Money saving tips on food

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Anyone think it's worth sharing tips on saving money on food?

My first one is never binning anything.
Any leftovers, veg, meat, gravy, stock, ( I don't eat puddings), all gets saved throughout the week, then recycled in a chilli or curry at the end of the week, with anything else that needs using, plus whatever else I have to use up, and other ingredients to finish it off.

The second one is an app called "Too good to go"
Which I only found today, but seems to be an app that lets you buy a mixed bag of short dates food items.
As it's a mixed bag it may not suit everyone, but could be good in a mixed diet household.
 
Really good timing, I was literally just discussing with my other half about how much more food shopping is since being diagnosed.. you know .. in addition to just being more expensive in general! Think it's because we're still adapting, so probably looking short-term in terms of meal plans.

I've had mixed results with Too good to go, supermarkets (if you can get them!) are typically really worthwhile whereas some of the smaller shops Spar etc seem really pointless - could just be where I am!

Saving money on food could never be a negative though so well worth sharing!
 
Meal planning is important, and i do click and collect for shopping. Then I only buy what I need. I buy basics range for all but a couple of items too
 
When I went out to buy a new chest freezer - a long time ago now, the size I wanted was not available - but the manager offered me a returned large size for the same price as the one I wanted. It has been under the stairs for decades now, so I look at the larger size packs to see if they are cheaper per Kg than the smaller ones - usually they are, so I take some of the big ones, split them up and freeze them, or if there is an offer on anything, or something I use is marked down, I buy a lot and put it into the freezer.
There was free bread at the supermarket just before Christmas one year, so I filled a trolley and did not need to buy any until Easter.
Of course not everyone has the room for a big freezer, or can spare the bowls to have left over or double sized meals in the freezer, but I must have saved a lot over the years.
 
Drummer said:
When I went out to buy a new chest freezer - a long time ago now, the size I wanted was not available - but the manager offered me a returned large size for the same price as the one I wanted. It has been under the stairs for decades now, so I look at the larger size packs to see if they are cheaper per Kg than the smaller ones - usually they are, so I take some of the big ones, split them up and freeze them, or if there is an offer on anything, or something I use is marked down, I buy a lot and put it into the freezer.
There was free bread at the supermarket just before Christmas one year, so I filled a trolley and did not need to buy any until Easter.
Of course not everyone has the room for a big freezer, or can spare the bowls to have left over or double sized meals in the freezer, but I must have saved a lot over the years.
Click to expand...
I buy the containers usually 5 for £1 from the poundshop to use for freezer stuff as they stack neatly and can be reused over and over again. I once took what I thought as a tub of soup to work for lunch but it turned out to be stewed apples.
 
Leadinglights said:
I once took what I thought as a tub of soup to work for lunch but it turned out to be stewed apples.
Click to expand...
Could you get some stickers to put on the tubs, so maybe red for savoury meals and green for sweet ones, or write on the tub with a marker pen?
I've also found mystery tubs of stuff in the freezer, so clearly don't take my own advice about labelling them!
 
Windy said:
Could you get some stickers to put on the tubs, so maybe red for savoury meals and green for sweet ones, or write on the tub with a marker pen?
I've also found mystery tubs of stuff in the freezer, so clearly don't take my own advice about labelling them!
Click to expand...
I have odd bags and tubs of "things" as well!
If I can't decide what they are, even after I defrost it, it all goes into the chilli!
 
I try to minimise the amount of rubbish in my supermarket trolley. By this I am not referring to rubbish food but to all that stuff which ends up in the rubbish bin. Some of the rubbish is useful, it's tricky to buy milk not in a container which finishes up in the rubbish, but like @travellor I like to use every bit of the useful stuff that is edible or has flavour.

I also keep a small store cupboard of flavourings.... fresh chillies and ginger and garlic in the fridge bought from an Asian supermarket with a few basic spices and some garam masala (far cheaper and better quality than normal supermarket) and Soy sauce and rice wine from the oriental supermarket.

I like my shopping and cooking to be interesting and fun but not time-consuming and waste generating.
 
I take a list of what I want and stick to it.
Always check so called special offers as not always as good as claimed, also I know which shops items are cheaper than others so make my list out for each shop.
Shopping every two weeks saves on fuel as 20 mile round trip to shops.
 
I love my freezer. Like many others, all left overs go there, and I've made some "interesting" soups and pasta sauces. I buy whole chickens, roast them, and make stock with the bones and juices, which add significantly to the flavour of my concoctions. But my most effective saving has been getting a vegetable box from a local farm outlet. I shopped around and found one for just over £28 which gives me more than 3 weeks worth of veggies (thanks again to the freezer). This week's budget meal was a sauce made with left over salad items of diced onion, celery, peppers, courgette, some of the juice from a tin of tomatoes, the pickings from a chicken carcase, served with soy bean spaghetti.
 
