As the cost of living crisis continues to bite at many bank balances, one savvy Scots mum has shared how she manages to feed her family of four on a budget.
Lorna Cooper, from Paisley, has said that she manages to make her meals and budget stretch that wee bit further with a food hamper that she has used to feed herself, her husband John and two children.
The money-saving mum says that a £59 value food hamper from online food retailer Musclefood has helped her to cook 25 hearty and family-friendly dishes over the span of five weeks.
Musclefood launched two budget hampers in a bid to help out households who were struggling with soaring costs and they are available at £45 and £59.
The budget-friendly food hampers are designed to make 66 meals under 99p per portion and feature a total of 7.3kg quality lean meats such as beef mince, beef steak, pork sausages and chicken breasts.
Lorna has said that the hamper has managed to help her cook up 100 portions all at the budget-friendly cost of just 57p per portion.
The Paisley mum said that she managed to create the money-saving and family meals for two adults and two children by bulking up the dishes by using things like lentils, beans and vegetables to get the most out of her hamper.
Lorna, 46, became an economical shopper and cooker after she had to make her meals go that bit further following a back injury that forced her to stop working.
Among the meals cooked were two lasagnes, which cost a total of £5.20, two cottage pies which cost a total of £4.58 and a sausage chilli which came to £4.80.
Lorna said of the hamper: "I often find that supermarket bought meats shrink a lot in size when cooked and they let off a lot of water - two signs that the meat is heavily processed.
"The meats from the value hamper were a great size and didn’t shrink at all when cooked - the chicken and sausages in particular were huge. So much bigger than the packs you can buy from shops."
The key to making the hamper stretch further, she said, is to bulk up dishes "with things like vegetables, lentils and even oats".
The savvy Scots shopper then provided her own advice to help families thicken up their dishes so that they last longer, such as adding oats to a Cottage Pie.
"Adding oats to a dish is actually an old trick from our ancestors. It thickens up the meal and anyone who eats it will hardly tell the difference between the oats and the meat because they’re cooked together.”
She added: “Another way to bulk up a meal is to actually cut the meat up. Bulk up a typical pasta dish by chopping up a few sausages. No one is going to know exactly how much is in there, visually it will look like a lot more has been added.
“It’s the same with chicken, I personally like to shred this and once it’s done, it looks like there’s so much of it. It’s perfect for using as a bulky sandwich filler!”
It is the latest piece of money-saving advice from the savvy mum, who also runs the popular Feed Your Family Facebook community where she provides over 500,000 followers with hints and tips to make their meals stretch longer.
To help feed your family for less, here are three savvy tips from the Scots mum:
- Always batch cook two meals - if you’re prepping a lasagne on a Sunday evening for the week ahead then why not make another one for the freezer. It will take the same time to cook two as it would to cook one and you’ll be saving on gas and energy in the long run.
- Fill up the freezer - it’s cheaper to run a freezer full of food than it is an empty one so you may as well freeze your meats and other foods to help them last longer. Lorna suggests cooking something like a whole chicken and taking it out of the freezer as and when you need it to cut your cooking time in the week by almost half!
- Create a price index in your head - Lorna advises keeping last week's shopping receipt and heading to a new supermarket with it. This way you’ll be able to compare the prices of the goods from different stores and eventually you’ll know exactly which products are cheaper from which store.
Lorna is also the author of the best-selling 'Feed Your Family for £20 A Week' which helps families plan their meals while sticking to a budget.
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