How on Earth do you cut down your food bill without buying low quality stuff and when you have 3 hungry kids, a husband and several animals?

[FabIsGoingToBeFabIn2010]

DH just looked through my spending and it is about £800+ a month on food.

I have a slow cooker and love using it.

I am going to look through some recipes later.

I also have to cook twice a day most days but that shouldn't make my food bill higher as we all need to eat every day whether we eat the same or not.

or if you've like me and forget to put the cheap meat in the slow cooker in the morning 2-3hrs in the oven does the same job .

I found the butchers (yes even the Supermarket ones ) quite helpful in terms of what meat to buy for stews/stir fry/whatever.

So what meat/cut is a real no-no? I am so fussy about what the kids eat.

value range

no seriously you can have the same organic cow cut up but depending on "where" on the cow the meat comes from will depend on it's price (and the speed of cooking). Cuts that take less time to cook are more expensive, and cuts that take longer to cook (and are sometimes a little more "fatty" - though a little fat never hurt anyone - and ou can always cut excess fat off before cooking anyhow) are cheaper.

guide to cuts of beef and what suggestions for what to do with them.

I'm sure there must be a better one that that around but it's the best I can find >

sorry is DM \link{http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1059211/The-cheap-cuts-meat-help-beat-credit-crunch.ht ml\but mentions a few "cheaper" cuts that can be used (and sold in Waitrose too )

this looks like a great thread about cheaper cuts of meat. Haven't got time to read it all - but certainly the pages I looked at seemed to have lots of hints/tips/questions answered

We mostly eat chicken but would like to eat more lamb and pork on a Sunday for a roast.

Will look at the link, thanks.

Lamb is a good one for sunday roast because I much prefer the stock you get - cracking for adding a couple of ice cubes worth to the bolognaise sauce.

We hardly eat any chicken at all - and when we do its thighs in a casserole with rice or roasted things and drumsticks. I just cant justify buying chicken breast - its far too expensive.

CHICKEN BREAST MINGS!

It's the world's biggest con. It's not the tastiest part, or the most nutritious. It tastes more like wet cardboard than meat, and it's twice the price of the awesome bit of the chicken - the thigh.

When I buy a chicken, all the breast meat ends up in a pie or something. Otherwise it's tasteless. Generally I only buy thighs.

I agree totally with Coldtits.

Chicken breast is poo. I prefer to buy a tray of thighs instead and have proper meat.

When I bake a whole chicken, DH gets the breasts.

ahh now I do like the breast meat.........but I don't buy breasts - I buy a whole chicken, have a breast to myself and dish up the rest of the chicken to the men/boys in the house

Okay, I am doing an on line order as I am banned from driving for the next 2 weeks.

I am following week 2 and one recipes calls fro chicken breasts. Ideas for something a bi cheaper but will still be nice and work in the recipe? It is chicken breasts covered with breadcrumbs mixed with parsley and parmesan.

Thank you.

I have just spent ages going through the website and checking out offers and which items are better offers rather than just picking anything. I have spent £76.91. I had some things already and this is enough food for 6 dinners plus a roast chicken for Sunday.

2 Selected Andrex 9 Roll Packs for £7.50

1 Fruit & Nut Muesli essential Waitrose 500g£1.36

1 Monster Munch Roast Beef 6 per pack£1.39
6 Cloudy Lemonade Waitrose 2L£5.88
1 Coca-Cola 4 x 2L£5.29

1 Broccoli essential Waitrose 1kg£1.14
1 Carrot Wedges essential Waitrose 750g£1.28
1 Cauliflower Cheese Waitrose 400g£1.78
1 Coley Portions 6 per pack essential Waitrose 552g£2.78
1 Garden Peas essential Waitrose 907g£1.43
1 Ham & Pineapple Pizza essential Waitrose 315gOffer - Buy 2 Waitrose essential frozen pizzas for £3.50£2.13

1 Mozzarella & Cherry Tomato Pizza Waitrose 395g£2.88

1 Lemons essential Waitrose 6 per pack£1.48
1 Ocado Everyday Baking Potatoes 4 per packOffer - Offer price 50p, was 67p£0.50

