Living on a low food budget

People often ask how I feed the two of us on such a low food budget.  I don’t have a weekly or a monthly food budget, but have an amount I am able to spend over a year.  This last 8 years it has been £750.  I am going to try to stick to that this year as well, even though prices have been rising.  Last year I just adapted how I shopped and what I ate.  When I retired in 2015 I did have a full freezer and some high price items in my cupboard to give me a head start. I was not sure how long I would last with out having to go back to work. I now have two freezers full of food, a cupboard full of items, and an extra stash of food for emergencies.  This has all been done within budget (the chest freezer was given to me for free). We have lovely, nutritious meals that are varied, and most are cooked from scratch.  So how do we do it on what most people spend in a couple of months?

1. In my head I have a zero budget for food each week.  If I knew that I had a certain amount to spend, I would spend it.
2. I  rarely go to the supermarket now, and when I do, I am intentional with my buying.  I have a list of what I know I need and only buy at the best price.  In the old days I would go regularly to the supermarkets to buy yellow sticker, reduced items, but I only really do this after bank holidays now, or if they are there on the day I visit a supermarket.  Studies show that the more we visit supermarkets, the more we are likely to spend.
3. I give myself a head start each year by buying meat joints, fish and vegetables when they are on offer before Christmas.  This year we bought a joint of gammon, a beef joint and two whole salmon, all on a half price offer.  We also stocked up on the 15p vegetables.  The vegetables are stored and should last us at least a couple of months, the meat has been cut up and frozen.  I will later make mince with some of the beef and use the rest in stews, and the gammon will be cooked and used in a variety of dishes, for example quiche, in a pasta sauce, on pizza, instead of bacon, or in sandwiches.  The salmon has been cut into portions sizes, and the bits will be used for fish cakes, salmon pasta, fish pie or fish stew.  One whole salmon will provide about 16 to 18 meals for us.  Easter is another good time to find high cost items at half price.
4. We now only eat meat or fish 3 or 4 times a week.  We enjoy vegetarian or vegan curries, veggie chilli or enchiladas, meatless pizzas or quiches etc.  I sometimes prefer the vegetarian meals now.  We don’t eat any of those processed items that are made to look like meat, but just use vegetables and pulses.
5. After Christmas we stock up on reduced cheese (I  got some cheese in wax today for 9p each) to grate and freeze, cream to make butter, Christmas puddings and mincemeat for the following Christmas.  Some years I have bought cheap nuts which I have frozen and they have lasted me a year.
6. We forage to supplement our food.  The main things we forage are wild garlic to make pesto and garlic butter, blackberries for pies, crumbles, compote, leathers and smoothies, apples for apple sauce, compote, cider, pies and to use in sausages and burgers, rosehips to make syrup, elderflowers to make cordial.  These all add nutrition, flavour and variety to our food, and best of all they are free.
7. We cook from scratch using up what ever needs eating.  Playing ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’ with a few ingredients makes it fun and some of our best meals have been made that way.
8. We shop as much as possible from what we have in and adapt our meals to that.  If an ingredient is missing we will substitute it with something else.
9. We have no waste.  Any small portions of meals left are frozen to have on baked potatoes or to be made in to pasties or ravioli. Crisps are made out of potato peelings, broccoli stalks are chopped and frozen for casseroles, vegetable peelings are used to make stock, etc.
10. We grow a lot of food.  I have very little soil in my garden as it is mainly paved, and so I grow in containers.  We have fruit bushes as hedges and both of our freezers have lots of berries and vegetables stored to use during the winter.  The garden also provides a lot of fresh vegetables and salad during the summer. This helps our health as well as our purse.  Did you know that a home grown tomato has 7 times more vitamins in it compared to one from the supermarket?
11. We buy some items in bulk.  This last year I have bought coconut milk powder (cheaper than tinned for curries etc), milk powder (I use for sauces and custard and emergency milk), spices and pulses (can buy from World food aisles in supermarkets)  and dried fruit.
12. We make a lot of things that people would normally buy from a supermarket.  This includes yoghurt, wraps, bread, pork pies, cakes, stock, biscuits, peanut butter, pesto, pasta sauce, ice cream, flavoured essences, washing powder from conkers etc.  I also dry herbs and teas.
13. We preserve food grown or foraged by pickling, freezing, dehydrating and bottling.
14. We buy loss leaders or stock up when things are on offer.  Loss leaders are things that supermarkets sell at a loss to entice you into the store.  If you walk in and leave with only those things, you are getting a good deal.  They are only worth buying if you use them, though.
15. We sometimes get free food from Olio or cheap food from a food waste project (items are 20p each).  This involves travelling, though, and so we only do this if we are already travelling that way.
16. We have a card to the Company shop.  This saves us a lot of money if we shop wisely, but it is tempting to buy some of the luxury bargains.  All food here is short dated and some are at silly prices.  The icing for our Christmas cake was from there and only cost us 25p.
17. We stretch our food so that we have full stomachs.  This involves putting things in sauces, padding mince out with vegetables and lentils, putting things in pastry, and using Yorkshire puddings, or potato as a topping.  Stale bread can also be used as a savoury crumble. In the old days we always had bread and butter on the table to fill us up.  I now make wild garlic bread as a side sometimes, or flat breads with vegetables in them.
18. Meals are planned to make the best use of the ingredients we have already, and to make sure that there is no waste.  I don’t just decide on the day what I am going to eat. My meal plan is very flexible and I will often give Mr S options of what I can do with the ingredients.
19. Most of our meals have few ingredients in them.  The more ingredients a recipe has, the more it costs.
20. We love cooking and spend time looking on Pinterest for ideas and things to make with the ingredients we have. We especially like making ordinary food seem special for special occasions.  There are apps that allow you to enter in the ingredients that you have, and they will give you ideas of things that you can make.
21. We eat seasonally. If we do buy vegetables we will buy them in season as they are cheaper.  This is also good for our bodies.  Have you noticed that a lot of autumn fruit and vegetables are orange or red eg pumpkins, sweet potatoes, swede, blackberries etc?  This is because they boost your immune system ready for the winter bugs.
22. I barter.  Sometimes I will swop a homemade cake or preserve for a baking item that we do not have, for instance, cocoa or ground almonds.
23. I accept left overs from family and friends.  At first I was too proud, but now it is fashionable to save waste.  I have made so many stews from the ends of joints that I have been given.  When ever my daughter goes on a diet she always gives me a carrier bag of things that she wants out of the house.
24. I am always learning new skills and new ways to stretch my food.  This could be from the internet, historical books or foraging websites.  Although I have always been frugal, I shop, eat and use my food budget totally differently to the way I did in the past, even from a couple of years ago.  Being able to adapt and think outside of the box really help me.

How do you stay within your food budget?  Please share your tips.