some things.

Having said that, got a big bag of budget oats that taste as good for 85p

worley · 01/02/2009 16:01

i have now given in to online shopping, i manage tp get a months main food shopping for £150 including toiletried pet foods etc, i then have £50 set aside for fresh fruit and veg and bread weekly and i dont have to go to a supermarket then either. i do onlt have 2 adults and 2 children though.
and i plan monthly meals with everything i order.

Buckets · 01/02/2009 16:06

I used to be able to do a £50 weekly food shop but prices have gone up so much in the last 2 yrs.

Buy a whole chicken and dismantle it.
*Breasts - grilled in sandwiches on one day
*Legs, thighs and wings go in a casserole for another day (slowcooked til the you can fish out the bones easily and the portions aren't recognisable.
*Scrape all the tiny bits and skin off the carcass, boil up the carcass a few hours, strain, cool, skim off the fat and make Jewish mother chicken soup with the little bits floating in it.

2 pork chops cut into strips will feed all of you. Try it with a packet sauce on pasta or rice.

If you don't have a bread machine, make pizza dough in a food processor instead.

Do a roast without meat - make a big yorkshire pudding instead.

Learn to make pancakes and savoury scones - these are v cheap.

GrimbleTheResourceful · 01/02/2009 16:06

£4 for a free range chicken?

That is seriously cheap.