How to get food costs down?

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I've started making everything from scratch and meal planning for the week but I'm finding it tough time and price wise (processed was definitely cheaper)

I've just been reading a thread on batch cooking pasta sauce and this inspired me to start this thread.

How does batch cooking work, do you cook for a whole day and eat frozen for the rest of the week?

How far do you plan ahead?

What sort of things do you batch make?

Is batch cooking cheaper?

How can I make nice food using cheap ingredients (i have an unfortunate predilection for expensive stuff avocados, peppers, artichokes), we also like more exotic food as opposed to potatoes...

I need to buy online cos of toddler, and need to use waitrose for ethical and convenience reasons.

Throw any tips this way... :-)

I do a meal plan. Put it on the fridge and whoever gets home first cooks!

Batch cooking. Make a chilli using one pack beef and half a bag of red lentils. 15p value kidney beans and value tomatoes. cook it forever and serve with rice and pitta. Eat half and freeze half.

Same with spag bol. One pack mince, half bag red lentils. Eat half freeze half. Soups are really cheap and easy to freeze.

I know you said you have a toddler, but if you have the time, going to a farmers market can be a very enriching experience for them, and def save you some money. Locally grown food is v ethical you know ;) Plus good stalls will be able to give you advice and recipies (at least, they do in my local)

Frozen veg may be worth looking into as well - much cheaper than fresh.

I batch cook by making double quantities of a meal and then freezing the rest. Since theres just two of us, if Im making a meal for four, I double it and am then freezing 6 portions (ie, one meal a week for the next three weeks.) So really I only cook maybe 10 days a month as some days we have stirfry or similar which you cant freeze.

Another way to do it is do huge batches.
Eg, a basic mince mix (onions, celery, carrot, peppers) which then forms the base for lasagne, spag bol, cottage pie, pies etc. I tried doing this way when dd was small but it just felt too time consuming to do it all in one day (though having it all in the freezer was fab)

Hmm, I guess I do already batch cook in a way. Most recipes are for 4 and I don't size down, so leftovers are for next days lunch.

Your right, I need to look more into frozen/tinned fruit/veg. Fresh is so expensive, I've had to stop buying fruit.

I need to look into farmers markets too.

Thankyou for pointing out all these really obvious things I had forgotten to think of :-)

I batch cook by cooking double quantities and freezing at least half. We only eat from the frozen stuff on the days i cant stand there cooking from scratch. So although i have five days worth of frozen meals in my freezer we'll only have one on thurs when im out all day. If i have the time then i cook each day and bank a meal. If i'm short on time then i have one big day of cooking.

Why are you shopping at Waitrose? You'll save a small fortune shopping elsewhere.

Sorry hit post too soon. To keep costs down i use cheaper cuts of meat like brisket slow roasted. I buy massive packs of mince and use slightly less per meal so maybe 400g rather than a 500g pack. Bulk things out with veg, lentils or beans. Lentils really do stretch meals out and you dont taste them. My dh saw me adding lentils to bolognese and went mad. Then i told him he eats them maybe twice a week for six months!

I use Waitrose because they screw there suppliers over slightly less than other supermarkets, and because their delivery service is the most reliable I have tried.

At the moment I still have the luxury of being able to afford to buy food according to ethics eg free range eggs over caged.

Asda is prbably cheaper for some stuff, but at my nearest the fresh fruit and veg is anything but and it doen't have the posh ingredients I require for my middle class recipes

I am already veggie by the way so don't buy meat (and I try to avoid quorn because it is stupidly expensive)

I guess something else I could do would be to buy dried beans rather than canned but I don't know what to do with dried beans

Well you'll pay through the nose for it. I consider myself to be an ethical shoper too, only buy free range etc, and do most of my shopping at Aldi.

suebfg, how did you know the OP shopped at Waitrose? OP has obviously confirmed it but have I missed a trick here?

Shit, have just re-read OP. Am a stupid rat! Could have sworn that paragraph was not in there the first time though.

swift "cheap menu " tweak
one day a week have jacket spud and "topping" and side veg.
one day a week have home made soup and fresh bread.

home made pizza can be very cheap if you make your own bread anyway. One large rolls worth of dough, a few table spoon of tom sauce ( made from reduced pasata or tin toms, some mushrooms, sweetcorn ( frozen) and cheese. MUCH nicer than anything you buy pre prepared at a supermarket and a fraction of the cost.

