Economical Eats: Our Budget-Friendly Meal Ideas for Early Retirees
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- Опубліковано 12 бер 2024
- One of the main benefits of early retirement is time, and time to do the things you love. We love to cook and in this video, we're sharing our favourite budget-friendly meal ideas tailored for fellow early retirees that we cooked over the course of a full week. We will take you through our meal plan for the week, our food shopping and our cooking over the entire week.
Join us as we explore delicious yet economical recipes and meal planning strategies perfect for those living on a retirement income. From simple breakfasts and lunches to more creative dinners, we'll show you how to stretch your cash without sacrificing flavour or nutrition.
Whether you're embracing early retirement or simply looking to save money on your food budget, our video offers practical tips and inspiration to help you enjoy tasty meals without breaking the bank.
We are Richard and Jackie and we live in the UK. We retired from teaching at the age of 51 in the summer of 2022. Our plans for early requirement include relocating to the Yorkshire Dales, developing our forever home and travelling the UK, Europe and eventually the world in our VW campervan Nelson.
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Many thanks,
Richard & Jackie
Here's my go to breakfast or lunch which is cheap and nutritious. Speedy spicy beans - fry off some onion, garlic chilli and courgette (chop onion and courgette finely to make it speedy), add red pepper and a tin of baked beans. Heat and serve. Much tastier than just baked beans. And easy in the campervan.
That sounds lovely 😊 I will pack some beans for on our next trip 🚐
When making cottage pie we combine lentils and mushrooms with the mince to bulk it out and make it even tastier. We also make soup regularly, favourites are carrot & lentil, tomato & bacon, leek & potato, broccoli & cheese. Soups are used for lunches or with a salad to make an evening meal. 😊
A great idea adding the lentils, we will try that. We do like making soup and freeze batches too for a quick lunch ☺️
Hello from Ontario Canada
Everyone talking food but I was noticing the beauty of the plaid. Rarely,these days, do you see the pattern so beautifully put together. You could hardly see the pockets. Love your shirts😊
😊 thank you. Richard does love a plaid shirt!
Ok when is the cookbook coming out as your recipes include all my favourite foods and flavours (though I have only had lamb a few times)! Happy Birthday Richard! 🎉
Richard had a great day with the family thanks. 🤣 not sure we could carry off many recipes as our own apart from the shepherds pie! But we do really enjoy cooking and may do another video sometime later in the year when we find some different recipes. We have had some great ideas from people in the comments.
Food looks ace.
My parents were teachers too, and we rarely ate out. As a result I am pretty frugal too. Hope you enjoyed your Indian!
Thank you - we enjoy our routine of cooking in the evenings and planning and trying new recipes. Richard loved the treat of a curry 😊
Hope you had a great birthday Richard. Thank you both for the great tips again. Really enjoyed this one 👌🏻
I did thank you ☺️
wow, really enjoyed this, food looks great, thanks
thank you, we had lots of fun trying different recipes
Interesting vlog, thank you. 😊👍. Happy birthday greetings Richard! 🎁🎂🎉
Thank you! 😃 we had a lovely weekend with our family
I generally do , Skipdale Aldi for main things then booths for goodies 😊😋🫶🏼 happy birthday Richard and enjoy your curry 🍛 🎉thanks for the inspiration, yet again x
Luckily we pass through Skipton to see Richards mum so we can call in there regularly. Booths is actually great for their meat deals (and the odd treat) I thought the new Asda's in Ingleton and Settle would be cheaper than the coop, but seemingly not!
Great ideas guys and definitely we need to get smarter now we are full timing. Love the list idea. Thanks Dave n Jo
thank you, hope all is going well now you have had a few weeks settling into a van routine
Those gammon joints are great for cooking 3 or 4 all at one time in a slow cooker, then you can freeze them, for later. And take away on a trip and it’s already cooked.
Great tip! we made some lovely soup this week with the leftovers 🥣
"More please" LOL awesome video. More cooking and budget videos will be appreciated. Blessings from this Brummie in North bay Ontario:)
Thank you - we are not particularly great chefs but love cooking fresh meals and particularly when we are at home in the Dales - we love chilling out in the kitchen sharing the food prep.
Even though I’ve eaten well today, I’m hungry again after watching you and all that yummy food! 😊 Happy belated Birthday Richard - nice new shirt! 😃
Ah thank you - we certainly had a fun week! Rich had a great birthday with the family (wearing his lovely new shirt🤣)
They looked lovely meals. Simple too.
Thank you 😊They were delicious and most very simple to make as they were mostly tray bakes.