I do a meal plan for the week before we do a shop. I make a list of ingredients i need which are not store cupboard and stick to it. The meals we eat are varied, tasty and we don't have waste. Any extra vegetables are used up in a meal at the end of the week and if the portions make enough, extra goes in the freezer.
 
Pumper_Sue said:
I take a list of what I want and stick to it.
Always check so called special offers as not always as good as claimed, also I know which shops items are cheaper than others so make my list out for each shop.
Shopping every two weeks saves on fuel as 20 mile round trip to shops.
Click to expand...

I'm the exact opposite.
I buy the yellow labels, the offers, and freeze everything.
Then I make a meal from whatever I have in.
I also buy some wholesale items, 24 packs of tinned chick peas, kidney beans, tomatoes and things like that.

Going off topic, but it's a rant for me - offers in supermarkets really do annoy me.
Today for example, cup a soup, £1.15 each, three for £3.
Toilet roll, buy 2 get the third half price.
I feel fortunate I can afford to buy the three this week.
But other can't, so they are penalised into paying full price for one.
It's chronically unfair.
It's penalising the very people that need the offers. It would be fairer to say, "sell them all for £1.05 or £1.10 or similar"
Rant over.
 
Docb said:
I try to minimise the amount of rubbish in my supermarket trolley. By this I am not referring to rubbish food but to all that stuff which ends up in the rubbish bin. Some of the rubbish is useful, it's tricky to buy milk not in a container which finishes up in the rubbish, but like @travellor I like to use every bit of the useful stuff that is edible or has flavour.

I also keep a small store cupboard of flavourings.... fresh chillies and ginger and garlic in the fridge bought from an Asian supermarket with a few basic spices and some garam masala (far cheaper and better quality than normal supermarket) and Soy sauce and rice wine from the oriental supermarket.

I like my shopping and cooking to be interesting and fun but not time-consuming and waste generating.
Click to expand...

I batch cook a base meal, and freeze it in portions.
Say chicken thighs, slow cooked, with veg and stock.

Frozen in portions, then I can add spices, tinned chick peas etc to make it a curry, or thicken it with gravy to make it a stew, or a white sauce.
The same with pork, beef cubes or mince, and I can prepare very quick meals with no waste.
 
Leadinglights said:
I buy the containers usually 5 for £1 from the poundshop to use for freezer stuff as they stack neatly and can be reused over and over again. I once took what I thought as a tub of soup to work for lunch but it turned out to be stewed apples.
Click to expand...
A colleague at work always has a "freezer surprise" for lunch. Admittedly it will be more lunchy than stewed apples! :D
 
jj10125 said:
Really good timing, I was literally just discussing with my other half about how much more food shopping is since being diagnosed.. you know .. in addition to just being more expensive in general! Think it's because we're still adapting, so probably looking short-term in terms of meal plans.

I've had mixed results with Too good to go, supermarkets (if you can get them!) are typically really worthwhile whereas some of the smaller shops Spar etc seem really pointless - could just be where I am!

Saving money on food could never be a negative though so well worth sharing!
Click to expand...

I just tried Too good to go, at a local Asian supermarket.
Supposedly £10 reduced to £3.33.
Basically a bag of very past the best apples and nectarines, a pineapple and a few other bits of fruit.
So that shop is definitely of the list!
It made an Apple pie though, rather than binning it.
 
travellor said:
I'm the exact opposite.
I buy the yellow labels, the offers, and freeze everything.
Click to expand...
There was an article on the net a little while back saying the yellow/reduced labels in Morrisons were not as good a reduction as made out.
Must admit I had noticed this before so pick and choose in that dept.
 
Went to my favourite Kashmiri shop today and bought a handful of chillies, fist size piece of ginger, spring onions and a big bulb of garlic and the bill was £1.14. The chillies or ginger and maybe the garlic would have cost me that in your big supermarket. Then went over the oriental supermarket for light and dark soy sauce (500 ml bottles), rice wine (500 ml bottle) and a big pack of five spice which is made in China and very different to that stuff you get in those little jars. Came to £9.40. Would have paid close to that for the 125ml bottles and little jar you get again in the supermarkets.

If you have such shops around you then give them a go. I use them because the quality and flavour of the stuff is better but they are significantly cheaper than supermarkets. Another tip... go to the ones full of Asians or Chinese doing their shopping.
 
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