Let's lower our food bills.

[Bookaholic73]

I was wondering if anyone else is trying to lower their food bills and wanted some support. I know I do!
I'm hoping that we could support each other with info on where is cheapest to get certain items, what food is on offer at which supermarket that week etxc.

A bit about us. We are a family of 3, myself and my 2 adult sons. We are currently spending £800 a month on food, and i really want to reduce this by at least £150 a month.
My sons buy all of their own snacks, drinks etc, all i pay for is their main meals and my own food. They obviously also pay me monthly 'rent' but this swallowed up by rent and council tax.

Anyone else want to join in?

I will never understand why people buy scented candles when they can just open a window!
However, I do buy an unscented one in the autumn/winter period, more for the cozy atmosphere in the evenings.

I’m so worried about getting food poisoning from rice, which is what puts me off doing this. But I know it’d save me money!

@stomachamelon i think it’s all the small things that compound over time that make the biggest difference.

Can I just advise, look at the price PER KILO, Per Sheet, Per whatever

I was in lidl this weekend, I usually buy thighs , but hey guess what? The mini fillets were 50p a kilo cheaper and as I was doing a stirfry - Ideal

Supermarkets use the end plinths to advertise their special offers, but they are not usually the best value

Sure they will have the cheese offers - but look at the lower shelves - can be as cheaper as £2 a kilo and lets face it - its supermarket , mass produced cheese . Buy it cheap, save the pennies so you have then have those pennies to treat yourselves to a good bit of cheese and a glass ot=f wine

Ive posted constantly on this thread how I make cuts. However I dont mention how I still eat as good as it gets without spending. So I save on the every day cheese, come Christmas my fridge and freezer will be full of stilton.because its heavily reduced I also buy lanb and outdoor reared pork at that time, as much as I can squeeze in Because I know come the summer Im looking at 40 quid a leg of lamb

Where I live, its a rare person who eats lamb , its reduced , educed and reduced gain gib and near enough gin=ven way and

Thanks Suki, good point about the price per kilo. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on that.

Morning all. Another lunch packed for work today. I won’t cave in and have a meal deal!

Does anyone know where is cheapest for olive oil, cheese and loo roll?

Cheese is tricky - we tend to buy Sainsbury’s cheap cheddar ( rural local to our choice is Sainsbury’s or Lidl or a very long trip ) because the Lidl crumbles too much to make grating and slicing easy

with cheese / buy strong and use less - thin slices and grated seem to carry more flavour somehow

Pilgrims choice is on club card at Tesco at £7.27 KG

Loo roll is often cheaper in Home Bargains or Savers although our Spar had the cushelle half price recently so I stocked up for the rest of the year Usually I buy Lidls

Ive swapped out olive oil for cold pressed rapeseed - less then half the price of olive and just as beneficial health wise

I make pretty much everything from scratch. I looked at the price of chips v a bag of potatoes and thought why am I paying so much for chips when I can make them? anything nicer than a simple white loaf of bread I bake it. I make slow cooker jam cake, chocolate crunch, cookies, raspberry yogurt cake for lunches and desserts. Pizza night is homemade but we have a woodfire pizza oven so they do come out like a restaurant pizza. Rice is so easy to make with the 2 to 1 method. Protein doesn't always need to be the star of the show, last night I used 2 chicken breasts sliced into stir-fry size bits, peppers, onion 2 tins of tomatoes and seasoning and made fajita pasta topped with cheese it fed 6 happily. Cleaning products I always buy on offer and buy enough to last until they will go on offer again. Fruit is apples, bananas, pears, easy peelers and kiwi at the moment as they are all reasonable prices. Veg is frozen fine green beans they are around a £1 for a big bag, carrots, normal broccoli & peas. lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes are pretty cheap. for lunches you can make a huge tuna, sweetcorn and pasta salad for about £2, it's cheaper to buy chicken, season it and chuck it in the slower cooker than it is to buy the ready made stuff plus you can shred it and it stretches further.

B&m cooking bacon is brilliant value and I use 50% of a pack for bacon and lentil soup . 25% for carbonara and 25% for a frittata/quiche . Brilliant value for the money.

i use chick peas and things like butter nut squash or sweet potato to pack out curry and add nutrition. I buy reduced bread rolls and pasties/sausage rolls and pre make and freeze my sandwiches and packed lunches, just four ribs of bread with cheese or sandwich meat, a pork pie/pastie/sausage roll in a bag and thrown in the freezer. I can easily get 10 days packed lunches for £4 -5 from b and m when it’s reduced which saves a fortune.