My mouth was watering, meals looked amazing. We spend roughly the same on food a week, always a ham joint cos it gives us sandwiches, ham baby spuds and veg meal and I often can squeeze ham egg and chips cos you have to have the Ying and yang right 😂. A large chicken that gives us a roast dinner, sandwiches, a stir fry and soup. When I purchase mince I buy 500g half for cottage pie and half for mince and onion pie with homemade pastry. Love, love, love wholesome frugal food. I am going to cook most of your meals next week, thank you so much I really enjoyed your video 🤗
I haven’t had mince and onion pie for years - definitely will have a go at making that! We love ham with cauliflower cheese. Agree a large roast chicken can go a long way! Some great ideas thanks 😊
Great menu 👍🏻😁 budget etc and of course Happy Birthday 🎈
Thank you ☺️ Richard had a lovely birthday with the family 🥳
Hi and firstly a very happy birthday. A really interesting vlog. I didn’t see an air fryer in your kitchen. They are fabulous for things like roasted vegetables and meat as well as basics like the best ever bacon and sausages. Cheaper to use than a conventional oven.
Thank you ☺️ we had an air fryer when renovating the cottage but gave it to our daughter as the kitchen is so tiny! She loves it 😊
Lovely well balanced food on a great budget, happy birthday 🎉
Thank you - we really enjoyed trying different recipes and Richard enjoyed his curry takeaway 🤣
Really enjoyable video. I will certainly try using the sweet potatoes instead of the mash. I also have a jar of mincemeat left from Christmas so will try this with the apple and filo pastry too. Have a great birthday Richard and enjoy time with your family.
Thank you - we had a lovely weekend for Richards birthday 🥳 the sweet potato mash was great as a toppling!
We love cooking and make from scratch using fresh food every day so our budget is similar to yours. We can recommend recipes from Nigella and Rick Stein. Easy to follow, work every time and are delicious. Nigella sends out a recipe every day via email so sign up and get cooking.
Thanks for the recommendations, I'll check it out! We are always looking for new ideas otherwise we find that we always cook the same meals.
Hi, really enjoyed seeing your meals. We do recipe of the month, we all pick something new to try. Some we keep and add to rotation… but always have back up baked beans on toast if needed.
Love the recipe of the month idea. We thought the sausage and swede dish was a risk but were intrigued and it is now a firm favourite 🤣
We too budget £100 per week, any left goes into savings. I like to cook UPF free (difficult in the U.K., even tinned tomatoes has stuff in it, mozzi tinned toms are double the price so we hope to grow more this year and waterbathing them. We have 2 veggie, 2 fish, 2 chicken 1 pork or occasionally lamb (so expensive). I buy free range eggs, lots of veggies, make my own bread once a week and granola. Breakfast is usually yoghurt berries and granola, porridge with grapes for sweetness, or at the weekends I make scotch pancakes or a brunch fry up, and Sunday, mackerel with a slice of toast. I batch cook, freeze meals that I’ve doubled one to eat, one to freeze (saves that new veg going to waste) and any cat food left goes out for the hedgehogs. Peelings make veg stock or go onto the compost, and we make our own bone broth. We are thinking of moving to France, but not for a year probably if it happens at all. Lots to consider!
Thanks for sharing your weekly budget meals. In some ways similar to ours - we have yoghurt and granola a lot in the summer especially when travelling in the van as it is so easy. I might have a go at scotch pancakes this week 😊
Just subbed, great meals👍
Thank you ☺️
Thankyou for taking the time to do that 👍 puts my chaotic shopping to shame 😂 will you do doing something similar for your van meals? Do you bulk cook to take meals away with you? X
Thank you ☺️ we do bulk cook meals and freeze portions of leftovers that we take away with us sometimes - particularly in the winter (stew, chilli, spaghetti bolognaise type stuff). We did think about doing a van cooking vlog when we go away next as we have got a ridge monkey to play with as well.
I thought all those meals looked great and will try a couple. We eat really well, quality over quantity, higher welfare and actually manage that for around £50-60 per week. Sticking to a budget made it difficult to justify buying foods that would also be bad for our health. Chocolate sometimes makes its way through though 😮
Thank you - it is cake for me that sometimes sneaks in the basket 😬
I recognised that Aldi!
🤣
Hi Richard and Jackie- enjoyed the blog this morning. Definitely Enjoy cooking from scratch which is cheaper and more healthy . Have you thought about bread! We recently bought a bread maker which is economical to use. I use strong and ordinary flour mixed from lidle. A loaf works out about 60p including fuel. - Also I would urge you to try a few more vegetarian meals - chickpeas, lentils etc you will be surprised how tasty they are - thanks for the vlog x claire
Hi thanks for your recommendations- we will have a search for recipes with chickpeas and lentils to try 😊 we have had a go at making bread in the past but don’t really eat a huge amount anymore and space is at a premium in our little kitchen 🤣
We do the bread and homemade hummus. Chickpeas are always handy to have for curries, pastas. We use lentils too for thickeners and to add to soups.
