Hello Dear Reader,
(Listen in to Radio Cornwall tomorrow between 11 - 12 and Tracy Wilson and I will be discussing this very topic - Can you eat well on the cheap? email [email protected] to let us know your ideas)
I believe a family can eat well on less than could be expected. I will admit, it’s tight but I think a family of four can eat three balanced and nutritious meals a day for £40 a week. If not less and there are families who have less than that and still eat healthily.
Here’s how you could do it if you choose.
1. The easiest and most obvious is to eat at home. I don’t see food as a treat, just wholesome nutrition. Cooking at home means we know what we’re eating too. How much money would you save if you cooked all your own food? We aim to eat three meals a day for £3 each a day and we consider that to be a generous amount. I don’t see the need for ‘fine dining’ as being fed at home is good enough for me.
2. So you can eat at home, you need to plan ahead. Nothing fancy about menu planning. Having a menu plan, then creating a shopping list is the simplest way to eat cheaply. What ever you eat, you will reduce your shopping bill if you plan a week’s menu at a time.
3. Stock up on staples. We always have a plentiful supply of the staples to make our money go further. I make sure I always have stock cubes, herbs, spices, tinned tomatoes, flour, pasta, rice, lentils, chick peas ect. Having these means I’ve always got the building blocks of meals and a pinch of herbs, or a cup of lentils works out to be really cheap.
4. Choose the cheapest option. Again, this sounds like common sense but many people still will not shop in budget supermarkets or buy value products. I always buy value tinned tomatoes and potatoes, value flour and herbs and spices from the basic range. No one has ever complained when I’ve fed them or even noticed anything wrong. Look onto the bottom shelves for the value ranges and get yourselves off to Lidl, Aldi and Netto. Sometimes finding the cheapest options means shopping around and even looking at retailers such as Approved Food. You will halve your food bill by just shopping carefully.
5. Frozen Food - Currently, I can buy a cauliflower or broccoli very cheaply but throughout the year, the price fluctuates. If I can buy it cheaper frozen then I do. Steaming frozen veg helps it keep its flavour and colour. If I’m going to use broccoli in a quiche or have cauliflower with cheese sauce then frozen is always fine. The same goes for frozen fish or meat. I will happily buy both.
| (frozen beans photographed outdoors in bright sunlight) |
6. Cut down on meat or give it up. Meat is incredibly expensive. We eat less now that we used to. It’s not unusual for us to eat a beef casserole for Sunday lunch made from stewing beef and cooked gently in the slow cooker instead of a joint of meat. We started with a meat free day and now have more meat free days than meat days. We have a good local butchers but still stick to a mainly vegetable based diet to keep the costs affordable.
| (frozen beans cooked indoors without natural light) |
7. Plain cereals for breakfast - families seem to succumb to the pestering of their children, my own didn’t have the luxury of choice. We had survival incomes when they were home with us and it was porridge, corn flakes, bran flakes or rice crispies and always supermarket value versions. They might have had the tiniest quirt of honey to sweeten but there really was nothing fancy. All those years later, I’m still eating value porridge for breakfast or value cereals. They are cheap and after a while jam on toast is a significant treat and you can save that for Sunday. Breakfast really only needs to cost a few pennies a day.
8. Take your own lunch and coffee to work and wherever you go. We like to get out for the day and always take a back pack, flask and packed lunch. It means we can leave the house with nothing more than parking money and have a day out. Get your children used to this from being tiny and they will just have this as normal for years to come. We’ve had glorious walks in torrential rain and steamy car picnics. I’m always amazed when I see people buying food and drink on ferries and trains………..you know you’re going on a six hour journey, pack food and save a fortune!!
9. For some, there’s the option of growing your own. I’ve had success with salad and beans which I’ve grown in pots and funny containers. It’s easier than you think, fun and everyone loves freshly picked food. I shall put beans in soon and some salad seeds in a tiny veg patch. I chose our cottage so I could grow some veg in the garden.
10. Foraging. This might be beyond some people but so few people pick the hedgerow fruit anymore. If you see blossom, in the autumn you will see fruit. We pick black berries, crab apples, sloes and damsons and make jellies, jams and chutney. I can never understand why anyone would turn down free food.
