Have you changed your shopping/cooking habits because of the credit crunch?

[carriemumsnet]

The Press Association are doing about story about parents' reaction to the current economic climate and whether it's changed their food shopping/ cooking habits.

We said we'd ask you... So have you started using more lentils and less beef, cut back on sweets and snacks, started growing your own polenta? Has it made you eat more healthily?

They want your thoughts before end of play Tuesday...

Over to you Thanks

We've been eating more vegetarian food. My DH has always been vegetarian but before I would cook a meat version and a veggie version and now I often just cook a veggie version.

Meat is now down to perhaps a chicken on a sunday,the leftovers in a risotto or pasta dish and either sausages or lamb steaks during the week.

The other nights we eat tofu, TVP and vegetables.

No.

HTH.

The biggest change we have made is meal planning for the week prior to doing the 'big shop' so we no longer waste food.

Also we grew our own salad leaves in trays this summer which worked really well!

i have started going to asda
used to go to farm shop and sainsburys

and yes we only hav e meat once or twice a week now and its usually fish

also stopped school dinners - its packed lunches now which i worked out as cheaper

and meal planning every week not just when i rmemeber

I've switched from Ocado to Lidl and still revel in the difference in price!

I've always grown my own veg but can't possibly put in enough work to be self sufficient all year round.
I'm afraid organic stuff has totally bitten the dust (not that we could afford much anyway in the first place!) And we are drinking less wine

We've always eaten pretty healthily. But I now menu plan and when I get my freezer back up and running will be cooking in bulk and freezing more.
And we are drinking less wine
DH and I are eating less meat but I cannot persuade the boys to swap chicken for chickpeas

I've just noticed I mentioned the wine drinking twice

Thing is, we were pretty skint before all this so it's actually quite hard to cut back much further (apart from the wine )

We are eating less meat, meat free a couple of days and less meat in meat dishes iyswim. Also buying more own brand products, still seem to be spending a fortune at asda though

I have ditched buying organic apart from milk
esp after the whole fake organic eggs thing - you can't be sure you are getting organic anyway

I've started taking a packed lunch to work rather than buying it every day.

I tend to buy a bigger chicken or extra mince etc so i get 2 meals out of it.

An excellent discovery has been a small pork loin joint cut down into slices works out half the price of pork chops etc.

Ive reintroduced my children to simple teas like poached eggs etc.

I definitely shop around more for whats on offer and build our menus around that.

I buy cheaper bread for toast etc,buy my milk from an indian shop cos its 30p cheaper.

Im also budgeting a bit more carefully with cleaning products I use 1 cleaner for kitchen and bathroom,buy powder on offer and buy more 2 for 1 deals etc,i have also found an excellent quality loo roll at half the named brand price.

We are not quite on sardine curry but im watching it a tad.

NO! I lied .

I meal plan.

i have stopped ordering from organic delivery (but have started purchasing at an organic grocer, the cost difference is i dont over order)

i dont go to starbucks as much - its a good reason to quit the high sugar useless drinks! but i still buy coffees at the bar at work, they are 1.75 as opposed to 2.70 at starbucks

i try to indulge less. i usually buy stuff to try or for fun, and now i stick to what i know we eat. i can for now still allow myself to purchase what i want and need, but the whole psychology of the credit crunch makes you more concsious of your unnecessary spending...

and i bought lunchboxes so i dont have to buy expensive sandwich bags, which is also good for the environment, so double good

yes. i make some big bit of meat on sunday which goes into sandwiches for dh lunch during the week. i now make all of our bread rather than just occasionally and eat no meat at least twice a week.

We're eating much the same but I make more from scratch, which might please the jamie o brigade but we eat well and healthy anyway so just causes a rise in my workload!

did grow tomatoes but the mad neigbour poisoned them - will do again next year but hidden from her barmy view. Enjoyed doing it though and looking forward to planning next years crops.

On the not so good front I have had to cut back on a lot of the specialist foods ds1 needs to optimise his health- gluten free stuff etc, it's just so expensive!.

Mostly i've cut back on my stuff and I eat leftovers for lunch etc.

Oh yes and the organc box went- only organic here now is for baby.

The box was good in that prices rose very slowly compared to the shops, but the boys treated them like a free for all and cold wolf the contents i about 20 minutes

We have changed where we shop from Tesco or Morrissons to Lidl and Aldi.
We buy less crisps / sweets / 'posh' biscuits.
I bulk out things such as curries with lentils and veg to make the meat go further.
We hardly ever drink alcohol at home now (before we would buy a couple of bottles of wine a week).
I buy less convenience food and make my own sauces etc.
I buy less ready made baby food and make it mostly myself now (before I would have used 4 or 5 jars a week to save time).

I meal plan now. No longer go to our fantastic, but really expensive, butcher's. Will be visiting Lidl soon...

No change at all here !! (not yet anyway!)