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

[mamadiva]

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

Aah, you mean the budget one was cheap don't you, sorry!

There is normally only the 3 of us (2 adults, 1 toddler) but my cousin has had to move in with us for a bit and he's a student so can only give us a tenner a week.

houldn't be here for more than 2 weeks hopefully.

Maybe by decent food but serve less on the plates ?
It amazes me how much meat people think they need.
I buy fruit and veg from the market and the difference between that and supermarket stuff is staggering.

Go Vegetarian!

I regularly feed my family of four on about £50 a week, that is vegetarian and organic. The only thing we don't get is milk because that is delivered by the milk man. But you'll find all my fruit and veg is organic, as is the cheese, yoghurts etc... and then I buy normal biscuits and crisps etc. I usually only go over the £50 mark when I have to buy household goods too. Oh and the £50 does include fish for the girls.

Like others have said, Jacket potatoes with Cheese and beans is healthy and cheap, Lentil / Vegetable curry also cheap, as is macaroni cheese (with fish in for the girls), or rataouille, or vegetarian shepherd's pie - bulk out with either quorn or lentils.

Okay, so you don't have to go completely vegetarian, but if you reduced your meat intake to twice a week, I bet you would be a lot closer to your budget, eat healthier and it would be better for the environment too!

I think a lot of people have to high expectations like meat every day when for health/environmental reasons we should be eating it twice a week.

I think a lot of people don't know how to cook.

And I think decent food is actually a good price and that the problem is that we have become used to paying ridiculously cheap prices. A families food bill used to be half of their income now it's something like a fifth?

IMO food should be your second biggest expense after rent/housing.

My friend swears by her slow-cooker to make good food with cheap cuts of meat.

I buy fresh and organic/fr food and nothing is wasted. for instance an organic chicken (£12) feeds us all (2 adults, 3 children)for 3 meals. We have aroast lunch with the chicken and loads of frozen veg, then I use the leftover meat to make a chicken curry (tin of tomatoes, onion, spoon of curry paste) and serve with rice. I boil the carcass to amke a chicken soup (add some leftover meat, frozen peas and some pasta or rice). Hey presto, 3 meals from one chicken.

The trick is to eat less meat I think

this week we all got involved in the meal plan and we are having

HM carrot and coriander soup with HM bread

Toad in the Hole with Lidl baked beans

Hot chicken salad with olives and pepperami and Garlic Bread

Fresh pasta with bolognaise

Fishcakes and vegetables

Fresh tuna with anchovy and caper dressing
Sauteed potatoes and vegetables

Soup again for another meal

All under £50 for the 4 of us.

low cookers are the way to go!

I place some diced Beef Shin or Stewinf beef in my slow cooker with a bottle of Guinness or anyothert stout, 2 carrotts, 2 sticks of celery and a large onion and season then cover with stock, when we all get home hungry at the end of the day we have a lovely warm tasty stew to look forward to.

Same goes for pork and cider/ Lamb and Red Wine.

Mince from our butcher is cheap and makes better burgers than supermarket ones anyday, you need to rent or buy a copy of Jamies ministery of food, everythin in there is cheap to make.

Oh and today (we are on our backsides for money untill dp gets paid wed)

I walked to Tesco and got a Pasta Bake sauce and some Tesco Value wholemeal pasta and Broccoli and Carrots, i had a huge meal of pasta bake and steamed bread on the table, served with bread and butter it fills us all up. It cost under £3.

It can be done.

Here we have 2 adults and 2 children, we shop at Asda, Aldi(for a couple of bits), and our local butcher. I cook all dinners from scratch, and also Sunday morning is baking day, where I make cakes, cookies etc for the week.

Asda/Aldi -£30-40 a week- this is everything apart from meat, bacon , sausages and free range chicken breasts. If we are having a roast Chicken I buy this here too, as they are cheaper than butchers.

Butchers- £10-15 a week, thats a large joint9for roast and sandwiches for lunches), free range chicken breasts, steak mince, sausages and bacon.

