Money saving tips on food

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A yellow label and coupon week.
£5 of a £40 shop at The Food Warehouse (Iceland) and a good selection of yellow label discounts on the chilled section.
A visit to Costco with my daughter, a mixed bag there, but some good bulk discounts.
A yellow label shop at Aldi.

A couple of days ago I made a French Onion soup out of a Coca-Cola cook book.
Onions, beef stock, Coca-Cola, (well Diet Pepsi), a splash of red wine vinegar.
Croutons from the end of a stale jalapeno loaf, a bit of cheddar on top and baked to melt it.

The weekend has started early though, the chilli is on today, to use up some sad looking veg, including a turnip, and a pack of the beef from Aldi that I can't fit in the freezer.
 
travellor said:
A yellow label and coupon week.
£5 of a £40 shop at The Food Warehouse (Iceland) and a good selection of yellow label discounts on the chilled section.
A visit to Costco with my daughter, a mixed bag there, but some good bulk discounts.
A yellow label shop at Aldi.

A couple of days ago I made a French Onion soup out of a Coca-Cola cook book.
Onions, beef stock, Coca-Cola, (well Diet Pepsi), a splash of red wine vinegar.
Croutons from the end of a stale jalapeno loaf, a bit of cheddar on top and baked to melt it.

The weekend has started early though, the chilli is on today, to use up some sad looking veg, including a turnip, and a pack of the beef from Aldi that I can't fit in the freezer.
Click to expand...
I do find COSCO a bit of a mixed bag and you do have to be careful as some of their prices are not that cheap when compared to some of the things you can get in places like B & M.
Chicken and pork are usually good price and quality but beef and lamb WOW. £36 for 4 sirloin steaks, mind you they were massive.
 
Leadinglights said:
I do find COSCO a bit of a mixed bag and you do have to be careful as some of their prices are not that cheap when compared to some of the things you can get in places like B & M.
Chicken and pork are usually good price and quality but beef and lamb WOW. £36 for 4 sirloin steaks, mind you they were massive.
Click to expand...

16 chicken thighs £2.49.
The pork was average price, although I had to cut the joint I bought into four to freeze.
 
Good thread idea @travellor

I’ll move it to the food section and make it a sticky for a while.

We had a great experience with “2 good to go” and a local artisan bakery with a bumper bag of assorted loaves. Bunged most of it in the freezer, and brought it out gradually over weeks.
 
Smaller portions of food will make leftovers go a long way. I love home cooked meals, especially alot of lima beans and kidney beans. Along with broccoli and asparagus. I have the tendency to make alot of them in a large pot, and it lasts me for about 4 days. It's much better than spending alot of money on food everyday.
 
since first lock down and my wife being vulnerable, we resorted to on-line ordering. Apart from saving 1000s on fuel for the car (supermarket s are 60 miles away) we spend a lot less each week.
 
Just got home after a couple of days away to find the house power tripped off.
Freezer defrosting, so a monster weekend of cooking coming up.
It'll go into basic stocks, then be refrozen to use in curries, chillies, pie fillings, and similar.
Caught just in time hopefully.
 
travellor said:
Just got home after a couple of days away to find the house power tripped off.
Freezer defrosting, so a monster weekend of cooking coming up.
It'll go into basic stocks, then be refrozen to use in curries, chillies, pie fillings, and similar.
Caught just in time hopefully.
Click to expand...
Hopefully?! :O Sounds like a fun and tasty weekend. 🙂
 
Found a bargain.
(I thought)
Four fish from Morrisons cold shelf, a very good price.
Just came to cook them, and realised they aren't gutted!
I don't know if they forgot, or if it's a way to sneak the price up by pushing the price up by the weight.
 
I found a small organic chicken reduced by 75% when I did my shopping on Saturday (I try to only buy free range chicken), no space in meat drawer in freezer so I roasted it straight away, between me and my meat eating child it's done 4-5 meals as the main protein, and last night I made stock from the carcass, and picked it plus tore up the remaining thigh, and made 6 portions of lentil soup (I added a bit of smoked ham as well). I'm feeling pretty happy with myself, both in terms of money saving by getting the most out of my bargain, and having the healthy homemade meals to stash in my freezer for when I don't have time/energy/ ingredients to make something another day
 
I've got the Lidl app with the virtual loyalty card, cash rewards, and weekly offers.
This week I've finally got an offer for burgers and sausages, after weeks of jam, crisps, biscuits that I never buy!
So it is worth using, but seems targeted to get me looking at things I don't buy, unlike the Tesco club card that used to target vouchers to encourage me to buy repeats.
 
Food waste. I buy lots of ginger and garlic and little chillies. I also grow a lot of herbs.

Ginger doesn't last and my garlic goes bad quickly,in the current heat my chillies also go bad very fast.

