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

I'm going to change a few things because it's getting ridiculous.

Pack of organic butter is just over £1. Anchor spreadable is £2.26. That's what's annoying me this week.

I have been making pots of soup for Sunday lunch, to eat with bread and cheese. No more fancy meals. I am enjoying not sepdning so much time cooking as well.

Now get all cleaning bits from Aldi, including dishwashertabs, loo rolls, kitchen towels. Plus big bags of pasta, basmati rice, parmessan, sundried tomatoes, their version of Lurpak spreadable, and tinned tomatoes. I do this once a month.

Meal plan and batch cook, cook from scratch.

Weekly delivery from Sainsburys, with cereal fresh vegies, fruit etc.

Meat from fantastic local butcher but only 3 - 4 times a week.

Still buy organic / free range meat, cheese , milk and eggs, don't think I could change this.

Total monthly shopping bill down by about £100, per month, why didn't I do this earlier?

yes we have had to change our habits as I am still sticking to the same budget which does not go as far as it used to. Our costs have gone up across the board - food, fuel, etc etc and we have also come to the end of our mortgage fixed rate and remortgaged. In the meantime I am on maternity leave and our income has reduced.

I have always meal planned.

This week I did the first shop at Asda (on line). We were always Sainsbury's before. We get no organic food etc now,apart from organic meat and milk. Before we were almost totally organic.

Our meal plans now have less chicken (we never had alot of meat). There are more veggie meals.

I have started baking more such as muesli bars when I bought them before.

I did try some of the sainsbury's basic range, but didn't find it worth it (fruit went bad quicker, there were only 6 sheets on a kitchen roll etc )

We also eat out less.

I've always been careful with my shopping. I don't buy sweets (just very occasional treats), alcohol (only when we are having visitors), never buy ready made food (I'm used to cooking from scratch). So nothing different.

The only thing that has changed is that I am buying less organic produce.

Have rediscovered Morrisons
Am eating cheap fish and have learned to fillet a sardine.
Am buying organic veg only if for the kids.
On Halloween, will be encouraging DS to demand cash instead of poxy haribo.

Meal planning, less meat, no organic, cheap chicken (sorry Hugh). Dh has cheap and nasty beer and I only drink if I go out (just cannot face cheap vodka!). DD has always eaten well, never ready meals/chick nuggets etc.

Bulk out curries/chilli with veg. Use more mince beef if need meat, also stews/soups from leftovers.

Were doing more home grown but now we have moved we cannot.

I suppose really going back to how my mother used to feed 5 kids on 1 wage - and we are all very fit and healthy. Back to basics doesn't have to mean feeling hard done by - just spending more time in the kitchen. The only added pressure for me has been time.

We eat mud most days, sometimes we treat ourselves by mixing it with leaves.

Seriously I'm shopping at aldi instead of asda.

We're not having as many take-aways or meals out.

No steak much to dp's disgust!

Yes, we're living completely differently.

Our average weekly spend on food/household was somewhere between £100 - £140. This last week I spent £35.71 (I kept receipts and checked them). On October 1st I got everything out of the kitchen cupboards and made a list of what was in the freezer and fridge and meal planned for every single meal this month bar two lunches (when we've got visitors coming to town and they might rather eat out than have lentil soup!). I have never ever meal planned before and generally we used to just eat what we fancied. This month we're not planning to buy any biscuits, cakes, crisps and snacks and sadly no ready meals and no alcohol.

Our income hasn't changed nor have our outgoings (we have no mortgage) so we're doing this really as an exercise in restraint. I know that sounds a bit hairshirt/martyrish and unnecessary, but anything could happen and we'd like to know that we can live frugally and sensibly (also, we might be able to save more for DS). This whole economic crisis seems less scary if it we know we can handle it IYKWIM. We're lucky that this isn't as essential for us to exist on a tight budget as it is for some people - at the moment.

Meal planning. Bulk cooking and freezing. Packed lunches.
Also simpler teas midweek - scrambled eggs, mushrooms, soups, beans etc all in there somewhere. We prob only have meat once a week so I try and make it something decent however some weeks it will have to be chilli or shepherds pie as mince is cheaper. Try also to have fish once a week, usually white fish or prawns, as prawns are cheeeaaap-oh here (I don't feel bad gloating as they are the only cheap food thing we have really!).
On a shopping day I'll go to the "eat it now before it shrivels" shelf and pick up something for tea that day and hopefully lunch next day too.

Am using lots of moresoup traditional recipes too, as they are good at bulking out basic ingredients with storecupboard stuff, and can usually be multiplied up to make extra for freezing eg crumbles, stews, casseroles, soups, hotpots, etc.

And any veg kicking around at the end of the week makes Mummy's Special Miscellaneous Soup.

yes

just watching the pennies really (fewer takeaways etc.)

We're buying more from the basics ranges.

No wine. (or at least trying to buy no wine.)

Not buying steak for a Saturday night.

No takeaways anymore.

I try to meal plan a bit more.

I'm thinking of trying Lidl or Aldi.

Lidl sausages were a pleasant surprise, 95% pork and about 50p a pack cheaper than the finest/ extra special etc ones.

I also always buy my hotdogs from Lidl, the bockwurst in jars contain 85% pork compared to the rubbish in tins from the supermarket that are mostly mechanically recovered chicken.

Other stuff like cured meats and cheeses are good from there too. I also buy my orange juice cartons (5 for 89p) and bottles of water (6 for 109p) there for packed lunches.

