With rising food costs many people are looking at what and how they eat. Even popping into the supermarket for a small shop seems to hit the wallet hard. There are things in our diet we can’t do without as they provide key nutrients for us. Unfortunately the price increases have hit hard on a number of the key foods we need to include each day.
If we look at the key foods in our diet they include:
- Breads and cereals: such as whole grain breads and breakfast cereals, rice, pasta, cracker biscuits. These provide us with energy in the form of carbohydrates, fibre, and an important range of vitamins and minerals.
- Fruit and vegetables: including fresh, frozen and tinned. These provide us with energy in the form of carbohydrates, fibre, antioxidants and an important range of vitamins and minerals.
- Dairy products: including milk (as well as dried milk powders), cheese and yoghurt. Dairy products provide us with an important source of calcium and protein.
- Meat and meat alternatives: such as red meat, chicken, fish (fresh or tinned), eggs, dried beans, dried peas, lentils, tofu, nuts and seeds.
- Perhaps some of you are considering a lean towards a vegetarian diet in a bid to save on the cost of meat, fish or chicken.
People become vegetarians for many reasons. The most common reasons are for animal welfare, religion and for health. People who become vegetarian for these reasons will be quite motivated to follow this eating pattern every day. Vegetarians will have different degrees of ‘strictness’ regarding what they will and won’t eat – some will continue to eat eggs and/or dairy products.
It is recommended that we all try to have a couple of meatless meals each week for our general health. While you may not need to become a complete vegetarian, moving towards some meatless meals each week can help save money, and can be good for your health.
Let’s look a little more closely at how you can save money by exploring different options within the meat and meat alternative food group.
I took a very quick look at prices of different meat cuts in my supermarket the other day. Depending on the cut of meat bought the price per kilogram ranged from $11.00- $18.00, this did not include specials. Mince was either $9.00 or $13.00 per kilogram, the higher price was for premium mince.
Cheaper options could include:
- tinned fish. A tin of 400 gram of salmon cost $3.95 or 185 grams of tuna cost $1.89 (on special it was only $0.76). Use tinned fish in pasta or rice dishes, fish pies or fish cakes – they are all great made with tinned fish.
- eggs – 6 eggs $2.09, so per egg it is around 35 cents. Buying a bigger tray of eggs will make it cheaper. Make a frittata and serve with salad and crispy bread, or try curried eggs, quiche, or fried rice with egg in it.
- tinned beans – on average beans such as cannellini or kidney beans cost $1.79 for 390 grams. Reduce the amount of meat in your casseroles and add a tin of beans. Have a mixed bean salad with your meal, mash tinned beans, onion and other grated vegetables, herbs and spices to make into patties. There are lots of different recipe books to choose from for tempting ideas on using beans in vegetarian casseroles, loaves, patties and salads. Check out your library – or Google some ideas on the web.
Practical tips
Remember to plan your weekly menu so you know what ingredients you need on hand. Avoid going back to the supermarket if you can – you will always spend more than you think you will.
Look for interesting family dinner recipes that will tempt your family to try new dishes which include dried beans.
Check the amount of meat you are buying for your family dinners. You may be able to reduce the amount of meat you buy which will help save the dollars. When considering the amount of meat you need to buy visualise it in terms of the size of the palm of each person’s hand. For an adult woman this might equate to around 110g, for a man 150 grams and for children it could vary anywhere from 60-90 grams depending on their age.
Meat still provides us with important nutrients such as iron and zinc. While you can save money by reducing the amount of meat you eat over the week you do not need to eliminate it altogether.
