Cooking good food inexpensively for a family of six!

sounds like you're really responsible with your spending, which is really good. I know far to many people who get themselves into ridiculous debt by buying expensive food and living beyond their means. When I first moved into a flat with my boyfriend, we hardly had any money at all. We'd find out what time the supermarkets would reduce their food and then go and lurk whilst the staff were making the reductions. For months we lived off budget line beans on reduced bread toast. We'd get bakery items for about £0.05 to £0.50. That used to be our limit. We still do it now, look out for the bargains, and we usually only buy treats if they are on offer like buy one get one free. i come from a large family myslef - 6 like yours. My mum used to cook hotpot all the time. She'd get sacks of vegetables - believe it or not, carrots from our local horse food stockists! They wern't as pretty as the carrots you'd get in the supermarket, but there was nothing wrong with them. Perfectly edible. Hotpots are a good way of getting your kids to eat those veggies that they might decide they dont like! The way my mum would do it is just cube up all your vegetables - she used to use potatoes, carrots, swedes, then use a stock cube for a iittle flavour, then she'd usually use either a diced meat or minced meat. Top it all up with water obviously, and cook in a really big pan! she always used to make too much as well so that she could chill it, and then re-heat it in a couple of days. Its quite a good meal to make, because you just leave it to simmer, there's not a lot of preparation to be honest. Do you have a chest freezer or a big freezer? If you do like to eat a lot of meat, you can purchase meat in bulk. We've thought about doing that a few times, but there's only 2 of us, we'd never get through it. A family of 6 would have no problem though. When I lived at home, my mum used to get me to make these big pizzas. I was so mad when I lost the recipe. I'd make them from scratch, and use a big rectangular baking tray. The best thing about making your own pizza is that you can put whatever topping on that you like, and as much as you like! I hate some pizzas you buy from the store and they end up having a couple of slivers of pepperoni on and not much else. The other week we got a load of microwave vegetarian moussakas for £0.05 each. Its not the kind of thing we'd normally eat, but we've been having them alongside chicken escalopes and such things instead of the usual chips. Also they were freezable so we've got plenty of accompaniments for the next couple of months or so. I do love saving money

Yep those are good money saving ideas. Pasta's are definitely a cheaper route to go. We are a meat & potatoes family but potatoes are getting to be expensive. I am trying to incorporate more pasta's into our meals.

Those are things I have done and learned from my mother. Do you plan to grow vegetables this summer? That will help a bit. I buy a lot of marked down salads and that helps fill the tummy without so much calorie damage. Have you ever had spaghetti pie or hamburger pie? The first you make spaghetti and mix it up with the sauce, and egg or two and throw in some zucchini squash or other vegetable you like and bake it. topping it with Parmesan or mozzarella is even better. American lasagna is noodles, spaghetti sauce, meat if you want it, cottage cheese and any other cheese you want and you bake it. Yum! Hamburger pie is burger or meat scraps, vegetables--scraps from leftovers, etc--mix in some mushroom or celery soup, pour into a casserole and top with mashed potatoes. Bake it and watch it disappear!

Ground beef, pasta, pasta sauce, soups, stews are all nice and cheap. If only my kids would not be so darn picky.

Pasta is a great way to be thrifty and chicken as well. I really like boneless chicken thighs when they are on sale. I like to go to the grocery store on Tuesdays because they usually start marking down the meat that didn't sell over the weekend, I can usually get some great deals doing that. I also like buying ground beef when it is on sale, I can usually get two or three meals out of ground beef, I will usually buy three pounds and make tacos, there is always about a pound and a half left and I will make that in to meat sauce for spaghetti, then if there is meat sauce left I will some more tomatoes paste, some beans, onions, and chili seasonings to turn it in to a chili.

