MNHQ needs your culinary ingenuity (and thrift)

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Please can you share your best ideas/recipes for feeding your family on a budget and generally eating on the cheap?

Eg: Do you cook in bulk and freeze? Do you concentrate on food that's in season? Do you have particular recipes that go a long way, or can easily be converted into another meal from leftovers? Do you work out your food budget for the week or see what's on offer when you get to the shops?

Please share your best bits of advice (and if there are any MN recipes you rate for their cheap and cheerful nature, please tell us which ones).

thank you
MNHQ

Soup and crumble one night a week - cheap and filling. I tend to do lentil soup then plum crumble but there are lots of variations obviously.

I make a big pan of lentil chilli and have it one night with rice and then the second either baked inside wraps, or served with baked potatoes; or pour into a pyrex dish and top with lightly cooked potato slices and cheese then cook until crispy.

Frozen vege are cheap and a good way of getting veggies on the table easily.

We are having a binge on Staffordshire oatcakes lately, which are very cheap and filling: the dds like them with an omelette and some sliced tomato inside.

I also make a great veggie curry with anything I have in the fridge - bulked out with lentils and/or chickpeas if required.

Always have loads of dried goods in, pasta, rice, beans, coucous etc. Pickles, tins, and have a huge herb /spice cupboard.

I then tend to shop at least once a day for fresh fruit, meat, any other bits we need. but we are lucky we live near a huge rage of multicultural local shops.

I do meal plan, and leftovers are used for lunch the next day or converted into dinner the next day. i.e I make a bolognese with one pack of mince, we eat 2/3 of it, the rest is cooked again with beans, chillis and cocoa and served with rice for dinner the next day.

titchy - hours after you asked but here is this weeks Waitrose order -

Products you've ordered
Cupboard
1 Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce Waitrose £1.44
1 Bunch Homeripe Fairtrade Bananas 6 Pack Waitrose £1.03
1 Columbian Blacktail 18 Free Range Eggs Waitrose £3.44
2 Felix As Good As It Looks Meat Menu £5.00
2 Felix As Good As It Looks Ocean Pouches In Jelly £5.00
1 Florentino Parmazano Parmesan Seasn £0.98
1 Galia Melon Essential Waitrose £1.94
1 Leeks Waitrose £1.60
1 Organic Black Olives Waitrose £1.70
1 Organic Carrots Waitrose £1.80
1 Papaya Waitrose £1.64
1 Root Ginger Waitrose £0.78
1 Tate & Lyle Fairtrade Icing Sugar £0.89
1 Tropical Medley Dried Fruit Waitrose £1.70
2 White Potatoes essential Waitrose £2.74
Fridge
1 British Pork Escalopes essential Waitrose £3.07
1 Capricorn English Goats Cheese £1.75
1 Cherry Tomatoes Waitrose £1.44
2 Creme Fraiche Waitrose £1.48
2 Dairy Butter Waitrose £1.76
1 Free Range Dry Cured Gloucester Ham Waitrose £2.93
1 Mediterranean Roast Vegetables Waitrose £2.44
1 New Zealand Extra Trimmed Rack of Lamb Waitrose £5.76
1 Organic Chicken Legs 2 per pack Waitrose £3.08
1 Organic Chicken Thighs 4 per pack Waitrose £3.76
2 Organic Fresh Full Cream Milk 4 Pints Waitrose £3.54
1 Organic Fresh Skimmed Milk 2 Pints Waitrose £1.03
1 Physalis Waitrose £0.98
1 Single Cream essential Waitrose £0.76
1 Thyme Waitrose £0.78
1 Unearthed Italian Prosciutto Crudo £1.99
2 Unsmoked Dry Cured Back Bacon Rashers Waitrose £5.50
Freezer
1 British Garden Fruits Waitrose £2.74
1 British Raspberries Waitrose £2.64
1 British Summer Fruits Waitrose £2.64
1 Cooked & Peeled King Prawns Waitrose £4.49

Though I am not sure I am getting the rack of lamb as they said it was out of stock.

Freeze in takeaway containers from pound shop. There's almost always an extra meal!

I do a mashoosove tomato sauce and freeze in containers. It can then be used for pasta, chillis, lasagne etc.

