Frugal Friday

 Store Cupboard Essentials

I tried to move these pictures to the bottom of my post, but blogger is not playing today so you get this first! These are the meals I have frozen and the way I organise my freezer. It is a fairly good size 3 drawer freezer with a smaller tray drawer at the top.

Naan breads and Breadcrumbs

3 steak pies, 1 lasagne

One spag bol, one mince base ( can be converted into anything!), one veg pack

one meal of faggots, one tub of steak gravy and some mince ( triple wrapped)

I have 3 steak pies and a lasagne, a spaghetti bolognaise and a mince dish that I can convert into whatever I choose, a portion of meatballs ( faggots), some steak gravy, a veg pack from my veg box, some frozen mince, some breadcrumbs made out of old bread and some naan bread I picked up on offer.

 Cooking in this way means I get a few easier nights a week and also means I don't get those days any more when I panic buy expensive food because I don't know what to feed my family. It is cheaper and easier. The only thing I have to be is organised to start it off. Once I am up and running with some food in the freezer it is great. So much simpler. I just cook an extra meal each time I am cooking or every now and then give an afternoon, evening or couple of hours at a weekend to stock up on a few meals. For example, if I am making a spaghetti bolognaise it is no extra effort to make an extra one and a chilli to put in the freezer. Three evenings covered! Give it a go if you haven't yet. Clear one shelf out in your freezer. I can get four meals on a shelf/drawer. Also if anyone has some good recipes that freeze well for chicken , let me know. I would really like a huge freezer so I could freeze more. I often see great bargains in the supermarket that if I had more room could pop in the freezer for a later date. It is on my wishlist for our new kitchen next year. Lets hope the budget stretches that far!! Actually I have rather a lot on my wish list. Have a look at my pinterest page on kitchens . I have been posting ideas and colours I like here!

You can make most meals from these ingredients.

This weeks Frugal Friday post is a look at my stock cupboard and the ingredients I use. Often the first thing to suffer when you are cutting costs is the quality and that is something I am very careful about.

 At the moment although I have a tiny kitchen without any surface space I do have a small walk in larder. It is great to have shelves where you can see your ingredients and can grab what you need easily and quickly. The downside is the kids also like to go in there and grab food quickly too! Those of you with hungry kids - how do you stop them clearing out the larder within minutes? I am tough and controlling about it otherwise it would all be gone within a few days. Am I being too mean? They do have plenty to eat. There is always a fresh supply of fruit and yoghurts on offer. I generally have a homemade cake and homemade bread for sandwiches and toast available and plenty of cereal. However, biscuits and other quickly consumed items are restricted and there are times when I don't allow them to eat ( pre meals and once the kitchen is cleared up at bedtime - I say the cafe is closed!)  I have a large basket that I keep high up out of reach for food they will snaffle without thought. They know to touch this will encur great consequences!

 

I have said before , I don't take the totally frugal route with my cooking. I tend to take the middle ground and go for a reasonably priced product that is good quality. If a supermarkets basic range has in it what I want and has proven it is a good enough quality, then thats good enough for me. I  shop at Lidl in the main as I find they have higher branded goods at lower prices. They also have a range of products that are incredibly cheap (we are talking pence here ladies), but really good quality too. All their meat is also British. I have tried and had success with their pork, mince and chicken. I had one bad result with their beef steak, although I would try again as I think it would cook well in the slow cooker. If you haven't yet got into using a slow cooker I really do recommend it, especially if you have a family to feed. Check out the selection on Pricerunner here. The only other supermarket we have within a few miles is Tescos and I will shop here about once a month to top up on items I can't get at Lidls. My beef and steak usually comes from a local farm shop as I get a good deal if I buy larger quantities. It is not completely lean, but the flavour is ten times better. I always drain any fat off after browning mince anyway. Definitely don't assume that the supermarkets will be the cheapest or best quality!

10lbs of mince for £16. Makes 5 to 6 meals.I buy 4 or 6 of these at a time.

 I know if I were to be totally frugal with my shopping there are more savings to be made, but the content of the food is important to me and my growing children. My two boys I have to budget as adults - they eat more than me so really I am feeding 4 adults and one child. 

One of the reasons I can shop less often is that I keep my larder stocked up with some basics that I can make many meals from. Often these can be snapped up when they are on offer, so cutting the budget even further. I got Seriously Strong Cheddar this time  on a buy one get 2 free offer for £4.99. These offers are not always good deals to rely on, so I always make sure I check the aisle for better prices first. The supermarkets will put what they want you to buy on view at eye level, not nescessarily what is the best deal for you. 

We buy pasta and rice in 3 and 4kg bags as they work out cheaper than buying them in smaller quantities. My husband is convinced they have priced the rice wrongly as it works out so much cheaper, so much so he got 3, 4 kg packs the last time he went. I am,needless to say, still working my way through this rice.

Family meals such as Chilli, Lasgane, Spag Bol and pasta sauces often start with the same base so it is easy to batch cook these as well as having the ingredients in . I find, as long as I have a stock of the following ingredients plus some meat and rice/spaghetti or potatoes, I can rustle up a meal. We usually have one or two mince based meals a week for their convenience and the fact that everybody wolfs them down. 