Batch cooking for me is making a portion of (say ) mince stretch with veg to do a ragu / lasagne/ cottage pie etc big enough to eat half and freeze half. Or Making Tomato sauce for a pizza and freezing 3/4 of it in 3 small portions each of which will do another pizza or a simple pasta in tom sauce. If I cook soup I cook a batch big enough to freeze another meals worth. Freezing soup has been a good way to store garden veggies and enjoy them in winter/ spring. Along with the more normal frozen (blanched) courgette slices, chopped runner beans, broad beans and sliced tomatoes.

I do menu plan after a fashion, but that will include things I have in the freezer and what ready to eat in the garden.

Fruit IN season and local will be considerably cheaper than imported, apples can get a bit dull, but much of year they are available and not very expensive. In summer only go bonkers on soft fruit.

Batch cook.I'll put on some mince and use some for lasagna,spaghetti bolognese,cottage pie,keema curry.
I use two large pans and pop the mince into there and I'll dry fry it and whilst that's cooking I'll peel and put on potatoes to cook then use some of the mince for the spaghetti bolognese and lasagna in one pan and then I'll take some from the other one to make a cottage pie that goes into an oven proof dish,then the rest in the second dish will be used to make the keema curry,I'll drain the potatoes,make into mash add gravy to the mince top with mashed potatoes and grated cheese.
Dure in that time the bolognese has been slowly simmering,I'll take that off and separate some for the bolognese and make a white sauce and make up a lasagna with the rest that's 3 separate meals made.Then I just make the keema curry.Leave to cool then package them up and into the freezer.It takes me 90 minutes to make 4 Dinners that way.

Chicken,I'll make a stir fry,supreme,curry,fajitas.
Cook the chicken, separate into 4 meals worth. I'll make the fajitas in one wok and Stir Fry in another they're done within 20 minutes for the two.
Then I'll make the curry and supreme two separate large pans takes about 40-50 minutes.So 80-90 minutes 4 Dinners again.

Then when I go to use them all I have to do is make salad and HM garlic bread to go with Italian dishes,we make ours in the bread maker.
Saag aloo,rice,HM naan breads to go with the currys and rice and veggies to go with supreme and vegetables to go with the cottage pie.

Saves me ages this way.
We plan a month ahead.Homemade is cheaper by far.

Fresh fruit and vegetables we buy from our local market it saves us a fortune.
We buy frozen peppers sliced if just for cooking.

Sorry to say it but to get your food costs down you need to shop around. Waitrose might price match some stuff & I agree with you about suppliers etc but they are very pricey for some things! I had to make the decision about my principles vs. feeding my family. In the end I decided to buy the best we could afford at that time so some weeks it's Waitrose, other weeks it's Lidl!

I dont really batch cook I tend to just make more than I need of things then freeze any leftovers so that when you CBA its a case of remove bag from freezer boil pasta/rice & serve. Bulk out meals with extra veg, tinned toms, lentils or beans. A tin of baked beans in cottage pie goes down a storm and gets an extra portion out of it! Make soup from the straggly bits lurking in the veg drawer or hidden veg pasta sauce. Oh and ignore best before/use by dates: biggest con ever!

Dried beans are easy. You just need to plan ahead a little.

1. Take your largest pan, tip in all the beans (or chickpeas), fill with water and leave overnight to soak
2. Following day drain the beans and replace the water
3. Bring the pan of water and beans to the boil and cook rapidly for 10 minutes (this apparently gets rid of any toxins). If any froth forms, scoop it away with a large spoon into the sink
4. Turn the heat down to a simmer, cover, and cook for around 40 minutes (or the time indicated on the packet)

5 When finished, drain into a colander and allow to cool

Finally...... Once your beans are completely cold, pour them into a large freezer bag. Spread the bag out so that the beans are a in a thin layer and then freeze. When frozen, give the bag a shake and the beans should nicely separate. You now have a big bag of ready-to use cooked beans (like frozen peas) that have cost you next to nothing. In my freezer I usually have a bag of chick-peas, one of kidney beans and another of cannellini beans to go at. Saves me a fortune and there's no waste.

