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

also hour before closing many supermarket reduce items eg bread for 10p.freeze it

Meal plan and shop online.

Cut down on meat and fish. Make at least 3 meals a week from beans/pulses. Much cheaper, and also healthy and forces you to be creative and learn to actually cook.

A good rule - use up all leftovers/odds and sods in fridge and cupboards to make up a meal before you are allowed to go out and do more shopping. e.g. if there is an half an onion in the fridge, and a a tin of chickpeas & tin of tomatoes in the cupboard, don't moan and say 'there's nothing to eat, we need to go to Tesco' - add spice and make tagine/curry.

Oh, and I mostly buy fruit / veg on offer (half price / BOGOF etc).

Sometimes I do almost my whole online shop from BOGOF / price reduction stuff.

And I almost always dig out a Tesco promotional code from somewhere so it's free delivery...

I'm getting really strict with leftovers now (too many times it has gone in the bin). Anything (veg, bolognaise, mash etc etc) goes in the freezer asap and not left in the fridge (unless I have an idea on the day for a recipe the next day.) Even if I only have a few sprig of cualiflower, or a couple of carrots...can always go in a soup.

I freeze veg water in the ice cube trays and then pop them into a freezer bag and add to soups and gravy at the last minute (not so much thrifty but goodness from veg for unsuspecting children.)

Left over chicken and beef is easy enough to deal with but lamb is a nightmare. Yesterday we had leftover roast lamb marinated in red wine then fried in onions and garlic. Add the red wine and reduce down. Then add a tin of toms and leave to cook for a good 45 mins. It was DELISH.

We go shopping once a day, for the things we need that day. As it's the end of the day, we often get discounted stuff and it's used on the day, so it's ok. Plus we don't spend money on things that get thrown away uneaten 'cos we fancied something else that night.

Also, we tend to shop at local stores (butcher/grocer etc) and they tend to keep things they know we'll like for us!!!

In bulk and freeze is always good, as is bulking with potatoes etc., and I always add water and tomato paste to make a tomato sauce go further.

definatley find out the best time of day for reduced meat to be put out on the shelves, our local coop and sainsbo's do this at different times, but if you can hit it right and beat the other bargin hunters to it, you're quids in.

just came back for a quick peek at this thread - thanks v much to everyone who has posted.

Christiana, we're going to add some content about food (like pregnancy, babies, travel etc), so me and HelenMumsnet are going to be pestering everyone for thoughts on various food-related topics.

anyone else who wants to add to this, please do. off to the pub bed, will check thread tomorrow.

I can get tea for me and 3 Dcs for 2 days out of a small pack of mince bulked out with carrots, onions and tinned tomatoes. Maybe spag bol then pasta bake with cheese another day. (bulking out mince is the cheapest tip from the chef in my house - he is quite expensive otherwise!)

To get half-decent chicken stock out of a not-so-happy chicken (sorry, needs must ATM), roast the chicken in a deep tray with approx 1-2cm of water and cover with foil to roast. Makes for a nice moist chicken and gorgeous thick stock (or at least the best you can expect...) makes a lovely broth with diced veg and barley/broth mix.

Also cheap 72p a pack streaky bacon - a couple of rashers chopped up with mushrooms, sweetcorn, onions and a bit of cream with some value pasta - DS2s favourite. DS1 likes pasta with chopped ham with grated cheese over pasta.

I am getting bettr at frugal shopping, honest!

Saisburys value fishfingers are just as tasty as regular fishfingers.
Mince is great, ad value tomatoes and any cheap veg, cook a great vat of it and freeze
Haunt the skint-cabinet for reduced meat etc and stick in the freezer

Oh, and supermarket own-brand cider is drinkable and very cheap (nicer than White Lightining if you want to get pished but are broke).

We buy what's in season from the market - very cheap.

Shop for food everyday that way you get what you need and use it. We always cook from scratch, never buy ready meals etc.

We only have pudding on Sunday.

Make meat (chicken basically!) last for more than one meal (as MeltedMarsbars outlined near the start of this thread).

Buy own brand cleaning products and make use of things in store cupboard like lemon juice, vinegar, salt etc for cleaning.

We wait until a film goes to DVD rather than pay for the cinema. Oh these last two aren't culinary!

Lots of other stuff, but I can't think of it atm.

Give up on yoghurts - they cost a fortune. DC's are quite happy to drink milk & eat cheese to get their calcium. Have fruit desserts & custard or make rice pudding instead. I recently bought a pineapple for £1 and it is going to do us about 4 family desserts.

Be boring with breakfasts & lunchboxes. ~"Weetabix", "Ready Brek" and "Shreddies" is it for breakfast in our house, all of them supermarket brand versions. Poor DC's think having raisins on top is a good cereal!

Buy a big pack of raisins and some tiny plastic boxes rather than those dried-up little cardboard cartons.

Leftover lamb - curry, surely?

Lidl's filled pasta (ravioli etc) is very cheap but perfectly tasty - a 75p packet feeds two people with a dollop of either sauce (make vats of tomato/onion/stray veg and freeze, or buy a big jar of Dolmio and freeze 2/3 of it in little tubs).

favulousbakergirl
there is nothing frugal about that!