These are the items I can make so many meals from and make sure I always have:

• Plain Flour - for thickening sauces
• Olive Oil
• Pepper
• Sea Salt
• Mixed Herbs
• Mustard Powder - for adding flavour to stews and soups
• Liquid Condensed Beef Stock
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Tomato Passata
• Basil
• Beef/Vegetable Stock Cubes
• Tomato Puree
• Chorizo Sausage - to slice into stews,soups and pasta dishs ( £1.99 at Lidls)
• Chilli Flakes ( below)

Chilli flakes add flavour to anything

Of course I have many other things in my larder, but these I would struggle without. I tend to switch around with the stock cubes depending on what I can get at Lidls ( it changes ) and the only expensive item, but does make a difference in flavour is the Beef liquid stock, Touch and Taste. A splash of this in stews and spag bol makes a for a rich sauce - yum yum.

Planning your larder and making sure you keep it stocked with good basic ingredients to make the meals from your menu plan will help you keep your grocery budget down. I am strict with myself and do not fill my larder with items I know I will hardly ever use. They will just be a waste of our hard earned money. Supermarkets will constantly try and tempt you with offers and buy one get one free deals, but always ask before you buy....will I use this and is this really a good deal?!

What is your most vital ingredient in your larder?

Frugal Friday

Feeding a family - without it taking over your life and your bank balance.

In this weeks Frugal Friday post I am looking at how I keep the food budget from running away with me when cooking main meals for my family of 5. Our groceries were costing us more than anything else each month and so a while ago I decided to rein this in and try and cut what we were spending. I have big eaters in my family. There is no way around that. They eat just about anything. I do get a little annoyed when people say to me that I am lucky that they do. I'm not lucky, I persevered when they were fussy and battled on. I am pretty strict when it comes to meal times and I wont treat the kitchen like a cafe where they can pick and choose what they want. I worked hard to get them not to be fussy. All us parents know what it is like when a child won't eat. It can be soul destroying when you have spent ages cooking something you think they will like only to have them turn their noses up. You just want to feed them and for them to thrive, but I persevered and they came through it. They do know that if they don't want to eat what is on the menu they can go without. They never do! I don't intend cooking 2 or 3 different meals every night for fussy children. I may sometimes do pasta as well as rice or  offer custard as well as ice cream if we have a pudding, but that's as far as I go. Am I mean? I don't know, but it's what I can manage! I spend too long in the kitchen anyway! Now they tend to inhale their food they are so hungry, especially the boys.

I also resent spending hundreds of pounds at the supermarket every month on easy food when I know I can make a better version for less. I'd actually rather spend it on something else if truth be told. Food is not my passion! So, although it is more time consuming initially to cook everything from scratch, that's what I do. I feel happier that I know what is in everything and I can control what I am spending. I would say though, once you have a few meals in the freezer you can easily have one or two nights 'cooking free' a week so in the long run it actually releases time.

 Although getting things at a good price is a big consideration for me, it is not the only consideration, I do also look at what is in my ingredients and try and keep an eye on those too. I won't buy something just because it is the cheapest if it is full of rubbish. However, sometimes it seems the difference between many products is just the packaging . The contents are usually pretty much the same . They charge more for a pretty box!

I do my main shop at Lidls now as I can keep it at around £50 to £60 per week. The quality is really good and their meat is all British. I tend not to buy my mince or stewing steak here as I can get it cheaper elsewhere, but for chicken and Pork it is ideal. Of course they don't always have what you want or need at Lidls so a degree of flexibility is needed here. Fresh fruit is always of a high standard and priced so you can compare between products easily. I always follow these rules:

• Have a menu plan for two weeks
• Write a list
• Don't deviate from the list unless something you would normally buy is on offer and you can stock up
• Buy enough for two weeks ( apart from fruit)I try and go as long as I can between shops.
• Don't shop when tired or hungry
• Check for codes,coupons and vouchers before you shop

There are always some items I need that I can't get from Lidls and I will , about once a month pop to Tescos to bulk buy these items.I try not to let myself run out of everything at the same time, but keep items topped up to prevent having to do huge panic shops. I again spend about £50 here. We also have our milk delivered to support our local service more than anything. This cost is additional to my Lidls and Tescos costs. I have a veg box delivered every other week now from our local farm shop. This costs £18 and I make it last two weeks, just topping up the potatoes. So, In total my monthly spend for a family of five for groceries ( including all cleaning products, soap and loo roll) is around £350 - £400. I could cut this a lot more if I went totally down the frugal route by dropping to basic brands on absolutely everything, but there is a quality controller in my house who calls himself The Husband. He isn't so keen on the value brands. Food is his thing ! So I take the middle ground. Can't have an unhappy and hungry man around the house now can I ?

Here is my last two week menu plan. Meals marked with an * mean I batch bake and freeze one or two extra meals. Sometimes I allocate a whole day to cook various meals to freeze. I change this each two week block as I get bored easily as do the children so although some meals feature often e.g spag bol, stew, faggots , I add different meals in to keep things interesting.