"I use Waitrose because they screw there suppliers over slightly less than other supermarkets"

I supply Waitrose... ....

I shop in waitrose/ocado and we also have very exotic tastes. (For example I have cooked like 10 or so recipes from River Cottage Veg, and I found it incredibly bland. It's OTOH very much loved on this board. I'm a Ottolenghi sort of gal).

I plan a week ahead. I have a meal planner for what we'll have next week. I work full time so it's lunches for weekend, dinners for the whole week. 1 yo DD has our leftover dinners for tea when she come home from nursery.

I also tend to prefer non-frozen food . So instead of batch cooking and freeze, I cut down time needed by repeating a meal twice during the week. This also means I only have to come up with 3-4 times to cook for dinner each week, instead of 7. I do the prep for double the amount I'll need for a meal, things like chopping, washing veg, making sauces. (Basically what they call the mis en place).

As for cutting cost, I aim to have a veggie meal for half the week. I use dried beans and they are incredibly cheap! For example, a bag of 500g borlotti beans is £1 in waitrose. That's about 4 tins, and will feed 8 adult portions. I use a slow cooker to cook them.

In my freezer, I have pesto sauce. (I don't bother with tomato sauce because I use a Jamie recipe that cooks the sauces in less than 10min, ie the time to cook the pasta). I also have meatballs and cooked minced turkey. Sometimes I have rice balls. And often sweet and savory muffins. But they are for my lunches. I also freeze crumble toppings.

As for cooking nice food. You'll get better with practise! I don't know how good you are at cooking from scratch. I love cooking new stuff and buying cookbooks. I also follow a few food blogs. And it gets faster when you are good at it. (I'm way faster than my DH for example). What are you trying to cook? Some things are just easier and faster than others. It also helps if you follow recipes that are designed for quicker meals. (Delia is usually very long winded for example). Do you have any particular type of food you like to cook at home? It might help if you find a blog of that kind of food, or get a few books? For example, DH and I like more East Asian type of food, and food with strong flavours. So currently I'm cooking through Mighty Spice by John Gregory-Smith and Bill Granger's Everyday Asian. Both books have many recipes easily doable on a work day.

Ooh, some great tips there, esp freezing the previously dried beans.

My only local shop is a grotty Asda (I know they are not all grotty, but mine is). Anything else is a bus ride away.

Stupid question but is it feasible to grow your own? If you looking for ethical ways and reducing costs?

Again, it's the time factor. I'm fairly useless at multitasking with toddler. FIL grows some stuff though as long as I don't mind courgettes /marrows til they are coming out my ears

Seasonal fruit & veg are always cheaper than imported, out of season. Could be worth checking out this Eat Seasonably website which is regularly updated to show what's available in the UK. Being spring we're just about to get into the soft-fruit season and northern hemisphere (European) stone-fruit will be not long behind. So there should be good offers there. Bananas are dirt cheap at the moment 68p/kg typically in supermarkets and, even though they're getting on a bit now, English Braeburn apples are only £1.50 - 1.75/kg. If we get a sunny period all the cauliflowers will be ready at once so look out for that and watch the bargains roll in.

Seasonal UK Fruit/Veg Calendar

Cogito thanks for the link. I like to eat seasonally but it's hard to know what is in season when I do the shop online.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine I tried to grow my own but it's mostly failing. I've got some peas last year, and some salads. Some bugs ate all my cabbage. And we have a hug slug problem in the garden. They are very fast in eating all my lettuce leaves too.

ethical and convenience or cheap - you will not get all three in one store and online, sorry

Cogito, that is brilliant! I was feeling pleased with myself last night for making a chicken pie with a couple of thighs bulked out with flageolet beans. But the beans were from a tin that I had opened to make blandy-beans-in-cream for dd, otherwise it would have been expensive. I do freeze leftover tinned beans, but you'd never get that free-pour system going, they're too claggy. I'm on it. Not least because dd actually did like the blandy-beans-in-cream.

I think you might need to re-train your toddler too!!

Toddlers are a delight in the garden mucking in with the mud and growing seeds! [ironic smile]

and sitting in supermarket trollies with a bunch of grapes [controversial!] whilst you shop for bargains.