I tried buying fruit and veg at our local market but to be honest it was more expensive than Asda and didn't last as long.

£50 just for food is managable. (we do it for four or us (five at w/e with DSS))

but if that includes nappies/booze/washinng powder etc then no chance.

How we do it:

1.Make a weekly meal list, by firstly going through cupboards, fridge and freezer and working out what you can make out of stuff there and buy any extras;

1. buy big and store and freeze (but only of things on list)

1. should you chance upon something cheap only buy it if

a) it is really cheap (ie not orginally £7 now £5 but still expensive) b) you will eat it c) you can freeze it if sell by date today

I regularly buy lots of cheap fish at the end of the day and freeze it.

1. split food;

big tub of mince meat for example can make three meals if beefed out with tomatoes/onions/kidney beans etc.

1. Less meat more pulses

1. Save all leftovers and either eat as they are or make them into a new meal (egboiled tatties into tortilla)

PS YANBU it's getting harder and harder.

Buy fruits and vegetable from street markets, not supermarkets. Not only cheaper but they last longer.

Buy whole roasted chicken(s), and make chicken soup with leftovers.

Learn to make dishes with vegetables & meat (for example: chicken with onion, tomatoes, & red peppers. Or beans with pieces of meat, onions, tomatoes.). Add a rice or pasta on the side to make a complete meal.

Freeze a part of your meals so that you can serve a combination of them if/when you run out of money or food.

Sorry, no miracles. £50/week is not a whole lot.

According to the Moneysaving expert some people spend more on Sky than food which is sad.
If it was a case of eat properly or pay my council tax they could take a run and jump.

I dont have SKY or anything like that, jut that I got paid off from work and as a result we get £180 a week for all bills etc no benefits so not good as we are having to pay of small debts also.

Som epeople have come up with good ideas and recipes here. You just need to change the type of food you eat.

Meat should be a treat.

street markets for vegetables, cote? Where do you live?

"some people spend more on Sky than food"

How much is the most expensive Sky package? the most expensive I can see is £55 a month (sport, movies and 'UK's widest range of channels' whatever that means) with HD and stuff.

Not really sure the above statment can be true.

I sent Dp to tesco's today with a list (admitedly with washing powder and nappies on) and he spent £154 !! OMG- I am going home shortly to find out what he has brought.

I would spend £80 approx - 2 adults 2 kids

My top tip do not send DP/hubbie- even if with a list.
They obviously cannot shop as fruggally as women.

Haven't read whole thread, will now, but OP, if you're trying to get more in the mode of cooking from scratch, why are you also trying to limit yourself to free range food? Talk about making the job more difficult!

Try to make one change at a time, the frozen shite certainly won't be free range, so by cooking anything from scratch, you're improving your diet.

And yes, Tesco pisses me off too

A tip from living off a crappy student budget for longer than I was actually a student:
Cheap crap can be made more palatable by adding it to stuff. Your main friends are Tesco value (or equivalent) tins of whole tomatoes/beans
Bacon stirfry (if youu add lots of herbs, ginger and soy sauce,there is no need for expensive sauce-in-a-bottle). Just cheap veg only (even cauilflower tastes good this way).
Sausage casserole:tin of tomatoes (whole are cheaper) with lashings of worcestershire sauce and an oxo cube, plus potatoes, carrots and other cheap veg going.
Corned beef hash (essentially the same as above but with corned beef). Also if you can face it can be made into a pie and served with baked beans.
Baked potato with beans (and cheese if you can stretch that far).
Tuna surprise: tuna plus frozen sweetcorn/peas in a tin of tomatoes with added herbs mixed into spaguetii or such like.
Ditto spag bol made the same way but also with oxo cube and worcetershire sauce.
Lots of toast .... even the crap bread tastes better if you can just manage to buy butter or a bit of jam to help it down.
Good luck XX

Last tip, from the heart. If at all possible avoid going shopping iwth children or DH/DP. You spend much more when they are there to "helpfully" point to stuff.
Plus then you can lways lie and say that there were no crisps/hobnobs etc on offer...