Student food shopping :)

jobbingmusician

Cheapest regular meal ever is dhal and rice. Half the world survives on it - but it is better for you if you have some green veg (broccoli? brussels? cabbage? - all are v cheap) with it.

Fry an onion, and whatever curry spices you have.
Add red split lentils (easiest. Cheapest place to buy them is an Indian shop.)
Add water and boil until fluffy.
Eat with rice and veg.

You can vary this by varying the spices. Buy Basmati rice at Lidl, Aldi or Iceland, or get it BOGOF. Total meal cost is 25-35p. And you can keep these things (rice and dhal) in the cupboard and they don't go off.

IF you are REALLY desperate for money, and not proud, you will very often find a lot of veg in the street when a street market has packed up. I'm not talking about picking up rotting fruit - sometimes traders leave whole bags of stuff that needs eating within a day or 2. Or a whole bag of fresh stuff that has spilt and they can't be bothered to pick up.

crana999

freebie_junkie wrote:

it does take a fewe hours to mske a lot of stuff, pizza takes 3 including proving!

the thing is, for most things, you don't actually have to be cooking the whole time. You leave it proving or simmering or whatever while you do some work and just check on it occasionally. It just means you have to plan ahead and not wait till you are starving at 10pm to start cooking.

TeamMCS

Ah I'm just reading through that now..

I can cook various bits and peices (I usually cook stuff like Curry etc but other than that its just a case of.. "Cook meat, throw in sauce.").

muddyfox470

freebie_junkie wrote:

any more savings to be had?! please?????

go at the end of the day, i have found myself waiting around for the shop staff to reduce the items.

if they reduce the items you want great; if not move along. we normally get good cheap milk and bread. plus everytime i go shopping i tend to buy myself a reduced treat, be it a 50p sandwich, tart or drink/juice; just to make me happy at the end of it!

TeamMCS wrote:

Ah I'm just reading through that now..

I can cook various bits and peices (I usually cook stuff like Curry etc but other than that its just a case of.. "Cook meat, throw in sauce.").

That's the thing, try buying a cheapish (but decent) recipe book, its a shame you have missed most of the sales now; where they will tell you how to make your own sauces; it normally works out cheaper; however you do need to put more time and effort into it!

ian

filigree_2

freebie_junkie wrote:

i try my best with budgeting my supermarket shop but a loaf and 8 muffins cost me a fiver! blah! can anyone suggest any corners to be cut on this shop:

(p.s. its a tesco coz i collect teh clubacrd points for deals- i wanna stiuck to the same supermarket! oh yeah and i tried to make my own bread and it was bloody awful! i can make tonnes of stuff but not bread! i cant eat the cheaper crisps or yogurts coz ive checked teh ingredients. my OH stays with me at teh weekends so theres some extra stuff in there for him, i.e. he wont have cheap facial tissue!- he buys me a big shop every 3mts. to make up for this though)

crisps (3 multi packs for)- 2.50 - get the cheap ones or eat crisps less often
bread- 1.99 - blimey, I hope that's more than one loaf! Even Tesco Finest bread is less than £1 a loaf
carrots (2 cans)- 34p - buy fresh
muffins (2 x 4packs)- 2.90 - make your own
anti-bac wipes- 91p - might be cheaper to buy spray and a duster, or try the OS cleaning solutions like vinegar
petits filous (3 packs for)- 3.00 - if you can't eat cheap yogurt, and you eat lots, it is cheaper to buy in pint pots
steam veg (2 x 4 packs for)- 2.00 - buy fresh and cut it up yourself
vimto- 1.95 - empty calories and rots your teeth!

crana999

muddyfox470 wrote:

That's the thing, try buying a cheapish (but decent) recipe book, its a shame you have missed most of the sales now; where they will tell you how to make your own sauces; it normally works out cheaper; however you do need to put more time and effort into it!

No no no, you have it all wrong! Register with your local library and you can borrow as many cookbooks as you want for free. Then if you find one you really like, you can buy your own so you have it for reference and don't get the library one dirty when cooking. Or you can note down the 1 or 2 good recipes and return the book.

Otherwise you can buy a book that looks great and find absolutely nothing in it that you actually want to cook.

muddyfox470

Well yes a very good point.

I got cookbooks/recipes bought for me, for my presents :rolleyes: lol

Ian

Bogof_Babe

Crana (hi again, great to see you back, hope everything's going well) - where do you get tins of veggie sausages? I only know of the ones with baked beans in, and there are just a few tiny sausages hidden in there.

I bet it's Asda, or Somerfield, or Waitrose, which we don't have .

crana999

Hi
Everything is going okay thanks, although not so much time for forums. I got them from "stuff in our cupboard at home that no one seems to want so my dad gave me them", but I'm pretty sure they're from a health food shop. They are made by Granose and they are called Sausalatas. Made by the company that make Vege-Mince apparently.

jobbingmusician

How to make curry sauce v1 - fry onion and curry powder. Add any other curry spices you fancy (e.g. cumin, garam masala, extra chillies, mustard seeds). Add a cheap tin of tomatoes and mush up. Curry sauce!

v2 - fry onion and add turmeric, chilli cumin and coconut milk. Korma sauce!

How to make Italian-y sauce for pasta etc. Fry onion and garlic. Add some or all of the following (all optional): chopped peppers, mushrooms, bacon, anchovies, tuna, aubergine, minced beef or lamb,courgette, peas. Then (not optional) add a tin of tomatoes for a basic version, or loads of tomato puree (25p a tube in larger supermarkets) for a more luxurious version.