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?

Cereals are one of the worst foods for breakfast, they sugar spike you and you are hungry again within 2 hours - looking a snack to keep you going to lunch.

Either make overnight oats or take full fat greek yoghurt and frozen berries, omelette's, eggs of any description or egg muffins - all high protein - fuller for longer and no sugar spiking

If you are still buying pasta sauces - stop. Full of sugar and E numbers. A pasta sauce is just a tin of tomatoes and what ever base veggies and herbs you prefer. . For most people the transition is hard because of the lack of sugar - add half a teaspoon , it really sits the tomato acidity

Cheese freezes. Also look at price per Kilo - always . Those end aisle deals are usually still dearer then what you can find in the cheese aisle. Bog standard cheddar can range from as little as £7 a kilo ( normal price ) to a named bog standard one supposedly on offer at £12 a kilo and if you really look, the offer block can be a £1 a kilo more then a different block size in the range

Ive worked in kitchens on and off my whole life and have never poisoned anyone yet - nor intend to

With rice we cook a large pan and as soon as it's cooked, we cool it - large sieve and run the cold water over it till cold. Drain and straight in the fridge and consume within 24 hrs

Reheat in the micro till totally hot.

At home instead of refridgerating you portion and freeze and its safe in the freezer - you have suspended whatever changes its making

There is always a risk, but these habits lower the risk. Rice has lets call it a skin and neither freezing nor boiling is going to break it and make it 100% safe - even cooked fresh . 99% of poisoning cases are from restaurants / take aways , where rice is cooked in bulk, but into containers and kept in hot cupboards , then not thrown away but reheated again the day after ( its a common practice in certain take outs )

Rice is dangerous , even fresh cooked rice is. And I cant see how pouches are any safer then using good practices at home is

Ive worked in kitchens where the food poisoning risk is higher from the coleslaw than the rice. Coleslaw you also need to be very careful with , in a kitchen, home made has a 72 hr shelf life ( good places go for 48hrs max) - supermarkets come with a 10 day life - rather worrying to me

Do you have an Asian supermarket near you? Much cheaper for rice, many different oils, spices etc.

You don't need so many expensive ingredients if you season food properly, including spices. These are always cheap in Asian supermarkets.

With some of your more expensive ingredients, see if you can stretch a pack over two meals - often by adding another cheaper ingredient.

Try soya chunks as a cheap protein source. Add kidney beans to egg fried rice for extra protein.

Buy a rice cooker.

Find a pizza recipe you like and make them in batches and freeze uncooked - thin crust pizzas cook really well from frozen. You can even do stuffed crust using cheap supermarket mozzarella. Plus you can have whatever toppings you want (and often use up bits of stuff that's in the fridge).

Batch cook and freeze soup. Use veg that's at risk of going yucky in the fridge. Use it for work lunches - either take it in frozen and it'll mostly defrost by the time you come to microwave it at lunch time, or take it out the night before to defrost, heat it in the morning whilst you're boiling the kettle for a cuppa and use a food flask.

Oh, and if you like greek yoghurt, pistachios, walnuts, smoked salmon, pine nuts, rice cakes etc buy them in Aldi or Lidl.

Whilst olive oil is brilliant in things you'll actually taste it in, don't use it for cooking. Vegetable oil is fine for many things, but there's a whole array of different oils that work well in different dishes. Many of them available cheaply in Asian supermarkets.

Hello, can I resurrect this thread with a few questions? I am about to be plunged onto a very low income due to redundancy so I need to seriously shape up my shopping spends. I already batch and home cook but I'm going to need to stretch even further.

PP's have suggested adding a handful of red lentils to chilli/bolognese etc - at what stage in the cooking do I do this?

Also, a PP said that fresh mozzarella can be frozen - can anyone vouch for this? Also - where can I find good mozzarella for a reasonable price - I have never seen it on offer.

Thanks!

i buy cheap mozarella from sainsbury/tesco/lidl
waitrose also have essential mozarella

personally i cook the red lentils so they are soft as the acids from the tomatoes delay their cooking,
so i would simply add after cooking in water for 10 minutes

Thanks @EleanorReally that's helpful.

If you have children who like those Asian instant noodles as a snack it can be much cheaper to buy in bulk from eBay. You can get Indomie noodles for 40- 50p rather than 90p in Tesco.

I am aware they're not the healthiest snack.

@toffeeappleturnip stretched mince is a big hit in our house. High protein, high fibre and relatively cheap. We use the cycling chef recipe, but this is similar. Add grated carrot and root vegetables to add fibre.

Sorry to hear about the redundancy.x

We are a family of 4 -2 x adults, 1 child 1 toddles in nappies and a cat. We spend £50 - £70 a week. That's breakfast, lunches, dinners and cleaning products. It fluctuates if we need tea bags or cat biscuits, or washing powder etc.
We don't buy any brands. I do a main shop in Sainsbury's online then we go to Aldi for snacks.

@toffeeappleturnip Good work planning ahead with the looming redundancy - wish you all the best with making it through with as much sanity as poss.

I usually rinse the lentils a couple of times, boil for 5-10 minutes (sometimes with a bay leaf or two) then add to the dish at the same time as I add the other "wet" ingredients (eg tinned tomatoes, stock, gravy or whatever). This way they disolve stealthily into the dish.

