Anyone want to join me on a cheap food month challenge?

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We are spending about £300 a month on groceries (including cleaning/toiletries etc). Want to keep it under £200 for the next 4 weeks if possible. Only 3 of us and I’ve just done a big bulk cook for DS (4) so mainly just me and DH. To cover all meals except we are invited to 2 BBQs in May so won’t need food for those.

Apparently tastes lovely!

diggerty thanks yes I probably should get my act together and start batch cooking again. Used to always have loads of spag Bol, Shepards pie, curry and chilli in the freezer.

It really works, has saved us loads and it's really easy to just heat a different meal every day.
I put in lentils, grated carrot and courgette, as well as it tasting good it makes things go a lot further.

That cinnamon thing looks a mess, but DH was right, it tastes lovely.

I’ve started using dry Haribo beans to pad out chilli, they are low carb too. 6g per 100g.

The green jinn app has 40p back on extra large pineapples in Tesco, 49p each. I got one on my account and another on dhs. You can freeze it or grill it or bbq it.

Vegan brownies is my go to recipe, it’s like that cake made with ground almonds not flour, but cheap. I do it in a cake tin & kid myself I’m not going to eat it all in a few days.

Haribo beans fluffy? Aren’t they a bit sweet?

😆 Yes but they add colour.

Haribo

Fluffycloudland77 Would you mind posting the recipe for your vegan brownies please. I'd like to try them.
I make oat fingers a lot for the kids and in the past have made some brownies which used to be whizzed up dates, some nut butter and cocoa powder but they weren't cheap to make, do taste amazing though!

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6036/vegan-brownies.aspx

I didn't add as much oil or water as the recipe suggested, I think I did 200ml of each.

Thanks, I'll try them :)

I've just made a third batch of cinnamon buns, this time I made it up and they turned out really well.

A lot simpler too.

Hi, Ive been watching the thread for ages. Desperately trying to reduce my shopping bill and getting some good tips. Ive two teenagers who come and go, so I am never sure how many I'm cooking for. Ive been batch cooking over the last two days and have portioned everything into single portions. Chilli, spaghetti bolognese, caribbean jerk stew, chicken korma, 2 x lamb shanks in lamb gravy, meatballs in tomato sauce, sausages in onion gravy and I still have a macaroni cheese to cook. I spent £55 in Aldi and also got 1 x ribeye steak and some burgers and a few other bits. Lamb shanks I already had. These should last for ages, Im shattered !! but hopefully won't have to cook for ages.

Spent £72 in supermarket but I think about £20 is stuff for my husband to take into work so that's £52 as will get it back. Packed lunches expensive. Any cheap ideas? (She won't eat sandwiches). Spent £6 in Chinese shop on noodles and black bean sauce. So I reckon £259 about right with 9 days to go

Mamma - my daughter will not eat sandwiches. It might not be the healthiest but I buy the party sausage rolls and mini scotch eggs and give her cut up carrots and cucumber, she loves fruit. She is very fussy, and when she had school dinners only ate plain jacket potato - no butter!

Munchkin08 Would you mind please sharing the recipe for you caribbean jerk stew?

We did our cook off on Friday, now my freezer looks like this This will be our last big cook off in this house because we're moving next month.

Shop 3 for June today and I already know I forgot DW tablets! It came to £60 so that’s £195 spent with 1 more shop to do, although what I’ve bought today will last more than a week, but will need some veg and milk etc at a minimum next week. It won’t be a full week’s shop however so maybe I could do it quite cheap.

Can you do some batch cooking with rice or spaghetti as accompaniments, that could work out cheaper (chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognese, curry, that kind of thing).

I’m going to batch cook for July I think, although the ups of meals that lend themselves to batch cooking are not really summer dishes so will have to give it a think.

I’m planning a veggie/chorizo pasta sauce and a big risotto to eek out what I’ve got in for the rest of June though. Can eat both of those cold with salad bits.

Summer cooking is definitely harder. I've been trying to think of dished myself. I've been thinking quiche, Jamaican patties, empenadas, burgers (I make bread a lot). I need 3 chicken and 3 mince and I think I can do it.
Was also thinking potato salad and coleslaw, big lots and freezing portions, I'm still working on ideas.

Luckily salad is quite cheap here so all those should go with it.

we're using up in everything in the cupboards which can end up being....creative!

Then we have to defrost the freezer which has virtually grown limbs.

can I ask what you all do re rice? I'd like to batch cook a load but would you reheat on Day 2 for example (meaning, cooked on Monday, would you reheat on Wednesday)?

I hate summer cooking. Today I bought a family pack of tomatoes in sains & three were mouldy when I opened them. I’ve sent photos requesting a refund.

If you’ve got the green jinn app they’ve got a few things worth having.

btw I've seen some posts saying you can use soap flakes for anything (!)

does that mean we can use them in the washing machine and also for washing dishes in the sink? Sorry if that's a really stupid question. I see them in the supermarket but haven't used them and never known anyone to use them.

You’d have to research correct rice storage, it’s a tricky one & I hear food poisoning off it is awful.

When cooking rice and keeping for another day you just have to make sure you keep it covered once cooked, cool quickly and get it in the fridge ASAP. I will cook on Monday night and eat on weds, Thursday lunchtime at a push. And don’t just warm it up a bit, make sure you reheat thoroughly.

Thanks OP, you even go for Thursday...interesting.

we can buy mahousive bags from the Indian market so that's going to be a big bill reducer in a way....I was thinking if we're going to wind up eating it nearly daily it would be nice to reduce the cooking.