Cutting costs on food.

Now my stay at home life has started I need to get focussed.  Gone is the reliable monthly wage swapped for freelance work.  One area that I know we can cut costs is food.  I don’t meal plan, I don’t shop clever for food.  I am good with holidays, clothes and presents.  I have always made good use of those types of offers.  Yet food shopping is something we have never really budgeted over.  Well not since the days of food shopping at university!

Therefore I have decided that one day a week will be a meatless day.  We all know that meat is expensive and so we have looked at some alternatives. Quorn is a good protein alternative but I wasn’t sure if the children would like it. Therefore when I was asked if we would like to try some recipes out I was keen.

The quorn pepper steaks were a real favourite and I didn’t even point out to the children they were meat free, dished up with mash potato and veg they were quickly devoured.

My second approach was to try some of the ‘budget’ supermarkets.  Therefore today I headed off to Lidl to stock up on fresh fruit and veg and see is I noticed the saving and any difference in quality.  It seems that some items are much cheaper like blueberries and a pineapple.  many of the other frsh produce seemed a similar price but I got more for my money.  For example I had 9 peaches for £1 whereas normally I would get six for that price.  I couldn’t buy less than the 9 so as long as they all get eaten it works out better value, although not strictly saving money.

I am planning to juice more since winning a vitamix therefore the extra fuit should be well utilised.

I’d love to know how you save money on the weekly food bill?

Disclosure: I was given some vouchers to try the Quorn products.