Ooh home made hummus - I will have a go at making that!
Happy Birthday. I am glad you have found low carb. Have you tried a lettuce wrap. would work well with your Lamb & Cuscus mix. Try with cos and iceberg but it will be slightly messy :) .
Great idea thanks - might try that with the chilli we are having tonight in the van 😊
We don't have take away either as we live in a village and it's 10 miles to the nearest town. When we go away in the van we often have a take away then as a treat from the van on site, if there is one.
It is nice that it feels like a real treat now - when we were working it was a Friday night regular!
Interesting stuff. Know what you mean about sandwiches for lunch. We have also have salads but not in a Scottish winter when homemade soups are fantastic - cheap, tasty and warming.
Yes home made soups are a great lunch too - we made some with the leftovers of the ham.
Break and milk for us (pobs), sometimes pushing the boat out with a sprinkle of sugar.
🤣
Happy birthday!
Loved all the meals, it’s good to try something a little out of the normal and actually cook it yourselves.
Had a great day thank you and loved the treat of a curry takeaway!
Thank you - we find that if we are not careful we always cook the same few meals!
A hundred quid a week? For two people? Blimey! Looking forward to that when I retire!
You are a very wealthy couple.
Watch out Gordan Ramsey........great wee video
😂 if only! thanks for watching - we do love cooking from scratch and in the winter it can be the focus of our evenings
Just fyi, sweet potato is only 3g less carbs pwr 100g than white potato, it has a slightly lower gi, but don't anybody kid yourselves that sweet potato is lower carb.
It did make a nice change with the cauliflower 😊
Buy Fast 800 cook books, great recipes which you can adapt, very low carb and healthy.
Thanks for the recommendation- we will have a look 😊
Hi, I always love to watch a cooking video and I have taken away some ideas, that I will adapt as I became vegan last year. I read a book by Michael Gregor “How not to Die” and it has upped my game for health and nutrition. Surprising I now spend much less on food as an outcome. Always love watching your videos. Thank you xx
Thank you - Richard likes the sound of that book and has put it on his list 😊 we love watching cooking videos too as we cook at least one proper meal from scratch a day x
We read the good Doctor’s book as well, many years ago. We have been plant based for nine years this month and are healthier than we have ever been. Our food budget has been slashed by more than half, and we feel so much better as well. So many positives.
Interesting video, thanks. We are almost at the point of early retirement and trying to meal plan and stick to a budget at the moment. We are trying to cook once and make two meals with leftovers😊
Michael Gregor's mission is to convert the world to plant based. He's written many "how not to" books. A little bit of everything in moderation is the sustainable way for me. Incidentally do you have enough N.I contributions for the state pension and have you planned for the extra year or two the government will probably add to your retirement age? I'm 54 this year so it could happen in my timeframe. They give 10 years notice. I retired at 30 and only look at the state pension as a bonus if I do get it.
We have 3 years each to contribute still which we will hold off for a couple of years as I guess we may do some part time or seasonal work at some point before we are 67!
Was thinking that £120 was a lot for food then realised you said also fuel and campsites so not bad at all - also, we all prioritise different things so not up to me or anyone to judge! Meals look great, my sort of food. do you have an Amazon affiliate link for your fire pit, I’m looking for one and since it was you who sparked the idea, it would be cool if you got a few pennies for it!
Hi Brenda, many thanks for the comment. We have just been able to set up a shop on amazon- we hope this link works?
www.amazon.co.uk/shop/earlyretirementwanderlust
Thanks again, Richard & Jackie
I’m starving now…..😂😂😂
🤣
Gosh, that’s a huge budget from my perspective! We eat very well for around half that, having gone plant based many years ago for environmental, ethical and health reasons. I couldn’t recommend it more highly. There’s the added bonus of being able to eat as much food as you want and never gain weight!
same here - ditch meat and fish and slash your food bills immediately as well as doing yourself and everyone else good! Big bags of dry beans cooked up in bulk and frozen is sooooo cheap and good for you and soups full of veg with red lentils are delicious and healthy as well as crazy cheap.
Yes I guess we do prioritise a lot of our budget on food but it is also the focus our evenings 🙂
🤣 being South African I love meat too much! We do batch cook foods and freeze them which is great to throw in the van when we are away. Will look out some recipes for lentils and chick peas to try though as I do like them and never think to cook with them much..
@@earlyretirementwanderlust it’s a huge focus for us as well…we call cooking ‘kitchen therapy’ and love to potter about creating delicious and nutritious meals.
@@tripswithgriff it’s so brilliant seeing more people going plant based. As you say, it’s not just best for the planet, animals and our own health, it’s so easy and cheap as well.