Comments on: How I Slashed My Family’s Food Bill

By: Melanie | Dietriffic

Melanie | Dietriffic — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:04:09 +0000

Hi Roland,
I absolutely love the idea of Square Foot Gardening, it sounds like such a doable option. I must admit, I find the thought of growing my own produce a little daunting, having never tried it properly. But, this is a wonderful resource, thanks for sharing the link.

By: Roland Wijnen

Roland Wijnen — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:43:02 +0000

Hi,

I recently dedicated a small part of our garden for growing vegetables, based on the idea of Square Foot Gardening. Check it out at http://www.squarefootgardening.com/. According to a guy who implemented and promotes this through his website (in Dutch only) an area of 1.2×1.2 m provides enough food for an adult for an entire year.

By: Melanie | Dietriffic

Melanie | Dietriffic — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:35:34 +0000

@Vince — what a cute boy!

By: Vince

Vince — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:58:40 +0000

Great article and nice image too! He is my son :)

By: Melanie | Dietriffic

Melanie | Dietriffic — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:11:19 +0000

Hi Suzannah — my favourites are chickpeas and soy beans. I make a chickpea salad sometimes, which recently got the thumbs up from hubby, which is usually a good sign!

It’s really simple: 1 red onion (thinly sliced), ½ red chilli (deseeded and finely chopped), 400g tin chickpeas (well rinsed), generous squeeze of lemon juice, large handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves, black pepper to taste. You can crumble some feta cheese over to finish, if you like.

By: Suzannah-Write It Sideways

Suzannah-Write It Sideways — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:51:06 +0000

Great tips, Melanie :) I love cooking with beans, but I think my son might have an allergy/sensitivity to them. He’s gotten sick a couple of times after eating them, so I’m going to wait a while and try them again in the future. For now, I’m missing my chili con carne! That’s the best on a cold day. Haven’t tried many other legumes, but I’d like to this winter. Thanks again!

By: Melanie | Dietriffic

Melanie | Dietriffic — Sat, 15 May 2010 16:17:00 +0000

@Katie — I’m totally with you on cutting coupons. I really don’t have the time or inclination to bother with that, and I think you are right in saying a lot of the coupons are for name-brand processed foods, which I’d also rather avoid.

@Julie — I LOVE my rice cooker too. Perfect rice every time, it’s amazing. Although, I’m slightly jealous, yours sounds so much more high tech and fab, lol Great idea to program it the night before.

@Riffkir — oh, what brilliant ideas! I would like to have a go at growing some veggies too. I also like the idea of having perpetual spinach — it’s a favourite in our home. I use it in salads, curries, and right now I’m making “green smoothies” quite a bit, which tastes amazing!

@Valentine — an little treat is so important, in my book at least :-)

@Luis — I just had a look at Evernote, following your suggestion. It seems to be a really great tool. I’ve signed up and think I’ll have a go at using it over the next week. Thanks for the tip.

@BigKahuna — It’s so important to get kids involved in choosing and cooking food, I really think this is why I have such a love for cooking. As a child I loved to be in the kitchen with my mum, baking, cooking, whatever. It really stands you in good stead when you have your own family to look after.

@Aarthi — Good tips. Maintaining an account of expenses is so helpful, especially if you need to be really strict with your outgoings.

By: Aarthi Chandrasekhar

Aarthi Chandrasekhar — Sat, 15 May 2010 15:39:41 +0000

Hello Leo!
Being an Indian (and living in India), cooking is a normal routine. My husband and I are very eco-conscious and a fairly minimalist lifestyle fits into our ideology to be environment friendly.
I buy my groceries once or twice a week, cook meals from scratch, and even grow some of my own produce in my balcony-curry leaves, lemon, spinach, lemongrass. This not just ensures that we spend less, but also ensures that we take in healthy, organic food. Eating seasonal vegetables and fruits and local foods also cuts down on the bill as against going for exotic foods (which are not fresh either!)
There are also ways to save gas/electricity and time – soak rice/pulses for half an hour before cooking. Use a pressure cooker to retain nutrients.
Maintaining accounts of expenses on a daily basis also keeps a check on overspending.

By: BigKahuna

BigKahuna — Sat, 15 May 2010 04:07:04 +0000

After taking a recent look at what we spend during the course of a month, I discussed with my wife this excellent post on menu planning. One thing I would like to add is that we decided to split up the week for the family members to pick what they might want to eat – 2 days for me, 3 days for my lovely wife, and 2 day for our wonderful daughter. Children may not necessarily pick veggies, but the side dishes can be filled in by ‘parental guidance’. This way everyone is involved in the process and ultimately can be involved in the prep as well!

By: Luis Nishimura

Luis Nishimura — Sat, 15 May 2010 01:22:27 +0000

I also plan our weekly menu Sunday night. I love cooking and recently found an excellent tool were I stored all the recipes that I collect from the internet. They are all coming from different bloggers that write their recipes. I can even check my list from my mobile or any computer with internet access. I tag the recipes with categories like Chinese, Italian, Indian, Veggetarian, etc. So later on I can do a quick search to find it in case I want to repeat the dish. The tool I use is called Evernote and I usually check Alltop for new, quick and healthy ideas.