Cheap recipes

After paying for my visa, plane ticket and all the expenses involved with settling in the UK, my partner and I have got to seriously budget our money, especially since I'm not working yet.  We've pared down to only spending what we absolutely have to spend--walking places much more, no alcohol, not buying things that would probably make our lives easier, &c--but the one expense we just can't seem to cut down on is food.  We're spending something like £20 a day at the grocery store and I just don't know how.

Usually, when we were living in the States, we would just shop at ethnic grocery stores because they're much cheaper and so we'd mostly cook Asian food, but we don't have that option here.  The two of us are really at a loss about how to cook cheaply here because, honestly, we just don't know how to not cook with Asian vegetables and super cheap fish.

I reckon that a lot of you have been in a similar position to us at some point.  Do you have any ideas about recipes that are cheap to make and delicious to eat?

Which stores are you shopping at? I'm up North (Manchester), so we may have different price points here, but we have Lidl (very very cheap, but sometimes only decent quality) and Morrisons to help us save. What sorts of things are you buying? Can you buy less meat? Can you eat more grains/beans etc?  We cook a LOT of chilli.  It probably costs less than £5 for two or three meals, sometimes more.  Rice is quite cheap, etc. Tea and toast for breakfast is cheap, as is store brand cereal and milk.
When we're feeling the pinch, we also never buy anything to drink, we just drink tap water--that can save a lot! We also rarely buy ready made sandwiches or meals, and I often actually eat a non-bread sandwich (mostly because I don't necessarily want bread everyday at lunch!).
Good luck, it's always tough!

A few older threads to peruse...

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=64296.0

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=60812.0

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=58911.0

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=47872.0

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=40598.0

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=39493.0

 

I only cook for one, but I normally try to make a meal last 2 or 3 days so that it doesn't cost too much - for example, on a Sunday I might cook a shepherd's pie and vegetables (cost about £5-10) which I will eat on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Then on Wednesday and Thursday I might eat pasta, vegetables and sauce (cost about £3 if I don't put meat in, and one jar of sauce lasts 2 meals) and on Friday maybe an omelette and salad (maybe £5 for the eggs, fillings and salad) and Saturday I might splash out on a microwave curry (£3)... so, that's about £20 a week on main evening meals. For lunch each day I'll have a sandwich (or a piece of quiche), a yoghurt and some fruit... so about £8 a week... and breakfast is Cornflakes and milk (say, £2 a week).

In all, I probably spend about £30-£40 a week on food (if I include snacks/drinks in there too) and I shop in Tesco, Sainsbury's and M&S. However, my parents would probably balk at that figure, because they budget only £15-20 per person per week for food! I do buy quite a lot of chocolate/biscuits, but I don't often buy pricey drinks - maybe a bottle of wine every week or two or soft drinks if they are on offer in the supermarket - and I usually just drink water.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cheap-supermarket-shopping   can help you take a look at your food spend and where you might trim that.

Are there no asian stores in Brighton? They might not have the fish, but they should have veggies.

As much as I hate ASDA, they do price matching with the help from mysupermarket. So if another major chain is selling like for like cheaper, theyll refund you the difference. I think they even include comparing store brand products against store brand. A friend of mine has been using it, and she generally gets £3-8 back with each shop.

Edit: Shes mostly veggie and her hubbie is a vegan if this helps.

The BBC did a one pot cook book that I found had really tasty dishes, that were both made in only one pot for easier clean up but also were pretty cheap to make, usually around £5-10 per meal depending on the ingredients.  Most of the recipes are super easy and you can add things or subract things you don't like.  It's a handy little cook book.

Are there no asian stores in Brighton? They might not have the fish, but they should have veggies.

Surprising, I know.  There are a couple here and there, but the produce selection is pretty small, not good quality and expensive.  There are probably more hidden away somewhere, but I'm not holding out too much hope, so we should really get a new go-to cheap cuisine.

Surprising, I know.  There are a couple here and there, but the produce selection is pretty small, not good quality and expensive.  There are probably more hidden away somewhere, but I'm not holding out too much hope, so we should really get a new go-to cheap cuisine.

Brighton has some of the largest asian stores in the country...with huge produce selections... unless things have markedly changed since I lived there! Taj on Western road?! They sell 4 different types of pumpkins!

Farmers markets are all over the city as well, I used to shop almost exclusively at the one in palmeria square.

The Money Saving Expert forums have a section called "Old Style Money Saving" which I suggest you look over.  They have a grocery challenge which, even if you don't participate in, could give you ideas.  There are areas of the site which can be a bit...fighty, but in general, it is a good place to get advice even if you don't slavishly follow what some of the people do there.

I use mysupermarket, but I generally get Ocado/Waitrose.  If you're not careful, it can be more expensive, but it can also be cheaper for some things.  For instance, we're ordering a big 5 l jug of Ecover from Ocado.  It's an initial investment, but dirt cheap in the long run.  I think Waitrose/Ocado are the only ones who offer it.  We have used Sainsbury's delivery, but didn't really find it all that brilliant.  The produce was a bit dodgey and they substituted things wrong.  And the one time we shopped for groceries at Asda, we had milk bottles break, the pepper grinder we bought broke within a week, and my husband didn't like the quality of the meat.  Sometimes things don't always work out to be cheaper in the long run, but it may be a YMMV thing with Asda.

We're trying to cut our grocery bill in about half without turning to stodge to fill up our plates, so I can understand how overwhelming it might feel.