If you prepare your own meals you do not need bargains to save money on food
I started with 2 KG blade bone, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, can of tomatoes, couple sticks of celery, leak, plus parsley and various herbs.
This made about 14 individual meals, I wont bother with the cost of each item but the net total is that it is a fraction of the price of frozen or pre-packaged meals.
If you shop carefully in Australia you can live off the best the country can supply and not break the bank.
Our major costs are all the daily expenses which you are unable to get cheap or do without, IE insurance, government charges, medical and car expenses etc. these overheads occur even before you get out of bed.
We use the credit card for everything and pay off the total at the end of the month, the advantage is that they do all our book-keeping for us so it is easy to see what each section costs and it is the overheads that kill you not the food
The cost of food is minor in all of this mix, even a bottle of wine added is not expensive
