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

I've found that planning is key - as many other posters have said already. I try and avoid popping to the shops for a couple of things as I always end up spending £20-30 each time. So, in order to avoid running out of the basics that mean I need to go to the shops in the first place I do the following

Once a month on payday, Tescos deliver a big shop with enough basics, cleaning stuff and nappies for the month - so no running out of teabags, pasta etc

I now have the dairy deliver milk and eggs, so always have milk in the house (and freezer) and eggs

I bake all our bread, plus make sure there is a loaf in the freezer at all times

Veg is delivered weekly, and we have a lot of stir fries and soup

I go to a farm shop and bulk buy things like sausages, and portion them up and freeze

Anything that is going to be frozen or used up later has to be wrapped, labelled and put away immediately, else it just sits there until it is too late

Boring, but this means that we always have the wherewithall to make veg soup, toast, eggs, stir fries etc, so there isn't any need to go out shopping again until I need more fruit or dairy stuff, maybe once a week? Has saved me a fortune on little shops here and there.

I see what your saying fabulous but you're not on a tight budget so not using frugal ways

op speaks of eating on the cheap

on a budget...

etc

Thank you very much to everybody who has posted. This is really useful

Also -ask your mum or grandma how they made food eke out in their day.

When having soup, bulk the meal out by making Dumplings:

8oz plain flour with 1 tsp baking powder & 1tsp mixed herbs.
Make into dough with some cold water.
Form into balls, drop into soup about 8 minutes before serving.

Nick-do these really work well without suet?
Hope so as I find low fat cooking difficult on a budget.

They work, though not sure I would say as well as suet based dumplings.

Potato Pastry
6oz self-raising flour
3oz marg
2oz grated raw potato
Bind with a little water

This is like shortcrust pastry. I find it is quite good for making mini pasties.

Not much to add really except.. Lentils are my friend !

Slow cooker for baby food saves loads, avoids processed baby jars and is the perfect texture- I make the following for my 8 mth old, makes tons of freezable portions and also only needs mashing once the baby can take a bit of (soft) texture:

beef/lamb/chicken (bones removed if using thighs)
carrots
potatoes
celery
lentils or pearl barley
bay leaves/bouquet garni/any herbs
water or baby stock

KIDDIE FISHCAKES - can salmon, chopped spring onion and mashed potato, rolled in flour/egg/breadcrumbs & oat mixture

Use own spice mix or curry pastes with basics tinned tomatoes, instead of jars of curry sauce

Take cheap, healthy homemade soups to work:

PARSNIP: Fry onion, add 3-4 parsnips, add tsp each coriander/cumin/turmeric, add chicken or veg stock, cook til soft and blend.

BROCOLLI: Fry onion, add fresh or frozen brocolli, add stock and blitz when cooked.

LENTIL: fry onion, add red lentils, stock and herbs of choice/bouquet garni. Boil then blitz when lentils soft.

MUSHROOM: Fry onion, add mushrooms, add tsp dried basil, add half milk and half stock, blitz when cooked.

'Spreadable butter' and marg tubs are the perfect size to freeze individual portions of curry/pasta sauce/chilli etc, so you can cook in bulk and freeze stuff you just need to add to pasta/rice/cous cous

I get you, Trinity.

It was economising in my book as I wasn't buying too much stuff and having nothing to eat.

I do a months shopping list and we have a dinner menu for the month which we stick to so we know not to buy anything extra thinking we will use it up.

Buy in bulk for beans etc, always buy extra pulses etc as well.

Can make a roast chicken go for about 3 meals for 6 people at each time. 1 - roast chicken 2- carbonnara or stir fry 3- salad 4 - stock for soup.

Make my own cakes/biscuits

Use our local butcher/fishmonger/grocer which means can vary veg and get cheaper cuts of meat, better pieces of fish.

Grow potatoes and adding more veg to our garden to keep this up for the next year.

My top tip is Indian grocers for enormous and fabulous quality sacks of spices, rice and pulses. Also, proper markets for veg etc (the ones where you can get a scoop of anything for a quid are particularly good for bargains as long as you're going to cook it pretty soon).

I am working towards throwing nothing away.

No longer peel potatos for mash, just scrub and boil. Quicker and healthier too. We call it skinny mash

Use stale bread crusts for making crumbs - use for rissoles/fish cakes.

Use the big fat broccoli stalk for soup - figure I've bought it by weight so it may as well get used.

Use Tommy Tippee soft baby spoons to get the last out of every jar/bottle.

Look in the freezer before shopping to get an idea of how much space there is - loads of cheap bread, etc isn't a bargain if there's no room for it.

Don't go to the supermarket until you really have used everything you bought last time.

Always makes me laugh a little on these threads to see people up the ante on how many meals they can get from a single chicken..."I can get 3 meals for 4 people"...next thread..."I can get 5 meals for 4 people"...next thread..."I can get 2 weeks meals for us and the neighbours from a single chicken..."

(Personally, we get one dinner, and sandwiches the next day - so hats off to all of you who can eek out more...I'm just jealous )

Surely it will depend on the size of the chicken!

I'm with you Astrophe - if a chicken says 'feeds 4' I get 2 meals for the 2 of us (so that's the 4) and then some for sandwiches.

In my book making stock from bones doesn't equal a whole other meal. It's nice to have real stock but you need a lot of other stuff to turn that stock into a meal.

You don't need much to turn the stock into a really tasty and filling soup, though. A few vegetables and a handful or two of pearl barley or lentils will do.

Really really? Recipe please? In words that can be understood by one whose mother never made stock?

Can it start with: after you have ripped all the good stuff off the bones of your one chicken...

(I think this would be a valuable contribution to the thread on culinary thrift)

sure nannynick, it must depend...but I bet there is an MNer out there who gets 3 nights meals for a family of 6, a day of sandwiches and a meal for their dog with a single quail

Eat at other peoples houses.....

Trillian - stock recipe:

after you have ripped all the good stuff from your chicken....

• put the carcass in a large saucepan and cover with water;
• add one bayleaf, a few black peppercorns, a chopped carrot (or 2), 1 or 2 chopped celery sticks, a chopped onion, and any herbs you fancy (thyme is very nice);

Bring to boil, cover and simmer for as long as you want - a couple of hours is good.

Strain (you may need to skim the scum off the top as you go along too). If not using straight away, leave to cool and then refrigerate. You can also freeze it.

Makes great soups, casseroles, stews, etc.

Thanks NoNickname. Then when I have a bowl of this strained stuff in my fridge how do I make it into the realy tasty and filling soup mentioned above?

I did this once and the stock went all jelly-like (presumably from the gelatin inside the bones). How does that turn into soup?

trillian - jellylike is good, water down and add:

any veg of choice, pearl barly to make a soupy/stew - leave it chunky and add dumplings at the end

Or

small pasta shapes or noodles and some of the chicken meat - chicken noodle soup

Or

potatoe and leeks and blend

Or

frozen peas and some bacon bits - blend