Healthy eating needn’t mean endless bags of expensive salad. Cooking basic recipes with everyday ingredients can make a big difference to your weekly spend and your waistline. Opt for slow cooking methods like stewing and braising, and select economy cuts of meat from the neck, shoulder or lower leg. These tend to be tougher, but they are also cheaper to buy. Just make sure you cook for longer, and at a lower temperature, and you will be rewarded with meat that’s melt-in-the-mouth tender.

Upping your protein intake is a good way to stave off hunger pangs and keep those carb cravings at bay. Plus, red meat is packed with essential nutrients including long chain n-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc, selenium, vitamin A, vitamin D, and several of the B group vitamins, all of which help your immune system ward off those pesky cold and flu viruses. For recipe ideas think homemade curries, stews, casseroles, lean bolognaise, meatballs and fajitas, and make the pre-packed, oven ready meals a thing of the past!

Plan the week

Decide what your family are going to eat for the coming week, and then use it to write your shopping list. Choose food that’s in season, buy more own brands and shop online. Try to make sure you only get what you need to avoid over buying.

Better food management

Love your leftovers

Use leftovers carefully and think before you throw away. Even the most basic of foods can be creatively brought back to life in soups, casseroles, sauces or stock.
Use your freezer – it’s always useful to have a stock of healthy freezer food for those days when you’ve run out of fresh veg. It also helps to make use of any supermarket special offers to cut costs.

Divide large packets into different containers and store in the freezer or fridge. Splitting it means you’ll only have to defrost the required amounts at any one time so the pack will last a lot longer.

Have a well-stocked store cupboard. Having tins of beans, tomatoes, and packets of rice and pasta to hand means you always have the key ingredients for a quick meal. A slow-cooked stew means you can use a cheaper cut of meat and add a tin of kidney beans or chickpeas with a stock cube, plus a tin of tomatoes and any spare veg in the fridge. Any leftovers can be frozen for a quick dinner one evening when you don’t feel like cooking. To cut down on washing up, add potatoes to the stew from the beginning to make a one pot wonder!