Over to you Dear Reader. Who is up for the challenge of eating healthily for less? Who would like to take up the challenge of reducing their food bills? Who might disagree with me and think you can’t eat well on the cheap.
I would love it if you would contribute to tomorrow’s programme on Radio Cornwall. Send your thoughts on ‘cheap food’ to [email protected] and we’ll read your views out on the Radio. Alternatively, you may have real concerns about the rising costs of food and we’d love to hear your views. You can phone in on 01872 22 22 22 when I am on air with Tracy Wilson between 11 and 12 tomorrow.
We love getting your emails and sharing them on the radio.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxxxxx
We bought a couple of apple trees, because at the moment we spend about £2 a week on apples. We only have to have enough fruit for five weeks, and they've paid for themselves, any more is free from then on, for years to come.
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Every one of the plates you pictured made my mouth water!
I don't eat meat every day, and when I buy it I make it go a long way. For example, most recently I got a package of “mixed” pork chops for 2/3 the price of evenly-sized ones, at the butcher shop. Cooked them in the crockpot with carrots and broth. Had one as a “proper” chop, with some of the carrots and added canned green beans. Cut the rest of the chops into small pieces. Added lentils to the broth with some of the pork, for a pork/carrot/lentil soup, half of which I froze. Mixed the remaining pork pieces with rice and ginger-soy sauce, for a portable one-dish meal.
I agree with you completely about keeping staples on hand, and for me, making extra portions of things not only saves energy but really helps me eat well. If I already have a container of plain cooked rice in the fridge or freezer, I am already halfway to a meal made of good things. When I am very hungry or very tired, this is the difference between eating well and inexpensively, or eating poorly and wasting a lot of money because it's fast and easy to open a package of crackers or chips and say, “well, it's just this once because I'm too tired to cook.”
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Great tips! I suppose I do most of these though our budget for food is a bit higher than that (it was lower when we were focused on paying off our debt). I learned (with the help of a good friend) to make everything from scratch including pizza to rival Domino's in my son's eyes (in my mind my pizza being compared to Domino's is not even flattering but…). One thing I'd like to mention though is that people should never cut so much from food that: a) their nutrition suffers; and b) they have no time to do much else than think about how to get things cheaper.
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I just wrote a long comment that got lost (next time should remember to choose a profile before writing it). Was saying that these are good tips but we should be vareful with two things: a) not to affect nutrition; and b) to make sure that in trying to eat cheaply we still have the time and energy to do other things (it can take over one's life and many of us are very busy as it is).
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Have a list, but be prepared to substitute is something else will do and is on offer. Don't be conned by but two get one free unless you KNOW you can use it up before it goes off. We have beans waiting on our kitchen windowsill to go in…but will they survive the slugs this year? A couple of years ago, we went out every evening at dusk and over the course of the summer, removed 700 of them…but their relatives still got our beans; despite the crushed eggshells we put around the plants. Don't like poisons (dog and birds) but if anyone else knows a good slug proofer, please let me know! Thanks.
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Don't wish to sound too pedantic, but I believe Netto was bought by Asda?
Foraging is a much-neglected subject, there's mushrooms and hazel nuts as well as the fruits you mention.
And don't forget fishing, a popular hobby but with an edible result, and all sorts of sea-food to be collected at low water (OK I know not everybody lives near the sea, but a lot do)
Pickling and preserving also seem to be almost forgotten skills, designed to keep glut produce for out-of-season use, the principle still applies, even if we have got all sorts of imported produce available all year.
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I will try again - Netto is alive and well in France
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There's no way I could feed a family of 4 for $40 in Australia for a week because groceries are diabolically expensive. I wish you could come here Froogs and see it for yourself and give us some tips. I love how disciplined you are. I found the Waitrose in Marylebone in central London super cheap, but my English friends consider it expensive. Everything's expensive here though. Don't get me started on electricity housing or day care x
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I feel fine dining is to be done at home , home cooked food is made from a good store cupboard and basics, canned ingredients . frozen ingredients, yellow sticker ingredients , this week i have bought a yellow sticker large beef joint for just over a fiver , i cooked it , sliced it thinly with an electric knife , portioned it up and froze it , it made 10 portions , thats about 50p a potion for the beef , with veg and yorkshire pudding ( homemade of course) it comes in at just under a pound for a traditional english dinner ,we have yet to find a restaurant that can compete in quality regardless of price , its all about the planning and looking for the bargains.
