Feeding your family for less this winter
I am pretty certain that you all have QUITE enough to worry about without adding the worry of how you can afford to feed your family so I want to share with you my various tips for cutting your food bill this Winter.
I have always been frugal and up for a bargain so I am happy to share with you, the various tips I have collected over the years.
1. Batch cook and invest in a slow cooker! You will save money because a slow cooker takes a lot less electricity than an oven (as an aside, you can also save energy and money by covering pans with a lid to reduce cooking time). As well as money, you save a lot of effort if you cook once and eat twice (or 3-4 times!). It’s particularly great for those evenings when life gets hectic or you have a bit of CBA going on (can’t be arsed) because you can throw everything in the morning when you have some energy. Curries, casseroles and soups are your friends here. Here is my new 2 meal Spanish chicken recipe too.
If you find you only have a bit of time in the evenings, a pressure cooker is a great option for you as it cooks the food at pressure at a higher temperature but for a short period of time. Throw everything in and viola.
2. Try some food waste apps. There are some great apps such as Olio and Too good to go that target food waste and also, support the notion of community and sharing food that we don’t need or want. You can accept food from other individuals and companies that don’t need it but you can also advertise your own unneeded food.
3. Distinguish between ‘use by’ and ‘best by’ dates. Use by and best by dates are not the same thing so don’t throw out food unecessarily. The use by date is more important than the best by date but even then, I would use my judgement and would personally throw pate or meat but eat a carrot a few days past its use by.
Use-By: the date by which the product should be eaten; the product may be less safe to consume after this date.
Best-By: the date the product should be consumed by to assure for ideal quality but eating after this point is not going to make you sick.
4. Loyalty doesn’t pay off. Don’t be loyal to one supermarket or one brand – it always pays to shop around. Look at this site to work out where you most bought items are cheapest. If you pay an annual fee for supermarket deliveries, consider swapping to mid week delivery slots to pay less (for example, with Ocado, its £40 a year instead of £90).
5. Bulk out meat based dishes. For example, its unlikely any of the family will notice a few red split lentils in a bolognaise (or finely chopped mushrooms or some pureed carrot). As well as adding some extra vegetable goodness, it will make the beef mince go further. Another idea is a layer of pureed sweet potato or butternut squash in a lasagne.
6. Choose seasonal fruits and veg and consider frozen and canned options. If you live near a market, food is often marked down in price at the end of the each day. Alterntively, big bags of things like berries, peas, corn etc are good frozen and don’t really lose their nutritional value.
Canned fish (or frozen) is cheaper than fresh fish without losing too much of its nutritional value – just prioritise the smaller more oily fish to reap the omega 3 health benefits (sardines, mackerel, anchovies, salmon, herring). Berries and vegetables like corn and peas are much more affordable in large frozen bags.
7. Think about what is practical to start making yourself. Look at your shopping bill and see what you consume the most of it and make it. I was buying 4 large tubs of yeo valley organic natural yoghurt each week which was costing a lot of money and producing a lot of plastic. I have made back the cost of a new yoghurt maker in 2 weeks and now save a lot of plastic as well as money. I promise its quick and easy.
8. Increase the number of meat free nights in your house. For example, 2 with meat and 5 meat free (instead of the usual other way around) to really help reduce your bills. Meat is not cheap. Organic meat without the added hormones, antibiotics and weed killer, certainly isn’t cheap (I paid £17.50 for a 1.5kg chicken recently). The best thing is to cut down. I highly recommend a few portions of good quality meat a week instead of 5/6 nights of poor quality meat. Good alternative protein sources are:-
Eggs are an incredible and much more affordable source of protein. If you know someone locally who keeps chickens, consider doing some sort of swap (for example free eggs each week in exchange for a monthly car wash or low mow etc – you can get creative). Tofu too! (avoid quorn as a source of soy which is a sort of franken-food). Tofu is cheap and tasty in a stir fry.
‘How to go plant based’ by Ella Mills is a nice book to give you more plant based inspiration.
By the way, I do understand its not easy to get more plant based options into children as I have 2 of my own but my best advice is to get creative with even the most basic dishes. For example, hiding in my boys weekly macaroni cheese, is some pureed sweet potato, cauliflower, some ground almonds and nutritional yeast (the first add ons are pretty budget friendly). Also, I highly recommend Lucinda Millers brilliant book, ‘The Good stuff’ for some sensible and achievable suggestions for kids.
9. Buy in bulk, especially things like dried legumes and grains which you can get in 3 to 5kg bags. My preferred brand is Sevenhills. Just as an example, a 100g bag of red lentils in Ocado is £1.20 whereas 100g of red lentils from Sevenhills (based on a 3kg bag) works out as 50p (plus its organic and GMO free!). A no brainer here.
10. Meal planning. To many it feels like a bore but if you can plan out what you are going to make in the week, you are guaranteed to cut down on food waste and save money because your shopping list will be based only on what you need and not what you want. Also, you will have a plan and less likely to spend £50+ on calling for a takeaway.
Budget friendly ideas:-
This beef casserole is a slow cooker family favourite casserole and inexpensive to make with a shin of beef.
My chicken noodle soup can be made very cheaply and is great for making in bulk and freezing. I particularly recommend it as it is full of immune boosting ingredients like ginger, miso and garlic to see you through the winter bugs. See bottom of this recipe for some budget friendly ingredient swaps.
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