A frugal life is an easy life!

I love watching those TV programs where a "celeb" attempts to help members of the public, with their amazing new found wisdom.
I have yet to see a single program that can beat my record for eating prime cuts of meat, plenty of fresh fruit and veg (that lasts) at prices I can find.

This weekends food shopping:

• Meat and cheese - Local butchers - chicken breast fillets, 8 slices (fair big ones as well) of lean braising steak, a huge block of fresh locally made lancashire cheese (enough for the week and my mini flans I'll be making to put in the freezer!) and a pot of local korma sauce.
  Normally I would get just 4 large slices of braising steak, which makes a korma or a spag bol, steak and gravy (done in the pressure cooker in 20 minutes) etc, but I want to make a couple of steak plate pies and freeze them.
  Buying slices of Braising steak (rather than the butcher's own diced version) means I can cut out what little fat is in the meat, plus, I know it is fresh, not old stock mixed with new.
  Total cost of meat and cheese: £17
• Fresh fruit and vegetables - Local market stall - 10 huge carrots, 7 bananas, 4 oranges, 1 large broccoli, 2lb of washed new potatoes, 5lb of king edwards, 1 cucumber, 2lb of loose mushrooms and 3 pomegranates.
  The beauty of buying from a market stall is that you can knock them down in price, you can pick up freebees that they are struggling to shift, everything is genuinely FRESH as they have nowhere to store it, they have to clear their stall each week, nothing is stored for weeks in fridges, it comes in, it goes out, thats it.
  Their stock is not shipping in from china, grown in huge greenhouses and artificially filled with chemicals to make the fruit retain water, etc, as it is in most supermarkets. You will not pay over the top prices for loose produce either! You try getting five pounds of loose potatoes in a supermarket, then take them to a checkout to pay for them - you will be stunned at the price! (often more than double the price of their 5lb bags that are prepackaged and stored in fridges for weeks)
  Total cost of fresh fruit and vegetables for the week: £8.20

The total cost of meat, veg, cheese and fruit, all fresh, that will last longer than a week, £25.20 (add on another £6 if I want a nice big piece of cod or plaice that will feed 4 people, from the fresh fish market stall).

Now the brilliant part, when I visit the supermarket after dropping my fresh produce at home, to pick up some tinned goods and bread, I can now bypass all the supermarket's marketing!
I walk straight past the pizza/bakery sections, straight past the fruit and veg section (where I see people with more money than sense buying cold stored stock at prices above what I am paying on the market) and past all the prepacked meat freezers, I pick up some marg, then I am on to the bread section.
I have got 2 loaves in my basket, a large tub of flora and I have passed more than a third of the store without falling for their over priced marketing!

I pick up what tinned goods I need, but only when they are on special offer - I watch the prices each week, I will only buy heinz beans and sausages when they are reduced from the 90p my supermarket put them up to. Three months ago they were expensive at 62p, so I wait until the 2 for a £1 offer comes on and pick up four tins. Same with soup etc. Walk on by the biscuit and cakes aisles, straight to cat food and then on to the baby aisle for nappies, then hit the checkout.

I can be in and out of the supermarket in about 20 minutes (my record is 8 minutes) I regularly only spend around £25 in there.
My tin cupboard is packed full with enough tins to last me a good three weeks if I am stuck.
If I need biscuits then I get home made ones from my friend at the market stall in the town where the supermarket is, they are fresh and last me around two weeks (as I buy them in bulk) costing around £4 but it is a carrier bag full.

So my shop, for a family of four (three adults) is give or take a £1, is between £50-£55.

That is eating prime cuts of meat (4 meat dishes per week), top quality local fruit, veg and cheese, often more than can be eaten in a week and a tin cupboard with enough tins in reserve I could easily manage to live for three weeks without leaving the house.

Is that good value? You tell me....