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Just used the remains of last years blackberries…made a crumble, gorgeous, like you Froogs I can't understand why anyone would turn their noses up at free food.
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Fab post, loads of good tips. I know I spend more when I don't plan. It's definitely the way to save money but still eat well
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Great tips and ideas. We shop for bargains-here they are pink stickers. I keep a full pantry of staples to put together quick meals. I used mostly fresh marked down fruit and vegetables, with some frozen as well. I do lots of canning and have taught my adult children to do the same. We pick wild berries and barter extra garden produce from others for whatever we have in abundance. I use my freezer to keep my baking supplies fresh- yeast can last for a very long time in the freezer ( I buy the big bulk size), as well as grains and nuts.
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The equivalent is spending approx $80
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Excellent advice, all things that I also do over here, across the pond! I'd also add a few of my “tips”:''
-eat seasonally. I grew up doing this and we continue to do so as a family. Farms are just now barely starting to produce just a bit (got my first CSA share yesterday), and our diet reflects this. I prefer to eat locally, and organic if possible
-compare prices at a farm, try pick your own for additional savings. I've already approached my new organic CSA farm, and have inquired about the possibility of purchasing, for example, tomatoes that are less than perfect, what I call “seconds” for my home canning. Still perfectly edible and since I either chop them up or pass them thru a food mill to make marinara, they are fine for my purposes. My former CSA farmer would charge me 1/2 price for these. : )
-eat homemade soup, as an excellent way to avoid waste. I also take food to work, usually some homemade soup.
-roast your own meats and skip the Deli counter. Much better for you, while being cheaper as well
-do the work yourself for significant savings. Learn to make bread, cut up a chicken or a roast, grind your own meats, etc
-brew your own beverages-the kids take refillable flasks for their at school/work lunches, filled with iced, home brewed tea. I take a flask of coffee-no stopping at the coffee shop for me.
-keep a few emergency items in a drawer at work for times you are working late, or forget your lunch on the counter. Tea bags, instant soup, crackers, canned fruit-these type of things last and will do fine in a pinch
HTH!
Carol in CT
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The prices in the UK may be much less than in California. A family of 4 with still-growing children would be challenged to eat healthy here for $40 per week. A gallon of milk alone is about $4.00, and a basic, store bran loaf of bread about $2.50 on sale. That leaves a mere $33.50. Big advertised sales this week include $1 per pound for a small selection of fresh fruits & veggies, $1 per pound for long grain white rice or a 5 lb. bag of potatoes, 99 cents per pound for a limit of 1 pkg. of bone in, frozen turkey breast (with coupon), $3.99 per pound for bacon (must buy 4 for that price), $2.99 per pound for ground beef or pork ribs, $4.99 per pound for stew meat. Children must have protein to grow properly. Juice is 2 for $4. Cheese, $5 per pound. Eggs, $2.89 per dozen, on average. It's tough for families with young ones.
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I'm big on foraging, I eat dandelion greens all of the time. Turns out they were a big Depression era food here in the States and have one of the highest nutrient counts of all greens. Also, I keep a blackberry bush in my yard, pick all the fruit I can off of it and freeze it every year. I have mint and lemon balm just coming up in the yard so I make tea out of it. You can pay 4.00 for a box of lemon balm tea at the store!
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Put little woodboards in your veggie patch, and distribute some semolina or wheatflour on them. Slugs are incredibly attracted by wheat, will eat that and then go to sleep under the board. I the morning remove the boards take them far away from your veggies. We put them in a little wood patch on the other side Of the road.
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Great tips Froogs, I like Cumbrian's take on this as well.
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£40 would be the equivalent of something like $67 so you'd get a little more. Not a whole lot more, but a bit.
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Thank you…happy slugs too!
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They do still exist in France but they are few and far between. I think Dia is the cheapest discount retailer in France now although you really have to be picky when you buy !
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The dishes look great. Having been born at the end of the war with rationing etc I think we all ate healthy then, growing our own and definitely not eating too much meat. Sweets were rationed so did not get much of them. Love your ideas and know your cooking is wonderful after tasting it at a sewing bee day.
