Charlotte Stirling-Reed is one of the nation’s leading experts on eating healthily as a family, weaning and nutrition, and shares with us her advice on cooking for your family on a budget:
“So many of us are thinking a little more about our money at the moment, and trying to be sensible when it comes to spending, especially with the food shopping. So understandably it’s helpful to think of ways to TRY and save money on the food shop and also to be a little bit savvy with those leftovers. In my new book How to Feed Your Family, I’ve covered so many of the tips and hacks that are essential to help families feed themselves more healthily, easily and without taking up so much headspace. I’ve covered how to reduce food waste, how to make the most of mealtimes, how to cook for everyone and how to make the most out of your fridge and freezer as well as much more practical advice.
Here are some of my TOP TIPS to cooking on a budget for your family:
- Avoid getting into the “alternatives” trap where you end up making multiple meals for different people. When kids think they can have something different to what you’ve made it can become unmanageable. Instead offer sides that are more readily accepted, but stick to cooking ONE meal for the family in the evening, rather than multiple. All eating together really helps with this too and can mean that, eventually, more gets eaten. I love the Stokke Tripp Trapp for bringing even the youngest members of the family up to the table to eat together.
- Don’t be afraid of tinned and frozen – there are so many conversations about “processed” foods at the moment, but tinned beans, lentils, tomatoes, vegetables, fish etc can be cheaper, longer-lasting and readily available ways to add extras to your family meals. Additionally frozen veggies and frozen fruits are cheaper too, and can actually be higher in vitamins and minerals than fresh options. We use frozen veggies regularly in our house.
- Once a week try doing a “fridge raid” meal where you simply make a pot of something or a salad or a “buffet” style dinner from anything that needs using up in the fridge. It might be strips of chicken or ½ a tin of beans with potatoes and some salad veggies…this is honestly a winner for my family and I usually do it on a Friday or a Sunday. It helps to reduce food waste and save money and also is often easier to balance out meals than you think.
- Make full use of your freezer. This is something I wasn’t doing anywhere enough before writing my latest book. But getting to grips with your freezer and what exactly you have in it, planning meals in advance and batch cooking and freezing meals for the week as well as generally using more frozen food options (think fish, bread, meat, chopped onion etc) is a gamechanger for saving money on the food shop and reducing food waste. Make sure you have plenty of freezer bags and freezer boxes of different sizes, so you can batch cook and freeze meals in varying portions so you have the ability to pop out ONLY what food you need and no more. I’ve been doing this and it means some batch cooked meals can actually make up 3-4 dinners over the weeks. In my new book I also have a Food To Use so you can keep track of what you have in your fridge and freezer to help you use up what’s needed on time.
- Spend a little extra time when you get food home from the supermarket prepping. This can take some extra time but it’s well worth it and saves time in the long run, making your food last longer, which of course saves money. Properly storing herbs, chopping and freezing any foods that are a little past their best, putting foods that need using up quickly at the front and centre of the fridge can all help. I also have a whole section in my book on making food last longer which shows you HOW you can do this once you’ve got your food home.”
Charlotte is working in association with Stokke and their iconic Tripp Trapp chair (www.stokke.com), the chair that grows with the child. You can pre order her new book, How to Feed Your Family now. Out 20th July 2023 and she has lots of helpful downloadable resources for Family Feeding on her website.