Left over chicken: make stock, but freeze in ice cube tray and then put in zip lock bag. That way you can use one at a time.

tom paste dilute with water = passata.
use this 'passata' instead of tinned toms.
ginormous cans of tom paste is easily found in Asian food stores. It still works out relatively expensive at regular supermarkets.

you can freeze tom paste as the tins found in Asian shops need to be portioned down to usable amts to keep it from going moldy on top.

leftovers=lunch, either at home or at work (assuming you have a microwave at work.

yoghurt- I have a bulk (ie 1l) yog maker, use organic uht milk (dp says 99p) strain the yoghurt to get fantastic organic greek yoghurt.

most of the other stuff people are suggesting is what we normally do anyway

ALso, bulk buy flour for breadmaker (25kg sacks, from wholsaler, lasts about 6mths)

And there's always the trick where you strategically arrive at friend's houses around the time they eat

We are growing our own herbs and salad leaves (expensive to buy and don't last long so more at risk of being chucked out) Also growing a few other veggies - tomatoes, courgettes, various beans and potatoes.

Make my own bread and yoghurt.

Stock up on things for the freezer when on offer.

Have beans on toast one night, omelettes/egg fried rice one night/ vegetable soup one night (add pasta and/or beans, lentils to bulk it out) or risotto.

Never ever throw veg away, make it into soup instead.

We buy a happy chicken twice a month and it lasts 3 or 4 days. Unhappy chickens are hopeless for this as the bones aren't good enough for stock and soup.

Always have rice, pasta, noodles, couscous, lentils in the cupboard.

buying less processed food seems to help a lot, I have noticed.

If you use fresh parmaesan, don't throw away the rind. Adds a real earthy flavor to stews/soups and risottos

Risotto, omlettes and anything reduced seems to go down a treat in our house. Oh and rather than becoming a golf widow, get your DP to take up fishing. We had the most fabulous oven baked trout on Sunday and a trout omlette on Monday.

Although some of my risotto/ omlette combinations have been a litlle less than successful (don't metion the beetroot risotto to a slightly shoot)

we have eggy bread and baked beans probably once per week also soup and chunks of baguette is pretty cheap and filling if you get enough bread!

Oh and I've found changing the cuts of meat had made things cheaper too- chicken thighs instead of breast (tastier too imo) and pork belly rather than chops (cheap and yummy if a little bad for you).

Tuna past is a hit in here too- 1 tin tuna, 1 pan cooked pasta, 2 large tbsps mayo. Awesome. You can add a finely chopped onion and some frozen sweetcorn for the gourmet version.

I also add grated veg to disguise bulk up mince dishes too.

I do a chorizo and bean stew and the next day top it with mash and bake it like a cottage pie. I buy all the beans in jars, really cheap. I don't know if they sell them like that in the UK.

Monday - chicken, potato, veg
Tuesday - chcken and lentil curry from left overs
Wednesday - beans on taost
Thursday - half pound of mince, lentils, mushrooms and any other veg, half it and add tin of value toms to one half, put other half in fridge. Make bolognaise out of this half
Friday - take mince and lentil mix out of fridge and make it into shepherds pie with a layer of mashed swede between the mash and meat for extra bulk/roughage/interest

Pack ups - avoide anything prepacked/processed like the plague.

Fruit and veg- whatevers on offer/available at market

Cleaning products - homebrands
Toiletries - homebrands

M &S two eat for a tenner is cheaper than our usual Saturday takeaway

Also, when very skint we have a week where we try to eat without much shopping (except veg) and eat up whatever's in cupoards/freezer. Takes careful planning but is good fun and ensures that all tins of tuna etc get used up.

Message withdrawn

just added recipe called credit-crunch sausage casserole. Also do the thing with the roast chicken & stock. I tend to get about four risottos' worth from each chicken. When DD was younger I also used to freeze the stock in ice-cube bags & then could use little bits in her food & also cook couscous & noodles in the stock - hey presto instant meal.

stock up on bogof offers on things you would normally get.

always look for the cost per kg / item etc - sometimes bigger packs aren't always the best (tescos own tea bags are cheaper per bag for 2 packs of 80 rather than one pack of 160, and their organic balsamic is aobut 2/3 of the price of the normal stuff)

barley in casseroles and stews is a great filler

don't buy ready made baby food - i knwo it's really convenient but it just isn't cost effective

buy veg seasonally - if you have a farmers market but fruit and veg there - it makes you shop seasonally and is a whole heap cheaper than the supermarket

if you have the time, go to the supermarket to look for alternatives - what's on offer that week etc.

we have boiled eggs and soldiers one night a week and jacket potato with something one night a week as well - makes up for carnivore dh who must have meat with every meal at the weekends!

we cut down on portion sizes as well - we always cook too much and eat it all when we just don't need it.

meal plan

use leftovers! there is a real stigma in this country and there is nothing wrong with using your leftovers for soup, risotto etc.

think that's it from the flick house!