A week's groceries for £15.78

Here is today's bulk cooking. Beef stew with dumplings, all the veg is already in this and it will feed us tonight and leftovers in Tupperware for lunch tomorrow. Lasagne for the freezer. Italian Beef and broccoli Pasta bake with herby crumb topping, another lasagne which will feed us twice; once for supper and then again the next day in Tupperware for lunch.

Above is the cooking beef stew and dumplings.........I add some mixed herbs and black pepper to my dumplings. I always use the shin of beef, which is usually sold as Tesco Value stewing steak for £4.99 a kilo and I buy about 250g which is a lot more than we need but at £1.25 it's very good value.

Here's a close up of the pasta bake. I had some ragu sauce left over, so I cooked some pasta spirals, stirred them through the sauce, poured the left over cheese sauce on top, got some bread crumbs out of the freezer and mixed in some mixed herbs and black pepper. It does get a bit repetitive, but we can always eat something else out of the freezer if we get bored. I make 500g of minced beef make 5 meals as I add a lot of veg. Today I added diced carrots, celery and broccoli to the pasta bake. It makes every thing go further.

This has also meant that I could keep my grocery shopping to £15.78 this week. I needed some fruit and veg, some bread and ham for some of our lunches, some Utterly buttery, some UHT skimmed milk and a few other bits including breakfast cereal. Each of our meals is bulked out with veggies or salad and even some bread as well.

I carefully plan all of our meals and spending as this month I am saving up to pay my water bill and put some money by to visit relatives in Bristol. It's also a very good job that neither Dearly Beloved or I are fussy about what we eat.