If you can't get through what you buy before it's gone bad, while it's still fresh in a food processor or pestle and mortar grind it down with a little bit of salt to help make a paste add a little bit of olive oil at the end. Remember to rinse the equipment between ingredients or your pasta sauce will taste of ginger etc.

Portion out the paste on a baking tray or a ice cube tray in 1tsp portions and then freeze it. Once frozen transfer to a container or a baggy. Keep each ingredient in a separate bag

Next time you make a dish pop in one or more of the cubes straight in to the hot pan, no need to thaw and often no need to add oil if you are also using a herb cube.

This works for Garlic. Ginger. Chillies. as a paste
Herbs - whole or roughly chopped and frozen in olive oil.

I have a separate ice cube tray just for all this and don't use this tray for ice.
 
notmez said:
Food waste. I buy lots of ginger and garlic and little chillies. I also grow a lot of herbs.

Ginger doesn't last and my garlic goes bad quickly,in the current heat my chillies also go bad very fast.

If you can't get through what you buy before it's gone bad, while it's still fresh in a food processor or pestle and mortar grind it down with a little bit of salt to help make a paste add a little bit of olive oil at the end. Remember to rinse the equipment between ingredients or your pasta sauce will taste of ginger etc.

Portion out the paste on a baking tray or a ice cube tray in 1tsp portions and then freeze it. Once frozen transfer to a container or a baggy. Keep each ingredient in a separate bag

Next time you make a dish pop in one or more of the cubes straight in to the hot pan, no need to thaw and often no need to add oil if you are also using a herb cube.

This works for Garlic. Ginger. Chillies. as a paste
Herbs - whole or roughly chopped and frozen in olive oil.

I have a separate ice cube tray just for all this and don't use this tray for ice.
Click to expand...
I grow chillies and freeze then but it is always a bit of a lottery when you get one out to use as to how hot it will be.
 
Vicsetter said:
since first lock down and my wife being vulnerable, we resorted to on-line ordering. Apart from saving 1000s on fuel for the car (supermarket s are 60 miles away) we spend a lot less each week.
Click to expand...
I have been shopping online for years now and it really does seem to save a lot of money. I am far less likely to impulse buy and I am able to check before I order whether I really do need something whereas doing in person shopping I would buy something and then realise I already had two in the cupboard. It also means I can check prices to compare with various supermarkets and on Amazon and then buy the item at the most competitive price.
I've found the supermarket pickers do a much better job of choosing good quality items that fit my requirements with longer dates and far fewer things that go off.
 
NotWorriedAtAll said:
I have been shopping online for years now and it really does seem to save a lot of money. I am far less likely to impulse buy and I am able to check before I order whether I really do need something whereas doing in person shopping I would buy something and then realise I already had two in the cupboard. It also means I can check prices to compare with various supermarkets and on Amazon and then buy the item at the most competitive price.
I've found the supermarket pickers do a much better job of choosing good quality items that fit my requirements with longer dates and far fewer things that go off.
Click to expand...
You must be lucky as we had quite a lot of short dated items when we were mainly doing on line grocery shopping.
I do recall having 10 tins of tuna lurking in a cupboard once.
 
travellor said:
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 budates food itembut could be good in a mixed diet household.
Click to expand...

Oh I love too good to go. So places on there are better then others.
 
Oh I also look out for the reduced stickers on items.
 
Leadinglights said:
You must be lucky as we had quite a lot of short dated items when we were mainly doing on line grocery shopping.
I do recall having 10 tins of tuna lurking in a cupboard once.
Click to expand...
I always put notes on my orders asking for as long a date as possible please. If they send me short dates they give me a refund and I keep the items.
 
NotWorriedAtAll said:
I have been shopping online for years now and it really does seem to save a lot of money. I am far less likely to impulse buy and I am able to check before I order whether I really do need something whereas doing in person shopping I would buy something and then realise I already had two in the cupboard. It also means I can check prices to compare with various supermarkets and on Amazon and then buy the item at the most competitive price.
I've found the supermarket pickers do a much better job of choosing good quality items that fit my requirements with longer dates and far fewer things that go off.
Click to expand...
Same here, Although only started recently, much easier for me as I can't drive at the moment whereas I would have gone to the shop and spent more than I realized
 
notmez said:
Ginger doesn't last and my garlic goes bad quickly,in the current heat my chillies also go bad very fast
Click to expand...
I buy a big bag of ginger or chillies at a time. The ginger i open, chop into lumps the size i need then freeze it as it is. When cooking i just take out a chunk and it starts to thaw quickly while i get the other ingredients. When i'm ready to chop, its thawed enough to get a knife through and chop easily. It saves a lot of money rather than buying small pieces.


NotWorriedAtAll said:
I have been shopping online for years now
Click to expand...
I've never done online shopping. We have three big supermarkets close by plus smaller aldi and lidl. I just make a list...and stick to it.
 
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