It's not all about the benjamins

It's been a bit of a red letter day chez Glutton. I've had an uncharacteristically successful day in my other life as a PR supremo/dogsbody and, best news of all, darling GluttonBoy's new job has been confirmed. Now darling GB is much more brilliant than he thinks and due to a horrible mix up not of his making found himself out of work in the middle of January.

He currently works in food retail (lucky for gluttons like us) an, luxury food not being an especially robust sector currently, it's taken him a bit of a while to get a new role. Actually, only six weeks but it is a bit of a confidence-sapper.

Why am I telling you this? We've had to be super-clever and keep a beady eye on expenditure lately, which isn't easy for those of us of a greedy disposition. Luckily, the slow cooker has been earning its keep and we've cut down massively on waste, which is a good thing from lots of perspectives. And while it will take us a few months to get back on a firm financial footing, I'm going to try to keep up some of the good habits. It's not as if we've eaten crap, or beans on toast. But if we've had a roast it's been pork belly rather than leg of lamb. And that kind of food is actually delicious if cooked in the right way. So, from me to you, here's some really obvious tips on saving money while still being a greedy glutton:

• Forgotten cuts of meat - pork belly (actually not that forgotten at all but worth banging on about how delicious it can be. Mmmm, crackling), pork cheeks (even if they do look like testicles), brisket, lamb breast, chicken thighs, chicken wings.
• Big packs of veg seem cheap, but they only are if you'll genuinely use them.
• Big shops, not small ones - right next door to Glutton Towers is a Tesco Express which I started popping in to on a daily basis, rather than getting a big shop from Sainsburys. Of course they only stock the most expensive cuts of meat (chicken breasts, steak, steak mince) and perfect veg in multipacks. None of your economy nets of mis-shapen courgettes here. Some weeks I get our weekly shop down to £50 for two, including ground coffee by the truckload and a fair bit of meat. A strict shopping list is the key!
• Go veggie for two days - makes a fair bit of difference to the food bill/planet/your colon
• Embrace the basics range. Ok, I won't buy basics mince or sausages. But canned tomatoes, cleaning products, chicken wings, vegetables, jelly(and I'm going to share a jelly delight with you later in the week) noodles, soft cheese (only if being used to stuff a chicken breast), ground coffee, stock cubes are fine. There are probably loads more and it is often just a packaging issue.

And with that, I'm off to celebrate with a steak and a bottle of sparkles.

Lots of love

GG