In Tescos I noticed that the frozen mince meat was half the price of the stuff in the fridges. What is more the quantity of frozen was greater. As I normally freeze my mince anyway I shall be buying it ready frozen from now on.

In order to be able to afford to be a SAHM we needed to make drastic cuts in our food shopping bill, plus I didnt want the children to have processed foods in their early years so, my tips are:

Grow your own - we grew beans, potatoes, salad leaves, carrots and peas in pots last year

All eat the same for your main meal

Freeze leftovers - I have two preschoolers - so they have a cooked meal for lunch, therefore, even lone sausage and a small portion of mash can be turned in to a lunch for both with a small tin of beans.

Use a slow cooker and batch cook

Make the basis of a couple of meals in one go ie mince and onion. Mince and onion with dumplings one day, Bolegnease next day, turned in to lasagne (make your own white sauce - its only butter, flour and milk). You can also do sheppards pie/hotpot, meatballs, burgers, or meatloaf.

Bake buscuits and cakes instead of buying

Chickens can go a long way - roast, curry, pasta, wraps, risotto, soup. You can save the stock in small pop bottles and freaze.

Make your own ice lollys

I shop mainly at Aldi and Lidl

Pound shop for cleaning stuff

Buy washing powder etc in bulk either costco or here and get eh dishwasher stuff as the freeby

Share bogoffs etc with family and friends

Good cheap, fast and liked , meals include

Quesideas (sp) I use cheese and salami and cheap wraps - children love them
Cheese on toast
Beans and cheese on Jackets
Beans or spag on toast
Bratwust and noodles
omletts
Dippy eggs and soldiers
Eggey bread and sausage
Tomatoes on toast

You can freeze cheese - grate and pop in freezer bags

Make your own bred and pizza bases

Ask your mum what your granny used to do during the war

Make jelly's with the children, angel delight has been rediscovered in this house. You can also do half jelly, half condensed milk too.

Use any fruit that is on the way out for crumbles, baking or smoothies

Popcorn - dead cheap and the children love it.

Cut up some fruit and pop in bopwls as a snack for the children.

Dont buy chrisps

Keep sweets and treats out of sight

Bulk out things with whatever veg is on offer - peppers, courgetts etc are great with mince

Used dried pulses and soak

Children love dumlings and yorkshire puddings

Add pearl barley to soups to bulk it out

Also:
I put a big loaf of bread straight in the freezer then just defrost what I need. Not as nice as fresh and/or homemade but needs must until I can afford a breadmaker. Stops the whole loaf from going off.
If your bread has gone stale make a bread and butter pudding.
Lidl flour is only 45p for a big bag and encourages me to bake more scones, cakes, puddings etc.
I get a big tub of natural yoghurt and add fruit, honey etc for a cheap breakfast. It will last a few days and cheaper than buying individual pots.
Lidl meat is cheaper than tescos.
I use a lot of lentils for dhal, soups etc.
Make veg curry by adding a tin of tomatoes to veg with curry powder etc.
Staples like cous cous, rice and pasta are so versatile and reasonably priced.

My tummy is rumbling!

butchers will often do a deal on bulk meat - so if you can get a group of friends together and buy, say, a whole lamb, then the butcher will butcher it and sell all the various cuts, mince etc, at a discount price, so long as you buy them all, and then you can divvy them up between the group.

"fabulousbakergirl
there is nothing frugal about that!"

Trinity - it is the meal planning that has worked for me as I have only bought what I need for our meals. If I shopped without a list I would probably spend more.

Costco or similar stors are great. I go and split things (such as giant packs of pasta/rice) between my MIL, my mum and myself. Get cleaning stuff there as well.

The biggest money saver for us has been switching to lower priced chicken. Instead of boneless, skinless breasts, we now use thighs and legs. And I have discovered that they taste MUCH better.

I only buy organic meat (costs more, but we have several very low-cost or veggie meals each week to allow us to afford the best meat a couple of times a week). It costs nearly £20/kg for organic, boneless, skinless chicken breasts. But it costs about £6/kg for organic chicken legs. (We shop at Waitrose as it's the only supermarket round here - I expect prices would be cheaper in other supermarkets, but I have put them here just to highlight the price differential).

Even the Waitrose Essential range of chicken breasts - i.e. not organic and the lowest cost meat they do, is £13.56/kg.

That's a huge price difference. OK, so the weight is taken up a bit with bones that you won't eat, but actually a whole chicken breast per person is too much meat really. And you can always boil the bones for stock too.

Freeze everything you can and defrost when required in order to avoid things going bad, eg. milk, herbs, bread, etc

Serve ice-cream in cones = one scoop each (as opposed to three or four to fill a bowl)

Always have some frozen/UHT milk for emergencies, then you won't have to do a quick dash to the shop where you will probably spend another £10!

Nonickname - Asda frozen chicken breast (skinless/boneless) is around £4/kg... Waitrose is a lot more expensive than other supermarkets.

Jacket spuds with bacon, onions, courgettes, peppers, mushrooms, cheese, anything you have left over. It's lovely and v. cheap.

Buttercup that is genius!

For me I'm afraid that the answer is in part to stop shopping at farmers' markets. Or at least cut down. I hate to say it, but what other business cuts out the middleman and then charges more to customers? We always seem to get fleeced.