Saving Money On Food For a SINGLE person

Here is a thread on the subject but not many recipe's, more advice: -

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=19204

You could also try Googling "cooking for one"

I'm a kinda a singleton too, just moved out on my own, but sometimes OH stays and sometimes he doesn't

I use the slowcooker to cook the meals for 4 people, eat one and freeze the others so I can take one out the night before a work day and have a quick but tasty dinner when I get in.

I buy packets of chicken and freeze individual breasts either as 'strips' for stirfry, 'chunks' for stew or whole breasts for making 'mock' chicken dinner.

I make soup to take to work in the slowcooker overnight, using up any veg in the fridge which looks a bit past its prime.

I've only been on my own 8 weeks, so I'm still learning. Will watch this thread with interest!

misskool wrote: »

I make a base of mince with onions, carrots, celery and when i want to turn it into a chilli, put in chilli flakes, kidney beans and boil up some rice. otherwise use it in jacket potato or for a pie.

I like this 'base recipe' concept very much :T

Anyone got any other base recipes that they could recommend?

Janren

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi Janren,

This older thread should help: Meal building blocks for the freezer

Pink


Edit: Just noticed that you come from the same place as I do. :hello:

Hi Pink
Wow, that's a fabulous resource - thanks for pointing me there :j

Yes, I'm from ole county down, seems to be quite a few norn iron folk on these forums:rotfl:

Janren

As a student, I learned to cook for one. However, for the past few years I've been living with flatmates and I teamed up with one of them for shopping/cooking. I recently moved into a flat on my own and saw my food bills spiralling - it was costing almost as much to feed one person as two.

I've recently got back into the swing of 'cooking for the freezer'. If I cook chilli, I bulk it out with loads of chick peas and kidney beans. If you take a strict attitude to portion control, you can get 10+ portions out of 500g of mince. I read on another thread that adding a handful of porridge oats and a handful of red lentils also bulks things out. I'll try this the next time I bulk cook.

If you ever have chinese takeaways, save the plastic tubs and lids - they are microwave safe. If you cook in bulk, freeze it in the plastic tubs. Once frozen, transfer to cheap food bags (Tescos do Value Foodbags 50 for 48p) to save freezer space and you can then reuse the tubs for other food.

My store cupboard and freezer are now overflowing. I have 20+ portions of home made ready meals (beef goulash, chicken pie, meatballs in sauce, chilli concarne, chicken and veg stew) - I just need to boil rice/potatoes/pasta to go with them. I also have a freezer draw full of various meat that I have bought on special offer. I always divide it into individual portions if I'm not going to use it straight away. This means I only defrost what I am going to use and nothing goes off in the fridge.

When I run low on frozen bread, I head to Asda after 8pm and pick up some on the cheap. You can usually get 6 bread rolls for 7p.

There is a whole thread devoted to 'downsizing' - i.e. buying normal brands instead of 'Finest', etc. I've always taken the oposite approach (except with mince and sausages) and started with the economy brands. If I find them acceptable, I stick with them. If not, I buy the next level up. This really helps to cut costs. I don't buy the cheapest mince due to the fat content and I avoid cheap sausages because of the low meat/high fat content (the texture isn't too good either IMHO).

My biggest tip is to get a large fridge freezer. Before I heard about Freecycle, I paid £50 for one on Gumtree. It has four massive freezer drawers. I hardly keep anything in the fridge - only veg and dairy products. I very rarely throw any food away.

I think I could economise a bit more by stretching meals further - e.g. use of lentils and oats. However, I don't think there is really any waste I can cut down on and I don't think I can save that much by buying 'economy' ingredients (although I may be able to get cheaper ingredients by shopping around a bit more - e.g. fruit from the market, rice at Asian shops, etc).

Not sure if you need any meal ideas, but I tend to cook some staple meals most of the time and two/three times a week cook something 'different'. My repertoire includes:

Spag Bol
Chilli
Curry
Meatballs with pasta
Chicken stew
Chicken pie
Various stir frys
Fajitas - any meat
Chicken and veg risotto
Sausage and mash

I find it really helps to 'master' maybe ten 'basic' meals that can be made from the freezer/store cuboard. This way, you always have something nice to eat and you won't buy ingredients and then forget about them.

**Edit**

I cooked some spaghetti bolognese tonight using a 'single portion' of mince from the freezer (about 125g). I added a heaped tablespoon of dried red lentils and a heaped tablespoon of oats. I'm amazed how much this bulked out the meal - three portions instead of one. Due to the increase in volume, you need to add a bit more tomato puree and a bit more seasoning/herbs/etc. However, even with that additional cost, it will still decrease the cost per portion considerably.