1 Ocado Everyday White Cup Mushrooms 350g£1.11
1 Organic Garlic Waitrose 80g£0.98
1 White Potatoes essential Waitrose 2.7kg£1.38

4 Free Range Turkey Breast Steaks Waitrose Typical weight: 500gOffer - Save 25% per KG, was £10.99 per KG£4.12

2 Eggs Free Range essential Waitrose 9 per pack£3.16

1 Medium Free Range Whole Chicken Waitrose Typical weight: 1.32kg£6.74

1 Colla Grana Padano 150g£1.72

2 Cravendale Whole Milk 2L£3.38
1 Mild White Cheddar essential Waitrose 500gOffer - Save 25%, was £3.48£2.60

1 Organic Fresh Skimmed Milk 2 Pints Waitrose 1.14L £1.02

1 Blended Olive Oil essential Waitrose 500ml£1.94

2 Felix Pouch Senior in Jelly 12 x 100g.
2 Felix Senior Mixed Selection 12 x 100gOffer - Buy any 4 standard Felix 12 pack pouches for £10.

1 Squeezy Tomato Ketchup essential Waitrose 470g£
1 Bacon and Onion Potato Saute Waitrose 400g£1.14

Pizza for one night and roast chicken on Sunday. The other meals are
Salmon fish cakes.
Jacket potato with tuna/cheese.
Crispy parmesan turkey.
Cod stuffed with mushroom.
Shepherd's pie.

just a suggestion - you could buy a bag of normal carrots and cut them yourself? (would be cheaper)

are the peas frozen or fresh? Frozen are just as good, but usually cheaper.

And will you need to top up on milk during the week with that amount - if so with the Waitrose longer dates you could order some more so you don't have to top up mid wee

otherwise - good stuff - £76 for a week is really good going when you look at how much you spent in 5 weeks previously

I bought the carrots because they were frozen, not because they were cut in wedges. Sometimes we don't finish a bag of fresh before they start going off. Peas are frozen.

I would have bought more milk but we have got rid of the other fridge so no room to store it. There won't be a problem stocking up mid week as I am determined to stick to sensible shopping from now on.

I did have to pay an extra 50p for delivery though as I took too long to shop and confirm my delivery time!

Well done but you could save another £11 without fizzy drinks!

ahh fair enough then . I've done that with the taking too long to shop thing and ending up paying more for delivery.

Noddy - she would indeed have saved more without the fizzy drinks, but it doesn't sound like the OP is in the pits of finanicaly woes (not if she had spent £800 in 5 weeks previously ), even I (on my £50-60 a week budget) pop in some extras - not fizzy drinks, but hey we've all got her vices

Those fizzy drinks will last quite a while though and I am thinking of drinking more milk and less coke (have it about 4 times a week, prefer lemonade) but DH likes it and one thing at a time. But I am that I have spent £11 on drinks. Will last more than a week though.

well I think you've done a great job when you compare with what you had spent per week £160 you've halfed your shopping bill!

I normally buy own brand loo roll though not the basic one, but this was out of stock so the Andrex was the best value and then with the offer, even more so. We don't have a Home Bargains but I will be going into town to check out Lidl and the pound shop when I can drive again.

I will compromise on some things but prefer organic milk as much as possible for the kids. Not as fussed for dh and I.

Get ye to Lidl.

It is the best place ever.

One type of long grain rice. One type of tinned toms. You getting my drift?

You'll be around the shop in 30 mins or less, too which is a bonus. The W5 (sp) cleaning and laundry products are all excellent. I use the (calgon type) laundry tabs which are great value. Nappies are brilliant, too. Lovely free-range chickens and eggs. Milk is cheaper, why not bulk buy and freeze? Great selection of sausages and ham/bacon. Innocent smoothies for £2 a carton. I could go on.

I alternate a bit but use Lidl mostly.

Why not just try it every second week and see how you get on?

Fab - you can definitely grow veg in pots or growbags if you don't want to dig the garden, sweetcorn in pots, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers and pumpkins/squash in growbags work brilliantly. But you have to buy the growbags which reduces the frugality a bit!

I can even recommend seed varieties for easy-growing in pots/growbags if you want!

Thanks, I am definitely going to start growing my own. Stuck in at the minute and not allowed to drive but I have some herb pots already so will take a look at those later.