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I am always amazed when I speak to people at work, just how much they spend every week on their supermarket shop. That plus the £3 to £5 they spend on a lunch every day! I always take in the leftovers from the previous night's dinner and it does me fine.
Made a delicious lasagne yesterday using Jack Monroe's chicken liver and lentil Bolognese recipe, with basics tomatoes, milk, cheddar, Parmesan and pasta. Six good sized portions for a lot less than one supermarket ready meal. And it went down a treat!
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We inherited a rhubarb plant that grows like a weed when we bought our house.
Rhubarb costs a fortune in the supermarkets so it's great to have a free supply for crumbles, pies, compotes etc.
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Maria, we have started making our own pizzas and they are so much nicer than any takeaway ones at a fraction of the cost. Haven't costed it exactly but we get four pizzas for about £3. Hubby and sons have basics mozzarella and tomato and I have basics tuna on mine with a few olives and a couple of anchovies.
Pretty sure we wouldn't even get one takeaway pizza for that!
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It would be extremely difficult on $80 or so too. I feel your pain.
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I a not a great gardener but I do manage to grow most of my own herbs and I do use a lot of them. I am trying to grow tomatoes again and may stretch the vege patch if this goes well. For Easter I bought myself a lime tree on the throw out table. It was sad and happily I have saved it. Hopefully I will be saving on limes in a few years.
I also stretch my proteins as far as possible too.
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Actually, £40 is about $65, so not as impossible as it first souds
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I was talking to my brother about this the other night. His best friends asked him and his wife out for dinner, but he declined. At most restaurants a meal is $20-35 per head plus another $10-20 each for a couple of drinks. Instead he was able to get a leg of lamb and vegetables that fed four of them for the price of one couples dinner. Prices are crazy here in NZ.
Like you I keep a few basics in my pantry, risotto rice, stock, lemons, pasta, tuna, tinned tomatoes, tinned chick peas and in the freezer there is always some chicken and sausages and frozen veg. Easy and quick meals are the name of the game round her and I often take leftovers for lunch.
Julie Q
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I'm a single mom with 2 kids (ages 8 and 12) in the US. I track all spending on food. I save all receipts and tally at the end of the month. For January I spent $293, February $239, March $310, April $201. This includes everything including laundry soap, personal care and dog food. That averages out to $61 a week. We make all meals at home and cook almost everything from scratch. I do have a really well stocked pantry and freezer and we eat off that a lot. I am trying to make sure we all get lots of fresh fruits and veggies every day as well. We're planning a big garden this year in addition to the raspberries, rhubarb that I already grow here. I have recently added blueberries and blackberries and a friend is sending me strawberries. It can be done. I do recommend tracking it well as it really lets you see long term trends.
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I agree prices in the US are much higher, but what I have found helpful in family food budgeting is comparing unit costs of items, e.g. the price of a bag of potatoes on sale can be much higher per unit cost (per lb) than a non sale item. Integrating more beans, pulses, eggs and non meat protein sources has decreased our budget also and I'm feeding 4 kids, including 2 teenage boys with 'hollow legs'!
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Your food pictures look delicious! Will have to check out your recipes…Thanks!
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Thanks Missbaah, CharlotteP and Irishman. My sons are 26 and 21, respectively. I feed 6 adults and 3 cats per week, actually, for a cost in the neighborhood of about $70 per week, but I get at least one bag of free, less-than-perfect produce per week. Sometimes free bread, or (recently) milk and eggs with coupons. We go through only about 1/2 gallon of milk per week nowadays. My DH is diabetic, so when I do lentils or beans, he's got to have actual meat protein with that or his numbers get to high, BUT the combo in meals seems to work okay. Our 93 yr. old neighbors also have dietary restrictions (I cook for them-thus the free produce). All in all, I feel I do pretty well price-wise. Better meal planning is helping to save even more.
