How do you eat cheap????

I have a real dilemma at the moment. No matter how hard I try, I cannot seem to make a big enough dent in my food bills. I still end up paying way over what I want merely to eat a square meal in the evenings. It’s actually cheaper for me to buy a ready meal than cook fresh at the moment. I think it’s because although the whole economy has taken a downturn, and we are now surviving on less money, the big supermarkets around me (Sainsbury’s and Tesco) aren’t reflecting that in their food prices.

I bought some chicken the other day, to make a stir fry, and I ended up spending about ten quid for a meal for two, not including drinks. I’m pretty sure that it was healthier than a takeaway or a ready meal, but it was significantly more expensive doing it myself. And in these times, money’s a real pressure. The Chinese over the road from me, for example, Yang Chen, in Balham, does a great special chow mein for £3.60. With prices like that in the takeaways, where’s the incentive to eat at home. Unless it’s beans on toast every night!