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Money saving tips on food

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freesia said:
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.



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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I am disabled and so is my husband - online shopping is a necessity for us . Prior to Covid we struggled with very poor delivery services - it is one of the few positive outcomes from the last few years that food delivery services are now fit for purpose.
I also freeze ginger in chunks. It keeps for years and I grate it still frozen into recipes or slice it thinly while still frozen with a very sharp knife enabling me to use paper thin slivers in soups.
 
NotWorriedAtAll said:
I also freeze ginger in chunks. It keeps for years and I grate it still frozen into recipes or slice it thinly while still frozen with a very sharp knife enabling me to use paper thin slivers in soups.
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We’ve literally just started doing this. Such a simple idea, but so effective!

We are also portioning up things like Harissa paste in frozen ‘teaspoons worth’ as historically we have struggled to finish the jar once opened.
 
You can also freeze pesto into ice cubes, to minimise the risk of finding half a jar of hairy pesto in the back of the fridge.
 
Windy said:
You can also freeze pesto into ice cubes, to minimise the risk of finding half a jar of hairy pesto in the back of the fridge.
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Hairy pesto is my least favourite pesto. o_O
 
Cauliflower stalks and leaves, broccoli stalks.
Do you throw them away or eat them?
All of mine get chopped up, either into very small squares, or julienned, and go into a stir fry or a curry.
A very decent crunch, good flavour, and no waste.
Red Thai fish curry with them last night.
Three to four large portions with the usual mushrooms, onion and yellow pepper.
 
freesia said:
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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I don’t shop for food online. The reason for me is the walk to and from the supermarket is cheaper exercise than buying online and then paying for a workout the gym.
 
helli said:
You can’t be trying 😎
I use a lot of harissa in tagines, in sandwiches (lovely addition to hummus), bread, omelettes, pasta, adding flavour to bland veggie sausages, …
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Haha! I only really think of it when we make Falafels.

Must try harder!
 
If you have a smartphone, I recommend the Olio app. It's designed to reduce food waste, but if you can pick up useful food then it also saves money!

You can give away food you won't eat, but also there are volunteers called Food Waste Heros who pick up unsold food from various supermarkets and distribute it through the app. There are a lot of salad items appearing now, often a lot of bread but not so much recently. Use By dated items have to be given to you by midnight (or frozen if they say they can be and the FWH has freezer space) so you'll need to be able to collect in the evening for those, but best before can usually be collected the next day. I've started doing some FWH collections, and a high proportion of my veg intake is now free! I've also sometimes picked up some minced beef or other meat too.

Salad and stir fries often end up still leftover, so if you want those you will make the FWH very happy too! Iceland collections tend to go up around 6.30pm and Tesco/One Stop around 9-10pm on the app, and you can set what distance from home you want to see what's available
 
We’ve had a few successes with ‘too good to go’ recently @42istheanswer

It’s a system where you sign up to buy a box/bag of random stuff from local shops which is perfectly fine, but won’t keep for sale - eg from local bakeries. You don’t know what you’ll get. It will just be whatever is left at the end of the day.

Got some very lovely bread from a nearby artisan bakery for peanuts, ate some straight away, and put the rest in the freezer.
 
I used to love getting the Auntie Anne's pretzels when I was going to be in the city centre at the right time, I kind of avoided it (the city centre) while I was newly diagnosed but might try next week, might be able to get away with part of a savoury (cheese or cheese & pepperoni) one and sure kids will eat any I decide I can't....
 
We are making more than we need and putting left overs in zip lock bags in the fridge. Not only to save money but for days we are having a bad day. My daughter and I both have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and on this days if we cook we tend to mess it up! Or order a take out which was both unhealthy and expensive. Since my diagnosis this has now stopped.We don't throw out veg or fruit anymore either it is all getting used up. Pity the food bills are still rising. I refuse to pay £1.20 for broccoli in Sainsbury when it is 69p in Aldi.If I have time I go to local green grocer his stuff is fab and last longer. I cam home with a bag of mixed salad leaves last week and sat eating marigolds, cornflowers and nasturtiums!
 
There is an app called Olio which is excellent for food items. Olio volunteers collect food from various supermarkets restaurants etc etc and post all on the app - anyone can request those and all is free on Olio
 
N4Woman said:
There is an app called Olio which is excellent for food items. Olio volunteers collect food from various supermarkets restaurants etc etc and post all on the app - anyone can request those and all is free on Olio
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There is also lowpricefoods.com which we have had some stuff, all quite short dated, packet stuff mainly so does keep.
 
For those who qualify, The Company Shop is a very good discount foodstore.
 
travellor said:
For those who qualify, The Company Shop is a very good discount foodstore.
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For those on a very low income, the same company has Community Shop in some places - qualification via benefits rather than employment. They also do Too Good To Go which is open to anyone
 
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