You have a big benefit in having to cook to 6... in my home it is just me and my boyfriend, but then I often cook for 4 persons and we get the leftovers the following day. In general it is cheaper cooking for more than for few :) I agree with all your points, by when it is for sale, especially the types of food which doesnt decompose fastly. Eg pasta, rice and canned food :)

I think everyone needs to be as frugal as possible. We do not eat pasta, but I cook a lot of different bean dishes and potato dishes as well. I like to pick up meats that are reduced because they are close dated, and freeze them or use them immediately. Your family is fortunate, you are feeding them pretty healthfully as well. I shop at a warehouse store and get my canned goods in cases and less expensive than store brands. I also shop at a place called Aldis which is less expensive for many things. I like produce there, and that is why I have potatoes available a lot. I like rice, brown rice is much more nutritious than white. You do a good job.

right now I have 6 grownups and one child to feed. never have left overs. one doesnt like any seasonings on anything so that makes 2 different things I have to make we do alot with hambrger but only so many ways for me to think to use it. The one that dont like seasonings no mayo no mustard no nothing made potatoes salad the other night and only put pickle juice in it! ewll I ate for I was hungry but it wasnt the best I every ate. Just no way for us to save money on food as even buying on sale they eat it all up in one meal

That is a good price to find chicken at. I can't find the boneless skinless bre@st's for any less than $1.69/lb and that's even a rare ocurance. I usually buy the cut up whole chicken when it's on special as I get enough for everyone and pay maybe fourty cents less than when I find the chicken bre@st on special. Or what I'm starting to do is buy a whole chicken @ Aldi for .85/lb put it in the crock pot and see what I make out of it as a whole chicken I can usually get 2 meals or so out of. I too buy the pasta when it's $1/box sometimes I see them for less and I stock up provided I have the extra money at the time.

hi schulzie yes it must be a real deal feeding so many but I have always used your ideas too and I had only myself to fee. I did splurge a little on Barillas whole grain spaghetti and fettuccine with their great tomato basil garlic spaghetti sauce. I cooked a little more than for one meal and ate leftovers, also bought everything on sale and with my von's card I saved a lot too.I ate a lot of chili mac too as I had leftover chili not enough for one p rson and same with mac and cheese so mixed them for a delicious meal.

my wife is a good cook, and although we are just 3 in the family, me, my wife and our five year old child she loves to cook. i always sees her buying ground pork or beef for she can do a lot of recipe just using a few pounds of those. she sometimes stir fry some veggies using a little ground beef or pork and a dab od oyster sauce. she also sometimes minced carrot and celery and make the ground beef into balls then put sweet and soue cream. our child loves fish so we buy fish too a kilo of it and she cooks it and puts it in the fridge. just reheat it when we will eat. i hope this helps. i dont cook but i love eating. have a nice day.

Hey schulzie! I am very impressed! I think you have your shopping frugality down to a science and I mean that in the most sincere and admirable way! I give you alot of credit to be able to stretch your meals like that, especially for such a large family. You are lucky you don't live in NYS where I live. I went grocery shopping today and I didn't buy any meat. The prices where so ridiculous that there just wasn't anything for me to maybe buy except chicken which I didn't need! Beef prices and even Pork Chops were over $5 a pound. That is totally insane! I bought a bag of Shrimp on sale because they came out cheaper for me to make more meals out of. Now that is just wrong! (It's only me and my BF so no comparison in any way that's why I am so very impressed with you)!

Wow you do really well, my hats off to you. At home it is just my boyfriend and I and we are pretty frugal when it comes to cooking at home. We are very creative with many of our leftovers as well. I can't see me discarding good food so I am one to create even the unimaginable, thus far both of us are pretty healthy and well fed, hooray. I often in my upbringing lived by the words that where one eats, ten can as well.

Sure i will agree with you.Cooking for more members will cost less when compare to cooking for less members. I had experienced this in my room for past 2 years.Earlier there are only 3 members in our room and it will cost around 3000 per head.But now we 6 persons are there and it is costing only around 1000 to 1200 only..

Sounds like you have a handle on your grocery bill. I live by myself so it's not an issue here. When the kids were little though it was....I would make big casseroles and have them stretch over two meals....and coupon shop big time. One year I kept all the reciepts and saved over $600.00!