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

More meal planning. Was fairly skint before, but:-
LIDL nappies when we buy sposies,
less meat,
no take out pizzas (which was an occasional treat),
packed lunches for me using left over sunday roast rather than canteen at work
More cheap stuff like pasta and potatoes and no expensive fish for a while.
Might have to loose the milkman soon.
And own brand in ASDA for everything.

Meal planning and cheaper meals-liver and bacon casserole tonight

Less meat, more lentils. Always used to eat a much more veggie diet but got out of the habit. Shopping at Aldi/Lidl/Asda.

My strategy is to get my DH to eat LESS. It is not working.

we've switched from actually going shopping to Internet shopping

Same as Ormiran, less meat, more veg/lentils

Online shop (have done since leaving work tbh as it is easier to budget and there's always discount codes).

Buy fresh fruit/veg from grocers and meat from butchers.

Make all biscuits/cakes for the Ds's (including DS1's school lunchbox)instead of Organix stuff.

Stopped the weekly drive to supermarket and now walk to local shops and market daily. Cuts down on waste and is much cheaper!

I started making changes a while back when there was lots of talk of times becoming hard.. mostly because I wanted to pay off debts with interest rates.. I now

1 shop monthly in tesco ~£80, this includes all meat, milk and household goods for the month
weekly trip to market for fruit and veg each week ~£6-8
I take lunches to work
I eat out a lot less (from 1 or 2 times a week to 1-2 times a month)

We probably are eating healthier as I'm cooking & baking more and I have so much more time than I used to have.

Next month I plan to do my monthly shop online so hopefully reduce it even more

No, not at all.

Business as usual in this rural area.

The only shop that sells anything resembling food is a Premier attached to a petrol garage 4 miles away.

In the town, about 11 miles away, there's a small Co-op and a Somerfield.

We go over the loch once a month to a Lidl and a Tesco for basics and staples like rice, couscous, pasta and tinned foods like olives, mackerel and tomatoes, and dried pulses and soup mixes.

Otherwise, we get meat from the butcher, fish from a fishmonger or a van that comes through from Loch Fyne on Tuesdays and veg from the farmer's market on Wednesdays.

There is no internet delivery of food out here and only one restaurant, which is expensive and has limited opening hours, for miles, so all food has to be made at home - lots of cheese toasties and jacket tatties for a quickness when you can't be bothered.

We have quite a few kitchen gadgets, including an air popcorn maker and yoghurt maker, and they all get a lot of use.

Our diet has been about 80% veg for some time now, and snacks and sweets are baked or made here at home.

I never meal plan. Just don't see the point in it for us.

Instead we make sure teh cupboards are always stocked with the basic ingredients to spin out a quick meal.

Have been meal planning more and like lots of you work with what's on offer .I also try and buy reduced things if i know i'll use them in time.
I have been buying loads more own brand things in Asda and am amazed at how good some of it is .Dp moans but can't actually tell the difference if i hide the fact.Have saved a fortune on things like cleaning products and toiletries.
Another way i have saved money is by going without the kidies well apart from the baby but at 4 weeks she hasn't mastered pester power yet.
I would quite easily go without meat but Dp doesn't consider a meal a meal without it iyswim.There are 5 of us (though baby not eating yet ) and i spend about 100 a week.God knows how much it'd be if i didn't watch the pennies.

We're economising a bit because dh has been off work sick with no pay for a couple of months but that's not specifically linked to the credit crunch.

i am now meal planning more and using up more leftovers- eg tonight;s tea is home made chicken soup from yesterday's roast chicken- previously would have thrown carcas in bin. reason is more expensive food rather than less access to credit though.

Not really, we have always had to be quite careful. I suppose our impulse buys have reduced a bit and dh is more willing to go without meat now it costs more but that's it really.

I've started going to Aldi 3 weeks in 4.
I still go to Asda in the 4th week to stock up on things that you can't get in Aldi.
We'd already switched from Sainsbury's to Asda last year.

I now try not to buy everything in M&S.

I have resolved to recycle my Boden catalogue without opening it.

I am trying to scrounge second hand school uniform for DD when she starts school in order to avoid forking out another £100 for stupid PE kit!!!

I do use the car even less than before, and I've never used it much.

We have also stopped going to Starbucks!

I meal plan sometimes.
I have gone down a brand level in some things but refuse to ditch organic milk.
I switched from organic to free range in eggs a while ago and now get a tray of eggs from the farm shop for £2 and a big bag of puds for £6. They have gone up from £5 in the last month.
I don't buy biscuits and never bought cakes anyway.
The kids are having some strange variation meals to use things up rather than having them go to waste.

i have tried, bought fruit from sainsburys instead of m and s last week and dd and dh wont eat it.will buy items on offer from tesco.also m and s have started reducing items so will plan meal around what they have.

we meal plan and stick to it, more home baking cooking. Used fruit veg from the garden, used blackberries from the wild. Less meat. Only have a raost dinner every other week.

definitely. I try to go to the shops less, meal plan more, look more closely, as "bargains" usually aren't, I look lower than eye level on shop shelves, have been buying cheaper bread, bulk buying pasta, stocking up on bogofs for staple foods like tinned tomatoes etc and trying to buy less meat. Has it made us eat more healthily? not yet

Make most things from scratch - curries and home-amde naan bread, home-made pizzas etc.
Also, if the oven's on for one thing, sausages for example, then cook everything else in the oven too, so veg wrapped in foil or roasted, potatoes in the oven etc.

Yes.

I don't feed the children anymore, in fact I did try leaving them in the woods but they found their way home by following pebbles, dammit.

Oh and also we have at least one or two 'cupboard' suppers a week that usually involve pasta or rice, and nearly always tinned farking tomatoes.

And I make more sandwiches and spend less time in cafés, whihc is disappointing.

We eat less meat and cheaper fish. We buy less from Waitrose and more from local shops. We cut down on imported fruit and veg as they are more expensive. We bake our own bread and biscuits and make curries from scratch. We eat more pasta, eggs, and cut down on eating out.

We are definitely eating more healthily.

I have started to shop twice a week so I don't waste as much. Buying fresh when I need it. I always menu plan so that helps. So spreading the cost more and making the shop last longer. Looking in the back of the cupboard and using up the tins and jars to complete meals. Not making do, but making it go further yes.

Still shop at tescos online - but tend to plan things out a bit more. And buy more "bulk" type foods, more potatoes blah blah blah.

And buy some value foods ?? Not tinned toms though.

Got an allotment, but seems to be a bit of a money pit at the moment

Other than this, have been making more of an effort to make ingredients go further - if making veg pasta bake, will freeze half as we tend to eat what's in the casserole dish!

Buy things that are on offer and freeze...

Oh, and hang around friends houses around meal time and look hungry