Sometimes I find those packets of little mozarellas (like pearls) reduced (yellow sticker). I tend to do well in summer months when there is horrible weather for a bank holiday - those fancy salad-y things are often waiting to be scooped up at a good price. I freeze those on a baking sheet and then tip into a bag or box. They are nice on a pizza or in a sauce of gnocchi or pasta and you can take out as many as you want. I haven't frozen a big ball, but don't see why you couldn't! Might want to slice it first?

Thanks for the recipe @Nigellastwinklylights. Love the 'feral teen' aspect to serving sizes - I definitely need to take that into consideration!

Ah yes it makes wense that the little balls are more freezable @MrsBobtonTrent ! The mozzarella is for pizza so I'll definitely look out for those.

I'm going to try maxing out my bolognese with lentils tmrw so thanks for the tip on when to add.

I'm quite scared of not working - I've never not worked for 35 years, except one year maternity, so it's going to be a big change of pace and income for me as a single mum.

Joining, my food bills are ridiculous. There are 4 of us, bills have crept to £1k a month, dp is a manual worker, I exercise alot, ds is 6ft4 and 9 stone and eats about twice as much as everyone else, and dd also needs a fair bit! I can’t scrimp on meat, as it just means people hit the larder 10 mins after their dinner. 3 of us like beans which helps so I add those to jambayla, enchiladas etc. We don’t have access to Aldi or Lidl but I’m good at knowing what things should cost in Ocado/tesco/aldi and grabbing the bargains when I see them.

The cheapest toilet paper available here is Tesco's own brand. It's decent quality too. It's 16p per roll. The cheapest Andrex is 28p and the cheapest Cushelle is 39p.

Not to the commenter, but generally. Check that your toilet paper is high quality. I bought some cheap own brand toilet roll and I need to use twice the amount. There has been some high quality cheap ones as well. So remember what you've liked.

General saving advice from me is to think what you're not willing to give up. If you take the cheap option with everything then it will be miserable and harder to do. For me forexample, I'm not gonna give up my Seasalt butter. It is expensive in comparison to any spread, but it will make me enjoy my other foods more.

Also when reading the advice, don't feel like shit if it is something you can't or don't want to do. There has been talking about making stuff from scratch. Decide on the level you want to do that. There are some redy made things that make my life easier and therefore more enjoyable, I will take those. I know for a fact that I won't be baking bread few times a weef or making my own tomatosauce. Therefore I'm haply to budget those as ready made jars/loafs. When making long term changes, know your limits cause saving few quid in some things will affect you negatively and be totally fine in other things.

Home made popcorn is a massive money saver.

It's £2 for 500g and that makes about 10 massive bowls. 1 big bowl enough for 2-3 kids, or 1 teenager.

£800 a month for family of 3? Jeezas.

why don’t you share a weeks worth of shopping with us on this thread as an example and we can give advice as to what to cut out or replace?

It is just me and my DH but we spend £80-£90 a week on shopping.

I think batch cooking will be your friend! Even a few slow cooker meals.

Also, personally speaking, I think a few frozen pizzas from time to time (esp if they’re on offer) is absolutely fine. No need to make from scratch unless you really want to. I think if you’re a busy mum it’s a bit unrealistic to be making your own pizzas… but that’s my opinion… I would focus on trying to cut costs elsewhere. Buying frozen veg is a great idea… I’ve started doing this - it lasts a lot longer and I read something to say it’s just as nutritious as fresh…

I agree. I always have some 'freezer food' in so if we're running late we're not tempted to buy something more expensive. Iceland is great for this when it was it's 8 for £10 offer.

I am a big fan of always having some pizzas or quick freezer food in. It prevents takeaways and popping out to get something from the supermarket (and ending up with more than you intended to buy). I can pivot quickly if I suddenly have a change of plan or people round.

I try to do one big shop a week and absolutely no top ups. Make the one true shop properly comprehensive and then stay away from shops for the rest of the week. This "top up shop culture" only benefits supermarkets. If you can't keep a week's worth of milk on hand (freezer?), then paying over the odds for a milk delivery will still probably save you money as opposed to crossing a supermarket threshold. Or send a child to get milk - they are less likely to buy anything else as well. One (and only one) big bountiful shop.

I make fake Nando rice or halal rice and freeze - but have found freezing in bags and lying out flat is the best way to freeze and defrost - opposed to in a clump.

https://www.seriouseats.com/serious-eats-halal-cart-style-chicken-and-rice-white-sauce-recipe

this is a recipe for both rice and chicken, I just make the rice - tasty and cheap

https://www.easypeasyfoodie.com/homemade-nandos-spicy-rice/ fake Nando rice

I make pizza dough in the bread machine, I divide into 4 balls and roll out using semolina instead of flour and sprinkle the dough with semolina - adds a creat taste - then put toppings on and freeze. By making the pizza smaller, they are easier to find zip lock bags to freeze. I also use parchment paper to stop them sticking and put more than one pizza into a ziplock bag. They work out very cheap, approximately £1.30 for each set of 4 pizzas

I have taken to making my own bread, not in the machine but using the no knead method - it's easy and really tasty . I usually mix the dough in the morning before I go out and then in the evening I bake. I will cut the bread in half and the slice the other way and freeze for toast. It's idea for not running out of bread. Each loaf cost approximately £0.80 Ive never had any issues using table salt

soupyspoon

please may i have your no knead bread recipe please? Sounds fab !

I have about 4kg potatoes (overbought at Christmas). OK, they were 5p a bag at Aldi but I don't like waste. Will be parboiling and mashing then freezing tomorrow. Also lots of carrots and parsnips but that will be turned into soup. Unless anyone has any brighter ideas?