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On the opposite US coast, I do a lot of the same, Carol. Not the CSA, though. But I have a four tiered kitchen garden and get Farmer's Market and senior food bank “seconds” of produce from our neighbors to feed us and them. I keep a serious stockpile of basic staples, and also have a refrigerator sized freezer in order to stock up on meat sales, manager's specials and other great deals. Last month, $11.80 netted 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters. This month, $31.90 netted 24 pounds of ground beef, and another $19.90 equaled 10 pounds of ham. I also freeze washed, whole tomatoes if I can't get to them before they go off and quick stew them for meals. Onions, celery and peppers get diced and frozen for the same reason. I also freeze whole meals for heat-and-eat dinners when I batch cook once or twice per week.
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I always make a meal plan for the month. Then work out what I need after looking what's left from the month before. Now I have started shopping on line at Asda , they have a smart price range on most things which is good. Then I make sure I get a 2 hour delivery slot for the cheapest delivery which is a pound. I only buy other things from my local Tesco,s if they are cheaper. and for the odd milk etc.
I keep some cash on me so I can buy fresh fruit and veg whenever I am out and find it to be good value, but only if I need it. Oh and the odd Chocolate bar for a treat now and again.
I keep my on line shopping list each month and I see it as a challenge to make it cheaper each month. I also have a large blackboard on the wall of my kitchen which I write everything I spend in the month. Food, petrol and a list marked Others for anything else. Seeing it in chalk makes you realize what you are spending.
Rosezeeta.
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Faux Fuschia, I try and spend $300 per month for 4 adults, that includes dog food(home cooked) and MOO cleaning products, . I live in Melbourne and we have Tasman meats, a green grocer and Aldi as well as the big 2 (Coles and Woolworths). I buy in bulk on special and freeze. Tasman had chicken breast skin on $7kg recently I bought 10 kg prepped and froze, mince $4 same, chicken skins were used for stock for soup, topside $7kg ditto some for roasts some stewed. I add lots of veges to casseroles, spag sauce etc I bought bacon bits $4kg recently -6 packs that will do for Quiche, fried rice, potato and bacon soup. Also Aldi have bacon rashers $5 and cheese $6 kg. My green grocer has sacks of 10kg potatoes and onions $5 and I get carrots on sale at Aldi .69c kg or buy the juicing carrots from woolworths. It's also worth checking out Vic Market on a Saturday if you're in Melb. I get tips from 2 websites here for MOOing products, Cheapskates and Simple Savings. It can be done.
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I've been living on a food budget for many years while I brought up my family on a one-income household. Most of this was in pre-internet and pre-Aldi days (for me, anyway!) so now I find there are so many resources to help me. Once again I feel challenged to cut down on the cost of my food shopping, even though money isn't extremely tight, as I want to have money left over for other things. I do agree with one of the comments about not spending so much time being frugal that you don't have time for anything else. But I think that most of these ideas, once you make them a part of your routine, won't take over your life in terms of time. At the moment I have an Ocado delivery pass. It cost me £15 for six months of mid-week deliveries. I think this is good value, as I only need to spend £40 a week and they often give me special offers because I'm a member, eg £10 to spend on a wine of my choice or a half-price bonanza when I was able to buy 30 packs of Twinings tea which we love. I try to shop for special offers and buy the basics with this order. Otherwise, I shop at a variety of different shops depending on where I am or what I'm doing. This month I was able to cash in £80 of Nectar points by shopping in their double-up exchange, and I also used £6 off £60 of shopping, so I was able to get £20 of groceries for £14 after I had bought the household items with the double-up vouchers. Yesterday I made my own yoghurt for the first time in ages. I've been looking at the things I regularly purchase that I could do more cheaply. Among my ideas are: buy a sodastream (I love sparkling water, and my son loves coke) to make my own fizzy drinks, have a go at making wine with a kit and stop buying ham. The other day I got two good-quality chickens reduced for quick sale to half price at a local Sainsburys on my way home. I will roast them for Sunday lunch and freeze loads of sliced chicken for lunches and meals. I know that none of my ideas are original, but all these posts are helping me think it through for myself. Thanks guys! At the moment my food budget is £75 for three of us and a dog, and it includes all household toiletries and washing powder. I include beer and cider if I buy it but not wine or sweets as they are a special luxury. Occasionally I buy a load of basics in bulk from Approved Food, which I discovered 4 years ago, but it takes some discernment to know the right things to buy from them. Maybe I can cut my budget down to £60….we'll see! Thanks everyone Jane x
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