Frugal Family Feeding – Simply Living

Since there’s a severe economic downturn in this household these days, it’s time to pull in those purse strings and see if i can cut back on our outgoings a bit more.  Since we don’t have much that we can cut down on ( no cable, no mobile/cell phone contracts, no subscriptions etc) , it had to be the grocery bill that would take the chop.

(no pun intended at the time of writing)

So.

Since our family number has reduced for the time being and since Wondergirl is a vegetarian, i thought i’d do some meal planning and decided to Google vegetarian recipes since i can quite happily do without meat in many of my meals (I was a vegetarian for 13 years after all!).  As it happens, i found a good few recipes online and yesterday i sat down and made a list of all the ingredients i would need to purchase, so that i could get cooking.

I already had stock cubes in and some spices and herbs so all i had to buy was what was on my list below…i was SO pleased when i got to the supermarket, to find that there were massive savings to be had on almost all the fresh produce on my list!

1 x potatoes 1 kg £2.00  at buy one kg bag and get one free = £2.00

2 x bags of carrots  at 50p each = £1.00

Fresh rosemary .25p (reduced from .75p) = .25p

Bag of 3 Leeks  = £1

2 x bags of onions at 75p each = £1.50

2 x packs of celery at 50p each = £1.00

Canellini Beans 2 x tins at .50p each = £1.00

2 bags of parsnips  at £1.00 each = £2.00

2 x packs of button mushrooms at .50p each = £1.00

Pack of Organic Green Lentils at .89p = .89p

Herbs and spices £3.50 (but they will last me ages!) = £3.50

Total = £15.14

Total not counting herbs and spices = £11.64

Now the really good bit….i made 7 very substantial meals  for us both (2 very generous servings in each of the bags) with the ingredients i purchased and it works out at only £1.08p each per meal or £2.16 per bag produced! Not counting the cost of the herbs and spices it works out at only .83p a serving and £1.66 per bag of soup/curry produced. WOW!

Of course, all this cooking meant having all 4 hotplates going on my cooker  at the same time, but it’s more economical to cook in bulk anyway and the food will only need a reheat when we get around to eating it.

So that’s 7 meals for me and 7 meals for Wondergirl. Cool or what?  It has been a big help to my budget  to drop on the vegetable bargains at the supermarket or it would have cost significantly more. Better still, i have veggies left to make another kind of soup tomorrow and the spices and herbs will last me weeks, if not months!

Here is what i made…I made Vegetarian Curry…..i don’t have a photo of that during the cooking process because i made it last night, before i even thought of writing a post about it – stupid me!!!!- don’t i know after 5 years of blogging, that EVERYTHING is bloggable?

DOH!

I made a batch of Pasta e Fagioli (pasta to be added when defrosted and before reheating)

I made a batch of Lentil and Veg soup too….

Considering similar ingredients went in to each batch, they taste very different, which i am pleased about or eating it all would get very boring after a very short while, I would imagine.  Here are the soups and curry all bagged up ready to go in the freezer…

Now i’m going to have a very much deserved soak in the bath…i smell extremely herbidacious after spending the last 4 hours brewing this lot up in the kitchen!