Switched from Waitrose to Sainsburys. Tried Aldi once and it was dreadful, especially fruit and veg, so haven't gone back. Meal plan more. Never buy lunch, always make it. No coffees out.

I have started planning an entire month's menus and then bulk buying online - I only buy vegetables and milk locally now, apart from the stuff I buy from the health food shop. This has less to do with the credit crunch (hasn't affected us at all yet TBH) but more a general feeling that there was too much wastage and not enough saving in our household economy generally.

Meal planning- makes a huge difference to how much you actually need to buy- can't believe we didn't do it before

I haven't read the whole thread so no doubt someone else has said this, but I'd like to remind the Press Association, the Conservative party and anyone else who continues to perpetuate the myth..

Rising food/fuel prices have nothing to do with the credit crunch. Unless you have already lost your job or you funded day to day living from credit cards, your rising bills are not caused by the credit crunch!!

But in answer to the question, we are cutting back on everything currently, but that's because I've taken a pay cut in return for a permanent job and our heating costs have gone through the roof just before winter - nowt to do with the credit crunch. We now have less than £200 a month to spend on our food, toiletries and household stuff and it's a challenge.

I have a planned menu, which means we end up eating everything we've bought and have a near-empty fridge by the end of the week: so less waste.

I also go straight to the bargain aisles at supermarkets; shop at times of day when there are bargains to be had, and buy as much as poss from local greengrocers/ markets instead of overpriced Mr Sainsbury's .

I still buy lots of dark choc though - except that I buy it in bulk when they have lots of good reductions !!

PS by doing this I've cut our weekly bills from £100 to £60!

I agree it's not about the credit crunch (which still sounds like a bankers breakfast to me) . Personally in the last six months I've started to look seriously on wasted food and making sure we do use up the leftovers instead of chucking them - it's terrible that we throw away one in three bags of shopping as a nation.

more and more own brand foods,
meal plan.

don't fall for the bogof, because it aint necessarily something you would relaly want anyway.
eggs from local suppliers - free range and loads cheaper.

definitely find i am wasting less.
keep apples in the fridge. none are now thrown away.

we never have takeaways anyway.
i always take a sarnie to work, as does dh and dc have packed lunches.
home baking.
search here for good advice on cheap meals

Buying far more from Lidl, have cut shopping at Waitrose right down (although we still get fruit and veg from there - look for discounts though). I love Lidl for cleaning products, loo roll, squashes, dairy stuff.

Do a regular shop at Wilko's for pet food, cleaning stuff, tolietries etc. Rarely shop at Boots now; use Superdrug/ Bodycare/ Savers instead.

I still don't meal plan, as I just don't have the time (or the inclination tbh). Shop almost daily, therefore hardly any food waste.

We drink far less wine - gah.

I freeze more stuff now.

Now I do take advantage of BOGOF offers, or 2 for £2 or whatever. Rather than have a set shopping list, I tend to shop by broad category and then look for things on offer. Then I'll build meals around them. Kind of meal planning in reverse. We hardly waste a thing so it does work. There's nothing wrong with BOGOF as long as you buy instead of something else and not as well as.

Still shopping with Ocado but choosing bogofs and cheaper menus (we were pretty frugal anyhow). Taking packed lunch in to work now with marmite and cottage cheese featuring prominently
Contemplating fattening up dd for Christmas

We do still spend quite a lot on food in spite of being veggie and wasting very little, and I think it's all a question of balance: we still buy organic and get our main shop from our local wholefood shop (that delivers free of charge). We continue to drink organic milk - from the milkman. I know it would be cheaper to get milk from a supermarket and our fruit & veg eg from the market, but we've not stopped being concerned about pesticides and feel it's important to have food that tastes good. We also have no desire to see the wholefood shop go out of business, and we're keen to do our bit in helping the milkman keep going.

I always take a pack up to work (and dh does if he can be bothered to make it!), but the dc's continue to have school dinners - in spite of complaints about "mush". This is because neither of them is keen on sandwiches (whenever we go on holiday & have regular picnics they complain after a few days) and we both consider that we don't have the inclination to put our energies into making varied pack ups as well as a daily meal from scratch - except when we're eating up leftovers (eg today, when I eked out some leftover stir fry with the addition of some fresh sweetcorn, marrow, extra mushrooms and cucumber).

And we don't exactly plan menus but buy seasonal food, which tends to be cheaper and tastier, and use up what we've got so that by the end of the week we're often scraping the bottom of the barrel to put together a "sensible" meal.

It has to be said that we're eating out less too - and drinking less wine, which is a great shame...

still shopping at waitrose but have cut down hugely on brands - buying the basic own brand stuff instead; cut down meat - not in terms of regularity but quantity - packing it eg with lentils as per the OP. (pleasantly suprised at the meat-lentil hybrid spag bol. dds didn;t notice and it was very nice and healthier.), cutting the amount of organic but won't cut free-range. have always used bogofs and offers on non-perishables(mainly because I do the self-scanning thing and it bleeps at you to tell you about them)

given up on high-end dept store type toiletries and cosmetics (but was never that big on them and I think that's an age/coming to my senses thing)

cut down on cafe treats - we have two afternoons where one dd has a school club and the other doesn't - used to regularly spend a fiver on coffee for me and hot choc and cake for said dd. again I think that's down to coming to my senses - I always knew it was ridiculous and just the general atmosphere of prudence has made me stop taking the path of least resistance on that one.