When Ben and I started our family we didn’t have a lot of money, so we had to find ways to eat well but cheaply, here are our top tips…
French shepherds’ pie “Hachis Parmentier” is a great thrifty dish
Vegetables are your friend
Vegetables are incredibly cheap (oh and they’re pretty good for you in general too!). Find yourselves a good local fruit and veg market and you’ll be able to pick up a big bag of fresh vegetables for just a few quid. There’s a lot you can do with a mix of veggies:
- Casseroles
- Stir fries
- Currys
- Tons of pasta dishes
Also try and reduce the meat serving in favour of more vegetables – your pocket and your waist will thank you for it. Here are a couple of cheap vegetable dishes that we like:
A meal in itself, this classic dish from Nice, Farcis niçois (stuffed vegetables)
Farcis niçois (stuffed vegetables)
* Note – this dish is not vegetarian as the vegetables are stuffed with meat
As an accompaniment to fish or meat there is our Tian provençal (Vegetable gratiné). Alternatively you could add rice or pasta layers to the vegetables and you have a complete meal.
Tian provençal (Vegetable gratiné)
For those who don’t like veggies try and find different ways to prepare them. For example, instead of just serving up green beans boiled in water, try our Green beans with soy sauce.
Green beans with soy sauce
Buy a joint of meat
Many people are afraid of buying a joint of meat as it is pricey. BUT if you plan it well this can be a cheap and easy way to eat meat:
- Day 1 – roast meat (Ben’s roast pork with white wine is a firm favourite, although the wine does make it more expensive)
Roast pork with white wine
- Day 2 – leftover meat served cold with jacket potatoes and vegetables/baked beans
- Day 3 – leftover meat with vegetables in a curry
- Day 4 (if there’s still some left) – leftover meat with vegetables in a stir-fry
It does get a bit repetitive but it is a very economic way to eat meat.
Go for cheaper meats
There is meat, and then there is meat. The price range is enormous, so learn which meats are good for your budget:
- Use mince, including turkey mince, to make burgers, bolognaise, hachis parmentier (French shepherds’ pie), chilli con carne and more.
Home-made BBQ beef burgers
- Pork cuts tend to be the cheapest so you will see a lot on this blog. My favourite pork recipes are roast pork in white wine (see above), pulled pork in the slow cooker and gammon with cider and mustard.
- Chicken – drumsticks and thighs being the cheapest. I especially like cheeky chicken coq au vin and chicken strips with sage.
Cheeky chicken coq au vin
- Braising steak/stewing steak. This is a great one for the slow cooker (see below), our Beef & guinness pie and paleron aux carottes (beef stew) go down well every time in our house.
Cook the same meal for all the family
In France families eat the same food, at the same time. Whilst in the UK most children eat “tea” around 5pm, and parents eat a different “dinner” at around 8pm.
Whether you eat at the same time or not, eating the same meal is a massive time-saver as well as being good for the pennies. Just reheat for those eating later.
If you’ve got fussy eaters, keep offering a variety of meals and your kids will end up eating the strange adult food! I’ve been astounded watching the children I childmind go from refusing most things, to eating pretty much everything. Just persevere if you can bear it.
Our 1 year old eating Beef & Guinness pie
Buy in bulk
How many times do you see “buy 3 for £10” or “buy one, second one half price”? There are deals like this all the time. Use your freezer wisely and grab these cheap deals. If you buy pieces of meat (drumsticks, chops etc) take them out of the big pack, wrap them individually in clingfilm, and freeze these smaller amounts to save freezer space.
Get a slow cooker
We bought our Cookworks slow cooker from Argos for just £19.99, which I actually bought with nectar points 🙂 Why is a slow cooker good for saving you money?
- They cost little to run, especially compared with the cost of having your oven on for an hour or more to cook a casserole or stew
- You can use old vegetables as they will cook longer and more slowly so don’t need to be as tender
- They are perfect for cheap cuts of meat for the same reason – you can make a mean boeuf bourguignon in them!
Boeuf bourguignon (slow cooker)
Et voilà! Those are our top tips for feeding your family cheaply. How do you eat thriftily? What are your top tips? Do share in the comments below!
I am linking up to Tasty Tuesdays with Honest Mum, click on the image below to discover some other great food blog posts:
A whole chicken is fabulous for ekeing out the pennies. Roast, curried, risotto, then the carcass used for soup.
Leftover cooked veg (especially roast potatoes!) are a great base for soup.
Soup of any kind, especially pulses, and with the addition of herby dumplings is a cheap filler
I do miss the French vegetables though. I found them cheaper, especially in season: vast nets of onions for a couple of euros, or a whole box of green
beans or courgettes… Forced you to be inventive! Some great ideas here; I’ve cooked and enjoyed many of your recipes, Sophie and Ben…
I’d forgotten to add about using carcasses and bones for soup, and all about leftovers! There really are so many great thrifty tips out there. Ben did a lentil soup this week which was so filling as well as being cheap (oh and healthy too!). So glad you liked the ideas and our recipes 🙂 Thanks for commenting x
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Great tips! I love using leftovers and bulking meals out with vegetables to make it go further 🙂 this post has reminded me to dig out my slow cooker for the changing season x #tastytuesdays
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins recently posted…Darjeeling Earl Grey Tea Loaf
Leftovers are such a great thrifty tip, growing up we ate more leftovers than actual meals I think! It’s definitely getting on for slow cooker time now….
What a lot of great tips and recipes, I love meals that can be used for leftovers the next day and jazzed up a bit, great post #tastytuesdays
My Family Ties recently posted…Violet Cupcakes With Meringue Icing
Leftovers are just the best, we do an awful lot with leftovers here!
We always use leftovers up too. Some great ideas here thank you #Tastytuesdays
Yet Another Blogging Mummy!!! recently posted…Halloween Sticker Activities book review and giveaway
Leftovers are such a great idea! Glad the post helped 🙂
So many fab alternatives, we find going to the local butchers means better quality meat as butchers get first cuts at cheaper prices, so many fab dishes here! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Honest mum recently posted…Autumn is Here
That’s another good tip, sadly our local butcher is far more expensive than anything else we’ve found locally/online 🙁
So glad to have your blog. It looks like my one stop shop for all French cooking.I have never tried a French stew but will be doing so very soon. Great tips on saving money and eating healthy too at the same time.
glad to have found your blog*
Tasneem recently posted…Teaching Children About Food & Spinach Corn Penne Bake Recipe
That’s lovely to hear – you’re welcome to this one stop shop for French cooking 🙂 There are quite a few French stews and they’re really fab! Glad you liked our tips too 🙂
Really great tips! We use the slow cooker often and trying to use more veggies. My 2yo is fussy no matter what though 🙁 #tastytuesdays
Stacey Guilliatt recently posted…Organix Little Book of Weaning
Fussy eaters definitely make life harder! Hopefully it is just a phase and doesn’t last….
Some great tips here, lovely. I agree about the veg. They are so versatile and tasty. Your stuffed veg look yummy. As for your point about eating the same thing. Gosh yes! If the kiddoes want a restaurant life, they’ll have to wait until they can afford it!
Mel recently posted…Salmon with Lime and Ginger Butter on a bed of Roasted Cabbage served with Steamed Vegetables
I remember eating the same dinners weekly for literally years, it feels quite exotic now repeating something only once every month 😉