Day	Week 1	Week 2
Sunday	Lunch - soup  Dinner - Roast Chicken	Lunch - Soup  Dinner - Roast Beef
Monday	Chicken Casoulet and Peas	Coq au Vin and mash
Tuesday	Dinner - Faggots* and Rice	Spaghetti Bolognaise *
Wednesday	Sausage Casserole and mash	Stew and mash
Thursday	Lasagne * and salad/ homemade rolls *	Lasagne and salad and homemade rolls
Friday	Pasta and bacon bits with cheese.	Steak and Kidney pie *
Saturday	Lunch - soup * and rolls Dinner - Chilli *	Lunch - Soup * and rolls Dinner - Chilli

 

There are three things I could not do without in my weekly drive to provide good quality meals for less:

1. Freezer Meals/Batch baking.

2. Slow Cooker.

3. Breadmaker

1.By freezer meals I mean meals I have cooked myself and frozen. I do this by batch baking on certain days and freezing a few meals for the weeks ahead. This means I always have a selection of meals in the freezer ready to use. It means when I cook a meal I will either freeze any leftovers or I spend a day batch baking meals. My best freezer meals are Lasagne, Chilli, Steak pie, Faggots, Spag Bol, Veg burgers - I could go on. Recipes to follow in future posts. This is invaluable on busy days with the kids and also if I need a night off cooking. This minimises waste in that you have planned your meals, purchased exactly what you need and used it.

I buy my meat in larger quantities from a farm shop - the quality is better and it works out cheaper. I buy 10llb of mince as I get that for £16 . For mince it is £1.60 a Lb. Tescos is £2.84 for 500g at the moment ( just over 1lb) . I can make 5 family meals out of this and sometimes squeeze an extra individual meal to freeze out of it! That works out at £3.20 a family meal of 5 or 64p per person, for the mince per meal!! The faggots are made with pork mince and lambs liver and work out even cheaper. I spend about £35 in total. The veg burgers cheaper again. Why would I buy processed ready meals, full of sugar and preservatives that cost far more? My other ingredients are not expensive. For example my tomato passata is 29p a box,  my puree 30p a tube etc. 

2.The slow cooker is a must for anyone with children and a busy life. You can cook just about anything in one of these. They are not expensive to buy. Check them out here  on Price Runner from £15. I got mine at half price for £30 in Tesco's double up deals. I can pop a stew or a risotto in the slow cooker in the morning or at lunchtime and it is ready when we get home. Make sure your slow cooker has a stay warm function on it. I will be posting some of my favourite recipes in the weeks to come.

3.My breadmaker is a Panasonic and it has more than earned it's keep! We have used it for white bread, wholemeal bread, spelt bread, bread rolls, speciality breads, pizza dough. I know it is not the same as a homemade loaf, kneaded and proved and loved, but I don't have the time for this everyday! You can make a loaf of bread very cheaply indeed if you are happy to go down the value route ( as little as 27 - 30p a loaf) , but I tend to get better quality flour as it improves the taste. Our bread averages out at about 60p a loaf, more if we are using organic spelt flour as a treat! ( This is really lovely bread, but it doesn't last long in our house) .We make a large loaf each time. A large fresh loaf at Tescos would be £1.20 so it is about half I am saving. However if I were to be picky we don't get as many slices as we cut it thicker! So I think I probably save around 40p a loaf. It still adds up over the year with the amount of bread that gets consumed in our house! I also like that I know what I am choosing to put in the bread my children eat. We go through a loaf or two a day . The bread maker goes on at night and then again in the morning. Nothing beats that smell waking up in the morning. Ok maybe fresh coffee does.

1. Freezer Meals I have done this week. ( Didn't catch them all on camera before they got snaffled up!)

One hot meal, one freezer meal.

One hot meal, one freezer meal, one individual freezer meal

One hot meal , 2 meals for the freezer ( not shown)

One freezer meal, cooked at the same time as the chilli

One hot meal, one freezer meal. Rough and ready looking, but taste great!

2. Slow Cooker Meals This Week

24 sausages in this baby pre cooking!

Picture before going in the slow Cooker

3. Breadmaker Examples

Random tips:

1. Be on the constant look out for vouchers and coupons you could use. Online, newspapers and magazines. 

2. Beware of offers or coupons that give you extra points to purchase something you wouldn't usually buy. This is generally not a good use of money.

3. Check "Buy one get one free" and "3 for the price of 2" offers thoroughly. Often they are not quite as good as they seem. Check the aisles for other prices and deals.

4.If you have vouchers to spend stock up on items you would usually buy in bulk.

5. Don't feel you have to buy the knives or luggage your supermarket has given you vouchers for and told you that you can have for half the price....unless you really need them and you have researched the price!

If this is all too much in one go, try one thing. Drop a brand at your supermarket next time you shop. If you don't notice the difference in the product, then keep buying it, if you do, return to your usual brand! It's a start! 

What tips do you have for keeping your grocery budget down? 

Where do you shop?