Aldi is cheapest for olive oil. I'm sure you already know, but don't use EV for cooking. You only need it for drizzling or salad dressings.

I find Lidl best for EVOO because they do greek and spanish as well as Italian and I admit I do not like Italian EVOO

Many dishes are cooked with EVOO in Italy and Spain, it depends on the dish. I use EV for cooking quite a lot.

Save money on meal accompaniments. Don’t buy manufactured salad dressing.. easiest to drizzle olive oil & vinegar on veg / salads to give a bit of flavour or whisk together either salt / pepper and a teaspoon of mustard for a proper emulsion

Yes always keep a couple of used jars for this purpose, make sure the lid is on tight (some of them give up the ghost after being in the dishwasher a few times) and just put the ingredients in and give it a good shake, no effort and low on washing up

Yes. But on a thread about lowering food bills ...

BBC has a good programme called Eat Well for Less which might give you some ideas.

The only way I lose weight is cutting carbs/more protein (as well as the exercise obviously). I cook pretty much most things from scratch but meat is just so so pricey. We're not badly off but really feeling the pinch. Makes me worry how some people are eating right now.

Well you didnt say whether that was for money purposes or cuisine purposes, yes very expensive to cook with EV, bog standard olive oil is ok or even sunflower depending on the dish.

The actual thread title is "Lets lower our food bills ..."

In regards to the oil.
If i was previously buying oil at £8 for 1L and now spend £5 for 1L, that is a saving, so is lowering the foods bills.
Maybe down the line I'll switch to a different oil, but all savings are good.

So, today I went for a wonder around Farmfoods. I'm not really sure what to say to be honest. A LOT of it was processed rubbish i wouldn't eat. But the fresh stuff was good, specifically the price of loo rolls. But then, they are much thinner than Andrex or Cushelle. So maybe I'm better off just stocking up on the better brands when they are on sale? I'm not sure and would love some feedback on that.

I really am trying not to be a food snob, but i just dont think FF is for me to be honest. But I am glad that i tried it.

@Mumwithbaggage luckily i have a stock of meat in the freezer that will probably last us a month or so. But you are right, its incredibly pricey. I've already decided to have 2 meat free meals per week as i need the meat in the freezer to last as long as possible.

In regards to protein though, i lift weights and try to get 120g of protein a day. However, I'm going to lower this to 100g, and use foods like tinned sardines, pilchards etc. I cant use cottage cheese or greek yogurt as I'm dairy free.

Farm foods are good for the sheer range of frozen veg they do, which I cant always find in supermarkets all in one place

So perhaps chopped squash, spinach, sliced leeks, cauliflower and brocolli which hasnt been infiltrated by carrot (bleugh). Herbs, garlic, ginger etc.

I wouldnt buy the processed stuff in there

I hate frozen veg, but agree the prices were good. I did pick up frozen garlic, chilli and ginger. Very handy and big bags for 99p.

The texture isnt great for some of it but in my diet fresh just goes to waste so I have to be inventive about how I use frozen. Peas, sweetcorn and fine beans are always fine texture wise

Frozen carrot is just a no no

Peppers and mushrooms have to be cooked carefully so that the texture isnt compromised in the dish

Spinach is a good un all over the show

Broccoli and Cauliflower again, its about how its used, the texture is compromised

Frozen squash or sweet potato is generally ok.

Actually @soupyspoon you've reminded me that frozen spinach is good, I'll buy some next week when i am shopping.

My local veg box scheme provides this box for £32.50 and am tempted to try it out. I am going to price it all up at Asda and also Tesco and see if it works out cheaper.
The box contains:

Veg
5kg potatoes
Parsnips
Butternut Squash
Swede
Carrots
Cauliflower
Savoy Cabbage
Broccoli
Leeks
Onions
Garlic
Courgettes
Salad
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Iceberg lettuce
Red Pepper
Green Pepper
Fruit
4x Red Apples
4x Green Apples
4x Pears
4x Satsumas, Clementines or Nardorcott oranges, depending on the best we have
1kg Bananas