Cost of living crisis

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

I like the idea of these videos, but it's not realistic, her $30 or 34 isn't her actual budget, there's no coffee, no milk that she puts in her coffee, no spices etc, non of the extras that she adds are included. $30 sounds great, but that's still $120 for a month and then you have to spend more on all the extras that you don't have, plus whatever else you need for the month. It's not actually that small a budget.
I went back to eating meat as it was cheaper, less ingredients needed, less processed ingredients. I do still have quite a lot veggie and vegan meals, one pot type, but I had to cut out ones that used too many pans or cooking processes, or just too many ingredients. I've gone to simple meals that I can stretch out.
I'm working on my October shopping list, everything included, and I want to keep it below £80. Yes I've stocked up on a few things this month for next, but I'll stock up on a few things next month for the month after depending on what's on offer.

I think the video is interesting for getting ideas to create cheap healthy food, but I agree it's not realistic.

Interesting that you say you started eating meat again because it's cheaper. That's not the case for me! Maybe meat is cheaper where you live. I eat mostly vegan but I do eat eggs. For health reasons mostly and because it's more economical. It's hard to do while traveling though and I will eat some dairy if here are no other options. But my stomach hates milk.

I'd be interested in seeing your shopping list if you want to share! I'm moving soon and will be focusing on paying off my debt so I plan to be on a strict food budget. Any and all ideas on easy good cheap meals are welcome.

 

[nightshade]

I'm still learning to do a monthly shop, so just starting the October list, however I bought a whole chicken and a pork joint in September, and that was the meat for the month. The chicken did me for a weeks worth of meals, and I've just frozen the leftovers of the pulled pork I did and there's a good 6 portions left of it, after having it for 3 days, so I don't buy much meat, but I make it stretch.

My current October meat is 4 chicken breasts, which I'll get 4-8 meals out of, depending on what I decide to do, some bacon, however still debating on that one, and a gammon joint that will easily do 6 meals if not more. However I'll probably freeze some and it'll roll over to next month, the same as the pulled pork will roll over to October.

My aim is to not put the oven on more than once a month, so I'll cook two of the chicken breasts in the oven at the same time as cooking some sausage rolls and garlic bread or something, make full use of it being on.

I do still use soya milk, which I get for about 60p a carton from Aldi, however I rarely have milk these days just in tea and the odd bowl of cereal. Dairy free butter is still my preferred choice as well, but that's gone up so much lately and is harder to find, Aldi doesn't seem to stock it here anymore.

I think a combinate of easy, low ingredient and quick to make foods alongside so more complicated ones work best for me, a lot of time I just don't have time to cook, I get home from work and go straight back out 20 minutes later, so need something fast, which is great for using up leftovers, as long a I remember to take it out of the freezer before work. I keep some microwave rice (35p a pack) on hand for those days so I can heat up a curry and have with rice. On day off days I'll cook more veggie and vegan food, as I have the time to prepare it, but a lot of stuff I've tried doesn't freeze well, so it gets repetitive, and as much as I like the edamame bean salad after 5 days of having it, it's getting binned! I think that's one of the reasons I went back to meat, I know it freezes well, it's not going to lose flavour or texture by being frozen.