A money-saving mum who ignited her love for budget cooking through starting a home foodbank in lockdown is sharing her tips for healthy, tasty meals from just 83p a portion. Jo Drinkwater is giving away her top foodie secrets for families looking to save money without compromising on taste or nutrition.
She has teamed up with online healthy food retailer MuscleFood.com to create easy, tasty recipes for families to follow. The 32 year old has been a keen cook throughout her life, and is obsessed with keeping her food costs down for herself, her husband Louie, 35 and their children Logan, 9 and Belle, 4 and Keanna, 13.
Her love of cooking started from a young age, when she would spend time in the kitchen experimenting with cupboard essentials and cooking for her family. Now, Jo cooks up family favourites like homemade pizzas, homemade burgers and saag paneer with the help of her children.
Jo was challenged to come up with as many budget-friendly meals as possible by online retailer MuscleFood. The super savvy mum meal plans at the beginning of each month, making sure most of her meals contain the same base ingredients, keeps track of what is in her freezer and cooks meals using cupboard essentials.
Among the meals Jo dished up using the hamper were chicken and leek lattice at just 85p a portion, meatball madras at 93p a portion and cream cheese and bacon spaghetti at 83p a portion. Jo, who has been running her instagram page Jos_kitchen_menu since May 2022, said: “I have been experimenting with food and flavours since I was young and have always enjoyed cooking on a budget.
“I always challenge myself to make meals as tasty and nutritional as possible without spending a fortune. I am also passing these skills down to my little ones, Logan and Belle, who are my sous chefs and love being in the kitchen with me. There have been times when finances have been really tight for our family. This is why it is so important for me to have a good base of basic ingredients like tomato puree, tinned vegetables, tinned tomatoes, curry powder and herbs.
“Ingredients like these are truly so versatile and can be used to make currys, pastas, tray bakes, slow cooker recipes. So I know if I have the basics at home, I can keep my family full and keep their diet varied without spending a huge amount on new ingredients for each day.”
Jo revealed her top tip is planning a whole month ahead. She said: “I plan my meals at the beginning of each month. I have a big blackboard in my kitchen which I fill up with meals so I know exactly what ingredients I need. I am a massive lover of my freezer and always make sure to have essentials like frozen meat and veg.
“People underestimate how important their freezer is, I know even if we are running low on things and I can’t run to the shop that there is still nutrition in that freezer. I want to encourage people to cook from scratch using frozen meat and veg and pairing with just a couple other basic ingredients like herbs, spices and tinned goods.
“A great money saving hack I have been using for years is keeping a piece of paper on the front of my freezer with a stock check of every single thing in the freezer written on it - down to how many fish fingers are left in the box.
“This saves me so much money in the long run, I know even if we are running low on things that there is still nutritious food in the freezer.”
Jo was able to keep her budget even lower with the help of the MuscleFood hamper. She said: “Using the food from the hamper meant I was able to create a week's worth of family dinners for under £30. It was so helpful as a busy Mum of two to have a lot of the meat pre-portioned for me and ready to defrost as needed. We also loved enjoying high quality chicken breasts, which are normally a treat due to their cost.”
Although Jo keeps costs for her family as low as possible on weekdays, like many she likes to have her treat days at the weekend. She said: “I refuse to buy takeaways very often, but that doesn't mean we don't have treat days.
“I have lots of delicious fakeaway recipes which cost far less than the real thing and taste even better! I also have the assurance that I know exactly what my children are eating.
“When we do have takeaways, nothing is wasted. Many people don’t know this - but when your chippy gives you too many chips, you can stick them in a zip lock bag, freeze them and pop them in the airfryer next time you fancy a takeaway!”
Jo’s love for helping people cook budget-friendly meals was ignited in lockdown, following the news families were receiving poor-quality food parcels to replace their free school lunches whilst remote learning.
“It really hit me when I saw the awful food parcels being delivered to families. We were struggling a bit ourselves during this time, but I couldn't bear to see so many children go without proper food to fill their bellies.
“I ended up running a food bank from my own home, it started from my pocket - I went and bought basic ingredients for tasty, healthy kids lunches which were collected anonymously by local families.
“When locals heard about this, they donated enough food to completely fill my kitchen and living room - the local taxi company even chipped in to help deliver goods to families who needed them.
“At the beginning of the cost of living crisis, I realised there would be so many families again in a position where they needed help.
“I thought - giving people ingredients to make food is one thing, but being able to teach the skill of cooking hearty meals without spending a fortune is such a valuable skill and I really wanted to help people cook in the same way I do - that's why I started my Instagram page.”
Here are Jo’s top tips for budget cooking:
- Cook once and do four: If you are already going to the effort of cooking a meal, get as many portions out of your ingredients as possible and stash them away in the freezer.
- Today’s leftovers and tomorrow’s lunch : Never waste anything, even if it is a tiny portion, it can be used to bulk out another meal.
- Shop smart : Even though it is easy to stick to your habits when shopping, think carefully about which aisles you are going down - the seasonings in the World Food aisle are much less expensive for bigger quantities.
Ashleigh Tosh from MuscleFood.com said: “We love to see the tasty meals customers cook up with our hampers. Jo has come up with some delicious, nutritional suggestions at affordable prices.
“It’s always worth keeping Jo’s advice in mind too on how to make savings on food. Making just one small change will help you save money on your food shop.”
